Denver, CO -- One Colorado, the state’s leading advocacy organization for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) Coloradans and their families, issued the following statement from Executive Director, Daniel Ramos on exclusion of LBGTQ organizations from 2020 Census grants.

“Though the Census does not explicitly ask about gender identity or sexual orientation, LGBTQ people exist within all the different populations that are undercounted and underserved in the Census. LGBTQ folks are people of color, they are immigrants, they are people who are experiencing homelessness, they are people living in rural areas. With no LGBTQ organizations receiving funding from the 2020 Census grant program, we have to do more to ensure our community is not undercounted and truly represented in the 2020 census.”

Daniel Ramos, Executive Director, One Colorado.

Among LGBTQ Coloradans, nearly a third make less than $40,000 a year, those who are people of color are more likely to make less than $50,000 a year, and transgender people make less, on average, than non-transgender people (OCEF Needs Assessment, 2016). This indicates that many LGBTQ Coloradans are low-income, making them a key population that is likely to be undercounted.