Admiral Sulu and Census Bureau Want You To Be Counted

Its not all that surprising that politically active gay celebrities would release public service announcements encouraging gay and lesbian families to indicate their domestic status on the 2010 Census. For instance, George Takei and husband Brad Altman produced a lighthearted PSA called "Be Counted" that is making the rounds and can be seen below.

Actually I'm a little surprised that more gay celebrities aren't out there urging queer marrieds to represent. For instance this seems like a tailor made cause for Ellen DeGeneres and Portia de Rossi and yet I don't think we've heard anything from them yet. So mad props to George and Brad for getting out there on this important issue. (Although Brad, you might want to rethink the hat!)

Far more surprising to me is that this year, for the first time ever, the U.S. Census Bureau itself is out there beating the bushes for gay and lesbian couples who consider themselves "married."

The Bureau has released a series of six short PSA's targeted to different subsections of the gay community. The PSA's tell gay families how they can record their status on the census form and also assure folks that responses are entirely confidential. 

To give you an idea of what this government-produced video campaign looks like you can catch two of the spots featuring gay rights activists Earl Fowlkes and Ben de Guzman after the break.

You can find all of the government-produced Census spots, including the ones for the gay community on the 2010 Census Website's Multimedia Center