LGBTQ+ flags in London, in 2019 | Photo: Daniel James/Use authorized under the licence Unsplash A decision by the Federal Court of Acre state, on June 3, 2022, determined that the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE) should include questions regarding sexual orientation and gender identity in its next national census. However, the decision was overturned by a higher court about 20 days later, as the judge claimed there was insufficient time to implement the changes for this year's census. The initial ruling followed a request from the northern state’s Public Prosecutor's Office but could become applicable to the whole country. According to the Globo News TV channel, the prosecutors argued that not considering sexual orientation and gender identity in the census “constitutes a real impediment to the formulation of public policies that meet the needs of the LGBTQIA+ population.” This issue has sparked debate in Brazil about the need for inclusion and, at the same time, the possibility of the survey being postponed due to a lack of resources. The last census was conducted in 2010. A similar proposal was presented last year by the openly gay Senator Fabiano Contarato, who has himself been the target of homophobic attacks. His proposed legislation argues there are few public policies that tackle violence against LGBTQ+ people, largely because they are invisible in public records. “Without complete, unequivocal, up-to-date and statistically analyzed data, we will continue to keep the identities of these individuals obscured and shy away from recognizing that there is a public problem of social and productive exclusion of a considerable segment of the Brazilian population,” reads a bill presented by the senator. On the Senate’s website, 291 people have come out in favor of the proposal, while 218 have opposed it, as of June 28. In the proceedings, the IBGE cited a previous federal court decision that explicitly excluded gender identity and sexual orientation in the survey. Federal Judge Herley da Luz Brasil, however, dismissed the relevance of the previous decision, suggesting that though the IBGE did not have a methodology of reference to implement the request four years ago, now, as explained by the website Conjur, this has changed: Ocorre que, já no ano de 2021, a Inglaterra e o País de Gales criaram e aplicaram metodologias próprias em seus censos, aptas a quantificarem a população LGBTQIA+. (…) em 2022 temos diversos exemplos internacionais de Estados que incluíram quesitos relativos à matéria em seus censos, a saber, Reino Unido, Canadá, Escócia e Nova Zelândia, o que demonstra que é possível a indagação da população sobre o tema. In fact, in 2021, England and Wales developed and applied their own methodologies in their censuses, capable of quantifying the LGBTQIA+ population. (…) in 2022 we have various international examples of states that have included questions on the subject in their censuses, namely the United Kingdom, Canada, Scotland and New Zealand, which demonstrates that it is possible to survey the population on the topic. The judge also said that “if necessary, it is much more likely to be less harmful to postpone the Census for a few days than to have another 10 years go by without this data.” In the proceedings, the Public Prosecutor's Office stated: O censo demográfico do IBGE ignora totalmente a identidade de gênero e a orientação sexual em seus questionários. Trata-se de uma verdadeira limitação em sua metodologia censitária, que, além de excluir importante parte da população brasileira do retrato real que deve ser demonstrado pela pesquisa, também restringe o alcance das políticas públicas que efetivam os seus direitos fundamentais. The IBGE demographic census totally ignores gender identity and sexual orientation in its questionnaires. This represents a real limitation in its census methodology, which, in addition to excluding a large part of the Brazilian population from the real profile that should be shown by the survey, also restricts the reach of public policies that guarantee their fundamental rights. Federal Judge José Amilcar Machado, who suspended the decision, said it was due to “practical and temporal considerations,” according to the G1 website, as the census is due to begin soon and “it not taking place would result in more harm than good for the population.” He stressed, however, that it is “vital” to include these questions in the next census. Brazil is home to more cases of violence against LGBTQ+ people than nearly any other nation. Additionally, for the last 13 years, more transgender people have been murdered in Brazil than in any other country in the world, according to a report published by Transgender Europe (TGEU).