What sex were you "assigned" at birth

32 replies

MollyButton · 15/10/2019 07:22

I work for a very large employer. I recently filled in our "workers opinion survey".

Most of it was fine harmless stuff.
Then there were the questions on gender.
What was my gender?
Did that differ from the gender I was assigned at birth?

Now I know that they are bending over backwards to be inclusive. But these questions are actually frightening.
Any other question where I objected to the wording - I could go on my department focum and whinge. But these ones, if I whinge publicly I risk being branded as phobic - and to be honest I could end up not passing probation. And being accepting of all is actually very much part of my job.
But I feel attacked that my sex is becoming something that was arbitrarily assigned rather than a biological fact. It feels Kafkaesque.

Is there anything I can do?

OP posts:

TheShoesa · 15/10/2019 09:21

Don't know if this is of any use to you but I used the WHO definitions of sex and gender when I raised a sex vs gender with a HCP recently.

KatvonHostileExtremist · 15/10/2019 09:20

I've seen this on local authority staff questionnaires.
There was no "don't want to answer" button, but you could skip (I realised by trying).

I reckon they've been stonewalled.

dragongirlx · 15/10/2019 09:15

they tried something similar in my work. I used the any other comments section to point out by using gender they were failing in their equalities duties both in terms of the protected characteristics of sex and gender reassignment and followed it up with an email stating the same. Could you try something like that?

ChilledBee · 15/10/2019 09:08

Just answer the question or don't and move on with your day. I can't imagine having so little to worry about that these sorts of trivial things kept me up at night.

You've probably shared a bathroom/changing room with many trans people, with and without penises. And at least on most of those occasions, you were none the wiser.

TemporaryPermanent · 15/10/2019 09:06

I would leave it blank if you can. Do they have a separate comments box for open text?

Original poster

MollyButton · 15/10/2019 09:03

They have massively restricted opportunities to write in comments this year. And it's online so you can't even scrawl in the margins.

OP posts:

Babdoc · 15/10/2019 08:26

Is it a yes/no tick box, or is there room to write?
I’d put “I don’t have a gender. I have a sex, which was fixed at conception and simply observed at birth”.

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