Title: Collecting Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity by Survey Household Proxy Respondent

• Activity Number: 163 - Issues in LGBT Discrimination
• Type: Contributed
• Date/Time: Monday, July 31, 2017 : 10:30 AM to 12:20 PM
• Sponsor: ASA LGBT Concerns Committee
• Author(s): Nancy Bates* and Jennifer M Ortman
• Companies: and U.S. Census Bureau
• Keywords: sexual orientation ; gender identity ; household proxy ; federal surveys

Abstract

Recently in the U.S, a great deal of attention has been paid to the measurement and collection of sexual orientation and gender identity (SOGI). One topic garnering attention is whether SOGI can be successfully collected via household proxy. To acquire empirical evidence, the Census Bureau sponsored the 2015-16 Joint Program in Survey Methodology (JPSM) Practicum. The primary research goal of the Practicum was to collect SOGI for all members of a household aged 16 and older using a single household informant. This methodology mimics how demographics are collected for other federal surveys where one household member typically answers questions on behalf of all. In this paper, we summarize the objectives, methodologies, and results from of a voluntary online survey administered using Amazon's Mechanical Turk (MTurk). The paper will address item nonresponse and other aspects of measurement error when attempting to collect SOGI via a household proxy respondent.