Queering the Census

Remember the good, old days when homosexual-rights activists loudly and vociferously proclaimed for all to hear that what they did in the privacy of their own bedrooms was nobody's business – especially not the government's?

Yes, those were simpler times.

In fact, many of more libertarian-minded folks could find common ground with such an attitude.

After all, in America, we're supposed to have a government of, by and for the people – not a Big Brother-style snooping authority.

But those days are long gone.

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So much so, in fact, that today the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force is demanding that the federal government count each and every homosexual, bisexual, lesbian and transgender household in every survey of the population it conducts.

This particular initiative is aptly called "Queer the Census," because it appears the goal is to maximize the number of such households, rather than to simply ensure that they are accurately counted.

Let me ask you a question: Do you want the federal government to have more data on you or less?

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You don't have to answer. I know the answer. Any reasonable person, any responsible person, any self-governing person who cares about privacy and the intrusion of government into his or her life would say they want the government to have less, not more.

These people want the government to have more data on them.

What's wrong with this picture?

This is an illustration of how leftist, socialist and "progressive" ideas work. They start out telling you one thing, but their goal ultimately is always the same – empowerment of government. They tell you their grievance is based on privacy rights; then they end up demanding the government collect information about the most intimate details of their private lives.

Why do they want to empower government – even beyond what is constitutionally authorized?

Because government, they believe, is their friend – their mommy, their daddy. It is beneficent. It is the source of their "rights." It is the fount of their affirmation. It is the institution that bestows upon them dignity – in their very vivid imaginations.

And the rest of us are somehow obligated to go along with this.

I guess I'm supposed to accept the idea that the government has an obligation to know whom I'm sleeping with, what surgeries I might have had. We're also supposed to feel good about the idea of people getting benefits from the government – as both oppressed minorities and people with special needs – based solely on their sexual behavior and desires.

Think I'm kidding?

Here's what the press release from the task force says: "Despite progress being made in the area of counting married same-sex couples, LGBT individuals still are not counted in the census or hundreds of other federal surveys that are supposed to reflect the diversity of people in the U.S. The census and other data are the basis for how the government spends billions of dollars each year. This data is used by researchers, advocates and policymakers to develop social service programs and make policy decisions affecting issues such as health care and economic stability; it also helps determine national and state funding and policy priorities." (Emphasis added.)

The task force has set up a special website through which "participants will be able to sign a petition asking for all federal surveys to count LGBT people, spread the word about the campaign and stay in touch through social media.

"Without an accurate count, LGBT people are forced to go without funding for real, everyday services and remain virtually nonexistent in the eyes of our government," says task force executive director Rea Carey. "This is unacceptable. We continue to work with policymakers to ensure LGBT people are included in data collection on a broad spectrum of critical issues, including those involving our health, our families, our economic well-being, our safety and much more."

The task force is in luck.

Bureaucracies like the federal government love to have personal information on everyone. They love to divide up the people into special interest groups that compete with one another for handouts. It's what makes government grow. And it's what kills liberty.

Eventually, history shows us, this kind of surrender of privacy nearly always ends badly for those who willingly participate – and everyone else.

Do I even need to suggest some of the cataclysmic possibilities?