ONS reversed decision to record census by sex

We are all working, nay, living with data and everybody wants our data, it seems. You can't even have a virus test or a vaccination without being asked Do you identify as? Whatever that is. I don't take kindly to the question and I do not obediently parrot I identify as.

But, me aside, seeing as anyone can be female one day and male the next, or some other notional undefined thing on Saturdays, what does that do to the precious data? And if anyone can routinely do that day to day, anyone can follow the same practice when filling in the census. And what are social scientists doing about that?

I'm tempted to tick boxes randomly and write next to each answer "while this doesn't reflect actual reality, this is how I'm identifying at the time of filling in this form".

Can I just make a plea for people not to spoil there census return... I am a social scientist who works with data and the census is such a valuable resource - even if the sex data is compromised by this decision, there is so much other information that would be lost if people don't fill it in correctly!

For one thing it will presumably be possible to do statistical analysis on the similarities and differences between women and transwomen, which I'd be very interested in (though does the phrasing of the questions enable that, I've not been paying close attention as I don't want to be annoyed?!)

Alice Sullivan has a twitter thread on this - there is a letter in the Times today: twitter.com/ProfAliceS/status/1359779914283687939

The thing is, they are still going to include the question on sex (and a follow-up about gender identity), it is how they are defining sex in the guidance that seems to be the issue. Instead of asking for legal sex registered at birth, ie. natal sex (not that it should really need the qualifier, but there you go!), it is suggesting using legal sex as recorded on eg. your passport, which can be changed as an adult...

PS. Can I just make a plea for people not to spoil there census return... I am a social scientist who works with data and the census is such a valuable resource - even if the sex data is compromised by this decision, there is so much other information that would be lost if people don't fill it in correctly!

How are they going to know if we put something different to what appears on the passport?

Can I identify myself as a koala then? I love hugging trees and getting stoned on eucalyptus in my spare time.

So, how can we register a protest on the form?

Yep I don't have a passport therefore presumably I don't exist.

I don’t have one right now.

If they are asking about how you are identified on your passport how the hell do you answer if you do not have a passport?

Or maybe I won't

Oh ffs where is the common sense in that decision, it goes against everything statistical. Are we through the looking glass; nonsensical. Surely you collect facts and then give the option to declare feelz. Why conduct it if you make it useless from the start. What a shame to invalidate all the valuable info previous ones have collected by what will be a shambles. Sorry no educated, thoughtful comments just spluttering disbelief.

Can you link to this reversal? I've been on the ONS website and can't find it. I note they use gender rather than sex in most searches - when did that happen? Like a PP I can't see why they are reluctant to offer both sex/gender given it's surely anonimised. How do people work out roughly who is choosing to transgender and what future policy might be based on?

Would a petition on the parliament website be a good place to try? Risky if it doesn't get the 100,000 but someone who could word a really good succinct proposal should garner a lot of support.

I want to know exactly how it's phrased. If it's 'gender identity' I will be 'gender neutral' or some other made-up bollocks phrase.

*who aren't TRA

You've started with the assumption that ideological TRAs are doing this to support trans people getting services they need. Fatal flaw.

Exactly. None of this stuff is about supporting trans people, as can be seen by the regular throwings-under-the-bus of any trans

Well since they aren’t interested in accurate data, I won’t force it upon them. I will answer based on my favourite book character (sans the name).

Will at least make it a bit more fun to fill out. Now, I wonder how many bedrooms he would have had? Best go re-read to brush up on my knowledge and get myself into character!

Fuck them.