Sunday Times - Sex question catapults census into trans war

[mcduffy]

Sex question catapults census into trans war

www.thetimes.co.uk/article/sex-question-catapults-census-into-trans-war-vq29nfvsg

I'm not sure how to do share tokens (or if I can from the app)
Letter sent to the Sunday Times today from >70 academics, some of whom have opted to be anonymous.

The next census has come under fire from more than 80 academics for allowing people to self-identify when they are asked whether they are male or female. Under proposed guidance, respondents will be able to answer the question according to what they feel themselves to be, rather than according to the biological sex they were born as

This will render the results meaningless. This lobby’s determination to obliterate biological sex by conflating it with gender is an attack on external reality and the language used to describe it. It is yet another indictment of the totalitarian atmosphere in universities that some academics are too afraid to put their names to this.

Anyone good with share tokens?

It'd be better off as a religion.
Can we put Gender Critical as a religion and claim a hate crime when we inevitably get attacked for this view?

Here’s a share token www.thetimes.co.uk/article/sex-question-catapults-census-into-trans-war-vq29nfvsg?shareToken=4e4dee544898ceb83088fc721647f929

I’m not sure how to do them from the app, but on browser pages I tap the email share icon & copy & paste from there.

Thank you for the share token Empress.

^Sullivan said it was crucial that academics had the correct data on men and women for many reasons, from calculating the gender pay gap to crime statistics. She said it was a “great shame” that a “chilling climate” was shutting down debate on transgender
issues^

The chilling climate that is suffocating freedom of speech and thought in academia needs to be urgently addressed by the government. This census will be meaningless if the data collected on sex bears no relationship to biological reality. Someone on another thread, I think it was UncompromisingWoman, mentioned that the civil service has been colonized by this lobby. It’s ludicrous that sex is being supplanted by gender on official documents

Can we put Gender Critical as a religion and claim a hate crime when we inevitably get attacked for this view?

The census becomes a historical record, so that might be an interesting little piece of info to come across if our descendants were to view it in 2121(2122?)

Share token for the letter

www.thetimes.co.uk/article/census-fears-over-gender-identity-rmx0gmzxq?shareToken

So essentially Parliament, ie Boris, will have to deal with this soon into the New Year....

A hook for letter writing to new MPs? FPfW? WPUK?

The chilling climate that is suffocating freedom of speech and thought in academia needs to be urgently addressed by the government.

If the Conservative party still has any underlying principles, it should be addressing this as a top priority.

If you're a fan of the art of headline writing that one implies all kinds of things that will make TRAs rage. All of which are accurate.

Oh FGS this is getting even more ridiculous. I thought the whole point of the census is for accurate data collection for planning resources and for studying population trends.

The Office for National Statistics, which runs the census, said it would be “continuing to ask the binary choice male/female sex question. This approach is unchanged since 1801.” Its guidance says the answer you give can be different from that on your birth certificate.

Of course the male female sex question is binary. Sex IS binary.

But what about people who feel themselves to be non binary? Will there be an 'other' option for them? If not, why not? And if there is, what use will the data be if EVERYONE declares they are 'other'?

I despair.

I thought the whole point of the census is for accurate data collection for planning resources and for studying population trends.

"There certainly do seem to be a lot of non binary demi-girls. Best increase public spending on subsidized rainbow thigh high socks."

kittens

Being gender critical is the opposite of religious thinking, though.

Believing some magical essence of yourself can somehow be incorrectly decanted into the wrong body, and that some people can see or sense that wrongness, and then utilise untested and possibly dangerous medical procedures to fix that wrongness? Perhaps that should be classified as a religion on the census eh.

Ffs. There needs to be an identity as trans box to tick if this is the case. This way correct data can be extrapolated and society, including trans identity even if self Id can be tracked.

I think putting gender critical as a religion is an excellent idea.

Surely the point of a census is to allow forward planning.

Government needs to know how many potential ovarian or prostate diseases to plan for. Nothing to do with thoughts and feelings.

If they absolutely must collect data on gender identity then the way to do it would be to add a box that people can write whatever they want in that can and will be left blank by the vast majority of the population.

You'd think the trans community would welcome a chance to accurately record the number of trans people in England and Wales. I'm sure it would help with their lobbying.

Thank you for the share token Empress.
Thank goodness. Very relieved to see this. It is really important that this issue is dealt with properly. Service provision and all kinds of important policy is based on the census. Gender is not sex. Never has been.
It’s also appalling how many people have to sign this letter anonymously due to fear of aggressive call out reprisals or worse.

Wouldn’t this be a perfect opportunity to measure just how many transpeople there are in the UK, how they identify and what sex they are. All they need to do is to have two questions,

1, what sex are you according to your birth certificate?

2, What if any gender identity do you consider yourself to have?

Bingo!

In England, Wales and Scotland, the census WILL carry a new, separate (voluntary) question on gender identity.

We've written quite a bit about development of plans for the census. You can see the guidance each census authority is proposing here:

murrayblackburnmackenzie.org/2019/12/10/draft-guidance-under-consideration-for-2021-census-sex-question-summary-of-proposals/

Share token for the letter: www.thetimes.co.uk/article/census-fears-over-gender-identity-rmx0gmzxq?shareToken=d4c385449aea2e7a81a3235874daec7a

Archive: archive.ph/ft9mV

It's ridiculous that the sex question is mandatory but the following question asking to confirm whether gender identity matches sex is voluntary. Both should be mandatory to get accurate results. However I imagine transgender people will be happy to volunteer this info.

Pleased to see that sexual orientation is to be recorded for the first time, even if it is voluntary. Always found it strange that it wasn't.

Found the guidance for 2021 census here:

www.ons.gov.uk/census/censustransformationprogramme/questiondevelopment/genderidentity/guidanceforquestionsonsexgenderidentityandsexualorientationforthe2019censusrehearsalforthe2021census#guidance-for-the-gender-identity-question-for-the-2019-rehearsal

Hilarious how determined some are to force everyone to have a gender identity whether we want one or not. I don't want any, love, already gave at the office, etc.