美国国家公共电台 NPR 2020 Census Will Ask About Same-Sex Relationships
时间：2018-12-17 作者：英语课 分类：2018年NPR美国国家公共电台3月
DAVID GREENE, HOST:
So the federal government has revealed the questions for the 2020 census 1. And for the first time, couples living together will be asked whether they are in a same-sex or opposite-sex relationship. NPR's Hansi Lo Wang reports on what this change means for the LGBT community.
HANSI LO WANG, BYLINE 2: Since 1880, the U.S. census has asked about how people living together are related. But it never had a checkbox that could fully 3 define one of the most important relationships in Wendy Becker's (ph) life.
WENDY BECKER: I got married to Mary Norton (ph) in 2006.
WANG: And before they tied the knot, Becker remembers having to choose boxes on forms that could never quite describe their long-time relationship, like once in a hospital where a woman asked her...
BECKER: Married, single, divorced, widow? And I said, I understand what the categories mean. But I've been with my partner for 15 years, and none of this fits me. And I remember being so upset when she checked single.
WANG: Becker says that's why she's excited to be part of the practice run of a 2020 census that's taking place right now in Rhode Island's Providence 4 County. People living there, like Becker, can choose from new relationship categories the rest of the country will see in two years, including same-sex husband or wife or spouse 5 and same-sex unmarried partner.
BECKER: It really normalizes our experience on an American government form so that everybody looking at it and everybody filling it out sees that we exist.
GARY GATES: Groups often don't count until they are counted.
WANG: This is Gary Gates.
GATES: Formerly 6 the research director at the Williams Institute at UCLA.
WANG: And a consultant 7 for the Census Bureau on collecting data about lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people. He says the bureau has tried to count how many same-sex couples live in the U.S. before. It's put out numbers from 2000 and 2010 after matching up responses about a person's sex and relationship. But Gates says sometimes people accidentally checked off the wrong box for their sex.
GATES: Even if only a few different-sex couples make an error where they appear to be same-sex couples, it's a large enough problem that it, for lack of a better word, contaminates the same-gender 8 couples sample.
WANG: That's why Gates says to get a more accurate count in 2020, the bureau decided 10 to spell out categories for same-sex and opposite-sex relationships. But whatever the tally 9 ends up being in 2020, it may not include Ronald Lewis (ph).
RONALD LEWIS: Correct. I'm not in a relationship unless something changes before I, like, fill out the form - yeah.
WANG: Lewis lives in Providence, R.I., and is openly gay.
LEWIS: I personally would be comfortable giving that information out.
WANG: But on the 2020 census form, there won't be a place for Lewis and other single LGBT people to indicate their sexual orientation 11. That means for now, there are no reliable national data about how many LGBT people live in the U.S. that can inform public policy.
LEWIS: If this is about how resources are spent or given to communities - and we are talking about the LGBTQ community, not everyone is married or in a relationship.
WANG: And Cecilia Chung says not everyone identifies as male or female.
CECILIA CHUNG: I am the senior director of strategic projects at Transgender Law Center.
WANG: And back in 2010, Chung says she mailed back her census form with a sticker attached.
CHUNG: It's pink. And it has a couple of boxes. One box is asking sexual orientation. And the other box is asking gender identity.
WANG: And those are the questions, Chung says, she hopes to see on a future census form with categories that reflect a wider range of identities.
CHUNG: If we don't have the proper labels when we try to look at the picture, there will be a lot of missing pieces, like jigsaw 12 puzzles.
WANG: In 2020, Chung says, even with same-sex couples recognized on the census, there'll be a lot of other people in the LGBT community missing from the picture of America. Hansi Lo Wang, NPR News, New York.
(SOUNDBITE OF TYCHO'S "EPOCH")
- A census of population is taken every ten years.人口普查每10年进行一次。
- The census is taken one time every four years in our country.我国每四年一次人口普查。
- His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
- We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。
- The doctor asked me to breathe in,then to breathe out fully.医生让我先吸气，然后全部呼出。
- They soon became fully integrated into the local community.他们很快就完全融入了当地人的圈子。
- It is tempting Providence to go in that old boat.乘那艘旧船前往是冒大险。
- To act as you have done is to fly in the face of Providence.照你的所作所为那样去行事，是违背上帝的意志的。
- Her spouse will come to see her on Sunday.她的丈夫星期天要来看她。
- What is the best way to keep your spouse happy in the marriage?在婚姻中保持配偶幸福的最好方法是什么？
- We now enjoy these comforts of which formerly we had only heard.我们现在享受到了过去只是听说过的那些舒适条件。
- This boat was formerly used on the rivers of China.这船从前航行在中国内河里。
- He is a consultant on law affairs to the mayor.他是市长的一个法律顾问。
- Originally,Gar had agreed to come up as a consultant.原来，加尔只答应来充当我们的顾问。
- French differs from English in having gender for all nouns.法语不同于英语，所有的名词都有性。
- Women are sometimes denied opportunities solely because of their gender.妇女有时仅仅因为性别而无法获得种种机会。
- Don't forget to keep a careful tally of what you spend.别忘了仔细记下你的开支账目。
- The facts mentioned in the report tally to every detail.报告中所提到的事实都丝毫不差。
- This gave them a decided advantage over their opponents.这使他们比对手具有明显的优势。
- There is a decided difference between British and Chinese way of greeting.英国人和中国人打招呼的方式有很明显的区别。
- Children need some orientation when they go to school.小孩子上学时需要适应。
- The traveller found his orientation with the aid of a good map.旅行者借助一幅好地图得知自己的方向。