The 2010 census count has yet to begin but LGBT leaders and demographers are already pushing for changes to the 2020 census.

LGBT advocates would like to see the next decennial count include questions about people's sexual orientation and gender identity. There is also an effort under way to see that the federal population count breaks out figures on how many legally married same-sex couples there are in the U.S.

"One thing that is really significant to our community is visibility," said Rebecca Rolfe, executive director of the LGBT Community Center in San Francisco, during a forum last week census officials held with local LGBT leaders. "The census works on a very long time frame. We need to organize now for the 2020 census."

Census officials are already at work prepping for the 2020 count. What questions to include on the forms and how same-sex couples will be counted will all be determined years before households are asked to fill out the census. And only Congress can approve changes to the census.

"If we want to change things in 2020 we need to start working now when we have a supposedly friendly president and supposedly friendly Congress," said Geoff Kors, Equality California executive director.

The National Lesbian and Gay Task Force has launched the Web site http://www.queerthecensus.org and is circulating an online petition aimed at changing the census forms in 10 years.

As the site states, "It's crazy – the U.S. Census Bureau wants an accurate count of everyone in the country – but there's no question in the survey that asks if you are lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender. You read that right: LGBT people are basically invisible in the survey that is supposed to reflect the diversity of America's population – and that's a big problem."

Married LGBT couples will also be invisible in next year's census. As the Bay Area Reporter reported last week, next year's census will only count how many same-sex couples there are in America, irregardless of their relationship's legal recognition. The decision not to break out figures for married same-sex couples was made during President George W. Bush's second term, and federal officials cited the Defense of Marriage Act as the reason they could not release the data.

At the urging of LGBT advocates, the White House and the census bureau worked out a compromise where census officials will release the data to demographers eight months after the official count is turned over to the president so that they can then determine the number of married LGBT couples.

"The census has acknowledged this is a problem and is trying to figure out in the future how to count all the different forms of gay legal couples," said Gary Gates, an out demographer with the Williams Institute at the University of California, Los Angeles School of Law.

Gates, who has used previous census data in his work, said there are an estimated 565,000 same-sex couples in the U.S. Of those 150,000 consider themselves to be same-sex spouses, although only 35,000 of them are legally married.

He said the information has been beneficial in the fight for LGBT rights as the data has proved to skeptical lawmakers that they do represent LGBT people.

"The census data has been good at breaking down stereotypes about our community. Legislators would say there are no gay couples in my district. Well, the census from 2000 said different," said Gates, pointing out that, "all through this country you see high concentrations of gay couples."

Even in California LGBT advocates have had to persuade lawmakers in Sacramento that they have LGBT constituents.

"We meet with politicians who say they don't have gay couples living in their districts. It is important we have that information and can show other couples in rural areas they are not the only ones," said Kors.

Gates said LGBT activists are already pushing to add questions about sexual orientation and gender identity to other studies that the census bureau and various federal agencies conduct in between the decennial counts. He predicted that within five years those other surveys would include those questions, leading to their inclusion in the actual census.

It is possible for LGBT people to register their desire to see the census bureau gather such data by writing in their sexual orientation onto next year's census forms. Such a tactic has worked with census officials before, noted Gates.

The forms now allow people to choose more than one ethnicity. The change came about after people of mixed race began circling various ethnic choices on the form, said Gates.

"If they see patterns of how forms are filled out they look at that," he said.

Raymond Mueller, an LGBT specialist with the census stationed in San Jose, acknowledged that people can write whatever they want to on their forms. Mueller, who is gay and in a domestic partnership, stopped short, however, of advocating such a tactic.

"A person can write whatever they like anywhere on the form. All data is preserved but it may not be something data-mined and demographics pulled from that," said Mueller.

A variety of LGBT groups have formed a coalition to educate the community about the census and the importance of filling out the forms. They will launch the http://www.ourfamiliescount.com Web site November 10.