Thread for listing the use of 'gender' instead of 'sex' on really important forms!

[ArkeNOTen]

Just filling in the 'e-admissions' London school application form.

'Gender - Boy' is listed in the official application form.

I'll be back shortly as am in haste - but I think it would be good to keep a running list of this.

The Australian Tax Office. On their official tax return site.

Ridiculous.

I went for counselling recently and they asked a number of questions on the form - age, religion, ethnicity etc, then 'gender?' with about 15 different tick boxes?! I know it's a counselling service and they have to appear to be inclusive, but come on! I crossed out gender, wrote 'SEX - FEMALE'.

Also to be clear - there was no question for 'sex'

I just applied for a work related course from a professional body and it was gender not sex. .🙄

I so wanted to change it, but I also want to get on the course so didn't mess with it :(

All the council forms here for school and nursery have gender too.

The NHS.

Green Party local survey was handed to me, for collection later (happy to moan about THE BINS multiple times on it!) and I crossed out Gender and wrote Sex.
And likewise our local PHCT had Gender for the flu sniff.

If you go to a CofE church you have to fill in a census count form (sometimes the wardens count everyone physically instead). I am pretty sure that the central CofE just asks for numbers, as I don't remember filling it in before, but (astonishingly) the one I filled in yesterday at a new church just had "male" and "female" on it.
(Of course if you are deluded you may put the wrong one on.)

Document rather than a form but DS's Education, Health and Care Plan (EHCP) lists his gender (although since we've never been asked about his 'gender' it's obviously recording his biological sex from his medical records).

I could maybe see some relevance in them knowing both in some circumstances, but it just states Gender: Male.

Galvantula

My local authority said they’d be changing nursery funding forms to sex so you absolutely can challenge it!

Does anyone have a letter they have used to challenge this that I can use as a template? I feel like writing to them.

Thanks Bonions.

I think I was swamped with forms and just went with it last time, but I'll maybe challenge the next lot. 🙈

My DD’s Bursary application for a school in London, only gender not sex... I crossed out ‘gender’ and wrote sex.

Hmm. Just had a look at the membership forms for Cons, Lab and LibDem. -
Conservatives didn't ask for sex or gender - but did ask for title.
Labour asked for gender but no title,
Libdems only asked for name and not title, sex or gender.

I contacted my local authority because their monitoring forms and guidance was a mess of gender when they meant sex - they got back to me pretty quickly and agreed that they had got it wrong and will be changing it. I just pointed out that sex is a protected characteristic but gender isn't, and that they have therefore been collecting invalid data and may be in breach of their duties under eqalities legislation.

Thanks Pamspeople. I need to put that in a pithy email.

Bucks county council school admissions form too. Hasn't thought of challenging it. What a plonker I am.

UK passport forms ...

I noticed this on the nhs form supplied for signing consent for my daughter to have a flu vaccination at school. I've crossed it out and put 'sex', but am a bit scared I've outed myself now, and the Headteacher is a HUGE Stonewall cheerleader...

You could say something like

I've noticed that in your [whatever form it is] you are asking for information about gender instead of sex. Gender and sex are different things and have different meanings and statuses in law.

By asking people about their gender instead of sex, you may be failing to meet your obligations under equality legislation ,as sex is a protected characteristic but gender is not. Gender reassignment is a protected characteristic, but not gender

The data you are currently collecting is therefore invalid and you may not be fulfilling your equalities obligations.

I'm sure this is an oversight and can be easily corrected.

Bert I doubt the head will be looking at the flu forms, after all they are medical information.

Great pemsoeiple - anyone care to point me in the direction of some quotable stuff about protected characteristics and equalities obligations? Also: can anyone point me at a really reliable vanilla source for a summary of the difference between ‘sex’ and ‘gender’. I have to admit to only recently knowing a difference and am even more guilty of not thinking about the difference and imlivations thereof until this summer....

Dr Spouse
I suppose I could be overthinking this 

Flu vaccine consent for DD; I crossed out gender and replaced it with sex.

I think someone at PHE who designs the flu form is having an attack of the titters and didn't want to write "sex" and all the local trusts copied them.
So best to write to the vaccines people direct.