Though Minnesota doesn’t allow same-sex couples to marry—and a measure is on the ballot in 2012 to ban marriage for same-sex couples in the state constitution—703 female couples and 627 male couples have married in other jurisdictions. Marriage for same-sex couples is legal in six states, the nation’s capitol and two sovereign nations.

One-third of Minnesota’s same-sex couples that reported being married are raising children under the age of 18.

Iowa, where same-sex marriage has been legal for two years, has as many married couples as Minnesota: 1,373. Wisconsin has 1,194 married same-sex couples, North Dakota has 146, and South Dakota has 175.

The Census Bureau downgraded the number of same-sex couples nationally who are married from earlier estimates because of data problems.

“We understand how important it is for all groups to have accurate statistics that reflect who we are as a nation,” said Census Bureau Director Robert Groves in a statement on Tuesday. “As scientists, we noticed the inconsistency and developed the revised estimates to provide a more accurate portrait of the number of same-sex couples. We’re providing all three—the revised, original and ACS estimates—together to provide users with the full, transparent picture of our current measurement of same-sex couples.”

The Census data shows that 1 in 5 same-sex couples in the United States identified themselves as married.

According to a study of 2010 U.S. Census data by UCLA’s Williams Institute, among large U.S. cities, Minneapolis has the fourth highest rate of same-sex couples living within its borders. Neighboring St. Paul ranked 24th and Minnesota ranked 33rd among states.

While an anti-gay-marriage initiative will be on the ballot in 2012, a policy that would surely turn many same-sex couples away from Minnesota, some of the state’s communities are embracing the growing number of such couples within their communities.

Minneapolis has 3,831 couples, according to the Census, or 23.43 same-sex couples per 1,000 households. It lagged behind only San Francisco, Seattle and Oakland among of cities over 250,000 population. Its place among major cities hasn’t change much over the last three decades. It was fourth in the 1990 Census, fifth in 2000 and in the American Community Survey conducted between 2004-2006, the city placed third.

St. Paul has 1,346 such couples, or 12.13 same-sex couples per 1,000 households, ranking it 24th among cities with a population greater than 250,000. That put it just behind Los Angeles.

Minnesota came in at 33rd among the states for same-sex couples per 1,000 households. It was bested only by Illinois among Midwestern states, ranking just above Indiana and well ahead of Iowa (47th), where gay marriage is legal. Wisconsin was 40th, and South and North Dakota were 50th and 51st, respectively.

Minnesota saw an increase in same-sex couples of 50 percent over 2000.

In Minnesota, the top city of any size with the highest concentration of same-sex couples was Golden Valley followed by Minneapolis, St. Louis Park, St. Paul and Richfield.

In the U.S., the Census reported 901,997 same-sex couples or 7.7 per 1,000 households.

The numbers are prompting some communities to tout their acceptance of same-sex couples as a positive attribute. Pine City did not make the top five in Minnesota, but Pine County did — coming in third behind Hennepin and Ramsey counties. Some community boosters there have seized on those numbers. Pine City, home to 3,100 residents and located about an hour north of Minneapolis, hosts East Central Minnesota Pride, a LGBT pride picnic held each summer. The parade has garnered attention nationally for being one of only a handful of small-town pride events in the nation. And, the Minnesota State Fair Foundation named it a winner for the 2011 Community Pride Showcase.

“This event is one of the ways that the small town GLBT community can help to bring harmony to us all no matter where we live in this great state of ours,” said Dennis Burns, owner of DB Signs in rural Pine City, in a statement about the recognition. “I urge everyone to attend the picnic next summer.”

Nathan Johnson, Pine City’s city planner, noted that Pine City’s proximity to the Twin Cities, as well as its openness, has contributed to an increase in same-sex couples choosing to locate in the area.

Another reason for the concentration of gay couples in the Pine City area might be that the city lives up to its motto: “North. Nice and close.” People are coming here from the Twin Cities area, primarily, because of the great quality of life. The town is home to a health food store, gyms, a community theater and an arts center—not to mention the recreational aspects of the Snake River and nearby lakes. One can buy anything from hummus to sushi here.

And while Minneapolis has been named the nation’s most gay-friendly city, Pine City has evidence of a community that embraces gay residents as well — such as East Central Minnesota Pride.

Bottom line, as reported recently in the Minneapolis Star Tribune, the increase since 2000 in the number of same-sex partners reflects three changes: More gays and lesbians in the area; more choosing to live together; and more of them willing to identify themselves as gay.

True in the Twin Cities. True in Pine City.

The due date for Census forms was April 1.

Republicans say they fear that anti-government sentiment among the conservative base will result in lower numbers in Republican areas, and that trend seems to bearing out in places like Texas.

But Minnesota still ranks high in Census returns, including Rep. Michele Bachmann’s district. Bachmann has been credited with stirring up suspicion about the Census.

Despite a crowded field seeking to replace the retiring Gov. Tim Pawlenty in 2010, writes the Washington Post’s Chris Cillizza, “Democrats have to like their chances given the lean of the state where President Obama won by 10 points in 2008.”

Control of state government is key to the parties’ fortunes as new congressional districts get drawn.

State demographers renewed their warning last week that Minnesota is “on the cusp” of losing a seat in the U.S. House of Representatives.

Polidata projects Minnesota will indeed be one of 10 states losing House seats (pdf).

The Sixth Congressional District now held by Rep. Michele Bachmann, has been identified as a leading contender for elimination due in part to the irregular shape of its boundaries.

“The Census has a profound impact on Minnesota’s communities,” Klobuchar said in a statement. “It’s important that every Minnesotan is counted, so we get our fair share of congressional seats and federal funding.”

Bachmann might act out of self-interest here: her district tops some lists of those most likely affected should Minnesota be redistricted out of a seat in the House of Representatives.

“Talk about Big Brother,” Kent Lenhard told The Californian. “I read it over twice and thought, ‘Wow, I can’t believe this.’”

Lenhard says he won’t fill out the American Community Survey, a long survey sent to a random sampling of households by the Census Bureau each yeah. The paper speculates that Bachmann’s campaign against the census is Lenhard’s motivation.

In Ohio, advocates for low income and homeless residents are worried that Bachmann’s opposition to the census will have a negative impact on the homeless. If enough people follow Bachmann’s example, they say, Ohio would get less federal funding for housing, since the Census is used to allocate such resources.

“With all the cuts we’ve had in Ohio, this has become more important,” Cathy Johnston, advocacy director for the Coalition on Homelessness and Housing in Ohio told the Dispatch.

Johnston said that a massive Bachmann-style Census boycott could jeopardize funding for crime prevention, winter heating assistance and health care funding.

The Rev. Miguel Rivera of the National Coalition of Latino Clergy and Christian Leaders tells National Public Radio that immigrants — legal and illegal — should boycott the Census because of past raids and deportations of immigrants.

“Law enforcement has been very effective in areas where the data of Census 2000 has been used,” he said, adding that a boycott would put pressure on members of Congress. “So if they don’t want lacking of funding for their constituents, maybe losing seats at the congressional level, then what they have to do is roll their sleeves and move forward with comprehensive immigration reform.”

That presents a conundrum for Bachmann, who has advocated increased enforcement of current immigration policy. “This is an issue of anarchy versus the rule of law,” she once told Bill O’Reilly.

She said during the 2008 campaign that illegal immigrants were “bringing in diseases, bringing in drugs, bringing in violence.”

But the more interesting twist? Bachmann doesn’t think the Census asks about citizenship. She told Sean Hannity:

Sean, you know the one question they don’t ask? They don’t ask, “are you an American citizen?” They don’t ask if you’re here on a visa or when it expires. We have no real idea how many illegal aliens are in our country. But wouldn’t you think, here they are asking every personal question about our lives, they could at least ask if we’re an American citizen? They don’t bother to ask for that. That’s why I think people need to read this census for themselves. If you go to my website, michelebachmann, you can read it.

But, as Think Progress pointed out, the Census has asked about citizenship since 1890.

Politifact, a Pulitzer prize-winning website, fact-checked Rep. Michele Bachmann’s latest claims about the U.S. Census and ACORN which have earned her the “pants on fire” rating for false statements.

Bachmann told the Washington Times, “Now ACORN has been named one of the national partners, which will be a recipient again of federal money. And they will be in charge of going door-to-door and collecting data from the American public.”

Politifact says that that simply isn’t the case. “ACORN will not be ‘in charge’ of going door-to-door and collecting data from the American public, as Bachmann said. The U.S. Census will be in charge of that,” it said. “Some of the 1.4 million people who get Census-taking jobs may learn about the job through ACORN. Workers who apply to the Census through ACORN have no better shot at the job than those who apply through any of the 30,000 other partners. That’s it.”

Politifact also notes that ACORN will not receive any federal funding to be a national partner with the census, nor will any other national partners.

MPR interviewed U.S. Census Bureau spokesman Steve Buckner who indicated that Bachmann’s plans to leave much of the Census blank would be breaking the law.

“It doesn’t help, I suppose then, to have a congressperson talk about these issues in the way that she did,” inquired MPR’s Cathy Wurzer.

Buckner responded, “We certainly are working with the congresswoman’s office here in D.C. and have already had a briefing with her to explain the rules of the census — why they are there — and explain some of the constitutional law. The Supreme Court has upheld the powers of the data to be collected.”

Bachmann’s statements also prompted the Star Tribune editorial board to issue a scathing response to her statements:

While Bachmann certainly is entitled to her outside-the-mainstream beliefs, she’s too often crossed a critical line. The two-term congresswoman from Minnesota’s Sixth District bluntly said she will not fully fill out the census form, a misdemeanor punishable by up to $5,000. Her census fear-mongering clearly could push others to do the same. What Bachmann is doing — on national television, no less — is encouraging people to break the law. That’s not right-wing. That’s not conservative. That’s just wrong.

Bachmann responded to the editorial with an email to the Strib:

I’ve received calls, e-mails, and letters of gratitude and appreciation for speaking up. For instance, as I noted earlier, the phones have been ringing off the hook in both my D.C. and district offices in support of my statements on the census and American Community Survey from folks throughout the country and Minnesota. But at the end of the day, all that matters is if I’m faithfully representing my constituents, the people who sent me here.

On Fox News, Bachmann spoke of how Census information helped the government find and detain Japanese people more than six decades ago:

If we look at American history, between 1942 and 1947, the data that was collected by the Census Bureau was handed over to the FBI and other organizations at the request of President Roosevelt, and that’s how the Japanese were rounded up and put into the internment camps,” said Bachmann. “I’m not saying that that’s what the Administration is planning to do, but I am saying that private personal information that was given to the Census Bureau in the 1940s was used against Americans to round them up, in a violation of their constitutional rights, and put the Japanese in internment camps.”

It’s not the first time Bachmann has raised the specter of such detentions: In April, she said she feared the Obama administration was planning “re-education camps for young people, where young people have to go and get trained in a philosophy that the government puts forward and then they have to go to work in some of these politically correct forums.”

Fox’s Megyn Kelly challenged Bachmann on her assertion, giving the Stillwater Republican a split-second of apparently shocked pause:

“We’ve had a lot of good years since then,” Kelly said. “That was a different time and a different era. We’ve had decades since then when, at least to our knowledge, this information hasn’t been abused. So how do you respond to people who say, ‘Look, we’ve been doing it for decades since then. The law is what it is and you as a lawmaker should know better than to break it.’”

Bachmann’s reply: “I think it is important that we are not a nation of law breakers. I’m just not comfortable with the way this Census is being handled…”

Apparently Bachmann’s comfort is more important to her than personally abiding by the law.

Watch it. (Via Minnesota Progressive Project.)

“I know for my family the only question we will be answering is how many people are in our home,” she said. “We won’t be answering any information beyond that, because the Constitution doesn’t require any information beyond that.”

“There’s great concern that’s being raised because now ACORN has been named as one of the federal partners… This is very concerning because the motherload of all data comes from the census,” she said.

But as the paper reports, Bachmann is “misreading” the law — and it could cost her family $100 per question left unanswered.

Via CityPages.