information for practice

In 2005, the U.S. Census Bureau estimated that there were 14 million Asians in the United States, a number expected to triple in the next 50 years. In fact, between 2000 and 2003, the Asian American population grew by 12.5 percent, nearly four times the growth rate of the total U.S. population (3.3 percent) and second only to the nation’s Hispanic and Latino/a population. Despite this significant growth, there have been few attempts to collect quantitative, socio-demographic data specifically on Asian and Pacific Islander (API) Americans who identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender (LGBT). Since 2005, the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force (the Task Force) Policy Institute collaborated with more than a dozen API LGBT community organizations to administer a survey nationwide designed to collect basic demographic data on API LGBT Americans and quantitatively analyze the effect of multiple minority identities on their experiences of discrimination and harassment, as well as their political and civic participation.