The brightly painted purple front door probably should have been a clue

[eridani]

I interviewed a gay man for the census today who had two roommates who are married to each other in all the senses except the legal one. They weren't home, so I had to put down their relationship to him (Person 1) as "housemate or roommate," not their relationship to each other. The interviewee wanted to know if there wasn't some way I could indicate the commitment of his two friends, so I said I'd put it in the Notes section of the form. Don't know what the Census Bureau will do with that, but I thought it was at least worth a try to get their relationship counted.

I said in parting that we were going to win on this eventually.

[TreasonousBastard]

1. Isn't there an "unmarried partner" category like some other Census surveys?

[Berry Cool]

2. Yes, there is.

The problem is, the "unmarried partner" designation is only to be used to designate someone's relationship to the first person on the form. So if you have three people living in the unit, and the second and third person are unmarried partners with each other but they are each just housemates with the first person, there is no way to indicate their relationship to each other.

The only way to do it is to make one of the people in the partnership Person 1, then make the other partner Person 2 or 3 and indicate the relationship to Person 1 as "unmarried partner" for that person and "Housemate or roommate" for the other.

(Edited to point this out)

[eridani]

3. Yes, Given our production quotas and that these folks were hard to find at home--

--I had to go with the roommate as Person 1.

[TreasonousBastard]

4. That's what I do on other surveys when this happens, but...

I rarely find people admitting it.

Not uncommon in other survey interviews...

...
Your relationship?
Roommates
...
...

How many rooms in the apartment?
3

How many bedrooms?
1



For which there can be many possibilities, but I usually hesitate to bring up the obvious if they don't.

[eridani]

5. I'm working in Seattle, which is probably a bit different n/t

[Berry Cool]

6. Different how?

The questions on the Census form are the same everywhere.

[eridani]

7. I meant the resoibses that you get when canvassing n/t

[sui generis]

8. I have a lovely tasteful lavender front door

but it wasn't me. :P