“In pre-colonial Africa, men who had sexual relationship with older men almost always married a woman later in life and had children. Exclusive homosexuality would not have been and is still not a viable option for Africans who value wealth and patronymic extension through marriage.”
Source: Out in Africa: Same-Sex Desire in Sub-Saharan Literatures and Cultures
“One miner at Robinson Deep Mines, Daniel, [...] claims that as an induna or "boss boy", he had sought the company of a "girlfriend", that is, a young Basotho man, because he was not authorized to go in town to "see women". However, when he got special permission to leave the mining complex, he recalls with barely suppressed emotion that, during such leaves, he would soon long to be reunited with his "boy-wife". He and his peers claimed that "[they] loved them better" and preferred them over the experienced (female) city streetwalkers.”
Source: Out in Africa: Same-Sex Desire in Sub-Saharan Literatures and Cultures
“Hold it right there. You men from the bank?" "You Wash's boy?" "Yessir and Daddy told me I'm to shoot whoever's from the bank." "Well, we ain't from the bank young feller." "Yessir, I'm also s'posed to shoot folks serving papers." "We ain't got no papers neither." "I nicked the census man." "Now there's a good boy.”
Source: O Brother, Where Art Thou?
“The political reputation of Servius rests upon his organization of society according to a fixed scale of rank and fortune. He originated the census, a measure of the highest utility to a state destined, as Rome was, to future preeminence; for by means of its public service, in peace as well as in war, could thence forward be regularly organized on the basis of property; every man's contribution could be in proportion to his means.”
Source: The History of Rome, Books 1-5: The Early History of Rome
“What parts of ourselves had we offered up freely, and which had slipped away unnoticed, like change from a pocket?”
Source: The Time Traveler
“the U.S. Census Bureau has not asked about religious affiliation since 1946”
Source: The End of White Christian America
“census: (n.) being counted so we can be discounted.”
Source: The Angel's Dictionary
“A census is an exercise by the majority to keep majority.”
Source: Plotless
“Although the designs of the trans and gender identity questions in the Scottish, English and Welsh census differ, they both attempt to navigate the same ambition: avoid use of the term ‘cis’. Other census questions, related to Identity characteristics, ask respondents to select the option to which they most closely identify. Questions require respondents to confirm an identity (for example, ‘I am white Scottish’) rather than negate an identity (for example, ‘I am not Scottish Indian’). The design of the trans and gender identity questions depart from this approach are they require the majority of respondents (those who identify as cis, estimated to be around 99 per cent of the population) to answer the way that negates and identity (‘I am not trans’). Ashley has noted how, in English, ‘currently, no word exists in our vocabulary for the broad category which includes being trans and being cis”
Source: Queer Data: Using Gender, Sex and Sexuality Data for Action
“NRS proposed using technology in the online version of Scotland's 2022 census that would predict and auto-populate a response option for people who started typing in text for the write-in box for questions on sexual orientation, religion, nationality and ethnicity.”
Source: Queer Data: Using Gender, Sex and Sexuality Data for Action