A draft of the 2020 U.S. Census has been released—and it shows that questions regarding sexual orientation and gender identity have been removed.
The U.S. Census Bureau, part of the Department of Commerce, has to issue a list of categories it plans to track three years before the survey is conducted. The draft for the next survey covers race and gender—but also includes such categories as the length of a daily work commute.
Pro-LGBTQ advocacy groups have been campaigning for years to include questions about sexual orientation and gender identity, and it seemed their wishes had been granted when the initial draft was released. However, the proposed addition suddenly disappeared, followed by a statement from the Census bureau that called the LGBTQ inclusion a mistake.