Don’t answer any intrusive question. You just should list the number of people in your household. The census is a people count.
The problem, as I see it, is this:
You get this multi-page form to complete. You fill out only the Constitutionally-mandated numbers and return. As far as the Census Bureau is concerned, you did not complete the form, so they send someone out to your house. You give the census taker the Constitutionally-mandated information and close your door. At that point, they have a blank form that they can fill out in any way they way.
Do you really think there’s wholesale honesty in the Census Bureau? If they have forms that people don’t want to complete, they’ll fill it in and make it look like there are more fags, more women, more children, more whatever, than is the truth.
The purpose of the Census used to be for the allocation of Congressional Representative. Prior to the arbitrary freezing of Congressional Representation at 435, it used to be that the number of Representatives increased every 10 years to account for the increase in the population. That was stopped during Roosevelt’s administration (big surprise).
They’ve turned the Census into a socio-political football for use by politicians. It’s sick and sad.