Declaring your sex ‘no longer required’ on census
DECLARING your sex could become optional across parts of the UK in the next national census under proposals aimed at recognising transgender people.
The Office for National Statistics (ONS) is considering making the gender question voluntary in the 2021 survey ‘for the benefit of intersex and non-binary people’.
It would mean anyone filling out the form would not be obliged to answer ‘male’ or ‘female’ – and could simply leave that part blank.
It is vital to have accurate census data on the population’s make-up. The information is used by the Government to plan for the future and allocate resources.
Yesterday, there were concerns that large numbers of people may decide not to answer the question if it becomes optional.
This could leave civil servants without a precise figure for the number of men and women in the country.
Critics including Labour MP Jess Phillips warned that the proposals could harm women, as officials might be
denied a clear picture of how they are faring around the country.
She said: ‘I think sex is important to monitor – eliminating it means we cannot see effects of certain things on women’s lives. I’m more than happy for other categories to be included, such as non-binary options.’
The ONS organises the census in England and Wales, while Scotland has control over its own census.
Officials are still considering what form the next survey in Scotland should take.
It generally follows the same structure as the rest of the UK and Scots officials will have access to the latest reports.
The National Records of Scotland (NRS) said it was committed to delivering a census in 2021 that ‘best meets the needs of users for accurate data that is both up to date and historically consistent’.
A spokesman said ‘it is continuing to engage with communities to ensure this is achieved. NRS will make recommendations on specific questions in due course, and it will be for ministers and the Scottish parliament to decide how to proceed.’
The ‘tentative’ suggestion of the census gender question being made optional is contained in a report compiled by ONS researchers and published last month.
The ONS said that it was simply one of a number of proposals put forward and no decision has been made.
The researchers’ report concluded that the existing census question – which requires respondents simply to say whether they are male or female – was ‘considered to be irrelevant, unacceptable and intrusive, particularly to trans participants, due to asking about sex rather than gender’.
The option of adding a third choice of ‘other’ was considered problematic as it was ‘thought to homogenise trans people and differentiate them from the rest of society’. A final option, a two-step design with separate sex and gender identity questions, was thought to be confusing for respondents and was rejected.
The report went on to say that if the 2011 question were to be retained unchanged, it ‘should not be mandatory, for the benefit of particularly intersex and non-binary people who cannot choose male or female as a reflection of their current sex or gender’.
It also recommended that any question about sex at birth should not be made mandatory because of ‘the needs of trans people living with disclosure concerns’.
However, Tory MP for Shipley Philip Davies said: ‘The world is going mad – political correctness is taking over the country. I despair.’ Some feminists were also horrified by the proposals – seeing them as part of a trend to remove all mention of the biological female sex.
Writer and academic Germaine Greer told The Sunday Times: ‘I’m sick and tired of this. We keep arguing that women have won everything they need to win. They haven’t even won the right to exist.’
The ONS said in a statement: ‘The document referred to is an update on research ONS has been undertaking on potentially collecting information on gender identity as well data on sex.
‘It does not contain proposed census questions and suggests further research is required.
‘ONS has yet to formulate its recommendations for the 2021 census.
‘Once it has done so, the Government will bring forward a White Paper which will include the census questions.’
‘Political correctness is taking over’
IF you are one of those people who worry that the world is going slowly mad, an extraordinary row over whether it should be compulsory to state your sex on the census form may confirm your fears.
It started with a report by the Office for National Statistics – which organises the census – suggesting people should no longer be required to say on the form whether they are male or female because ‘intersex and non-binary people’ would find it impossible to choose.
Asking what sex they were at birth is also frowned on because that would ride roughshod over ‘the needs of trans people with disclosure concerns’. And having a third category of ‘other’ was ruled out because it would ‘homogenise’ the transgender community.
So the recommendation is to keep the sex question the same but make answering it voluntary – as is the case with the question on religious faith. But now that option has offended feminists, who fear their biological sex is being ‘erased’. Indeed, Germaine Greer went so far as to say that women’s very ‘right to exist’ was being challenged.
What an absolute farce. The census is designed to give us a complete picture of the nation and is used by government to shape policy and plan public services.
The Mail has enormous sympathy with anyone who feels they have been born into the wrong body. But isn’t maintaining the integrity of this unique snapshot of British life more important than pandering to the increasingly powerful transgender lobby?