RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – The Census to be conducted this year will not include questions about the LGBTQIA+ population due to a methodological issue, according to the IBGE (Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics): in the survey, a single household member answers for all who live there, and questions about gender and sexual orientation are very personal.
“From the technical feasibility standpoint, the inclusion of such a specific and personal question in a survey where one household resident can provide information about him/herself and about all other household residents would not guarantee the quality of its results,” the IBGE says.
The explanation was given on Tuesday by the Ministry of Economy, to which IBGE is linked, in response to a request for clarification by deputy Bacelar.
The data survey on the LGBT population, which has never been conducted, is a long-standing demand of social movements and experts linked to the community, as it could help in the development of specific public policies for this group, including the prevention of violence.
The Acre Prosecutor’s Office opened an investigation to determine why the federal government has not included these data in the Census.
According to the document sent to the Chamber, signed by the IBGE’s acting research director Maria Lucia França Pontes Vieira, countries like the United Kingdom, New Zealand, and the United States have been conducting tests for years and have not yet managed to introduce questions of this nature in their censuses.
Another methodological issue found in these countries is that “gender categories are fluid and difficult to define” and there is no consensus on their definition, “which hinders the operationalization and collection of data.” In addition, identity characteristics are a “sensitive question that can be considered invasive and personal by the respondent, and may impact the collection of all the other data,” Vieira says.