Hospital E&D form - gender identity Q

[torquewench]

I have a hospital appointment in a couple of days. I have an equality and diversity monitoring form to fill in before I attend. One of the questions is:

"is the gender that you identify with currently the gender you were assigned at birth?"

I've asked my mum, as she was there at the time (some 49 years ago), and she doesn't recall a gender being assigned. Granted, she may well have been a bit preoccupied with my arrival as a PFB daughter.

So ... does anyone know how I go about finding out which gender was assigned to me at birth please? Or where this may have been recorded.?

I think as many people as possible should always write on forms like this why they cant answer the question AND add that the question makes you wonder about the professional capacity of the hospital / surgery or whatever as it implies that a trained medical person isn't awa of the impact of biological sex on health issues.

Sometime ago, I posted on another thread about how I was asked to agree to "electronic" contacting re outpatient hospital treatment. The form I completed had some question about gender so i made a complaint. The front line staff was very helpful and understood why I was making an issue. Then they were taken off dealing with my query and I got a long explanation back that some central body has given direction of hospitals on what they should ask on forms.

I dont have the time to find out who it is, but if I remember right it is part of some cross Europe agreement to collect info in the same way.

So not just in the UK, but across Europe health facilities are failing to record sex. I tried to get WPUK to take it up but not response.

Maybe I will contact that group of women who are writing briefing papers to take it up www.mumsnet.com/Talk/womens_rights/3947618-Domino-effects-the-implications-of-the-framing-the-sex-question-in-the-2021-census

Public sector duty - which a hospital has to comply with - requires monitoring of protected characteristics. If there is no question about sex on the form, they are already failing in that duty.

I no longer fill in E and D forms at all if they contain this kind of nonsense. Depending on the situation, I do raise the issue with those collecting the data and explain why I cannot fill this in.

And what I have found surprisingly effective is calmly explaining that gender (as used in that form you were asked to fill in) refers to sex stereotypes and sex role stereotypes and that it is incredibly offensive to assume that if I tick the female box that I accept the straitjacket of stereotypes society tries to force women into from girlhood. And that I don't have a gender identity and then I ask them if they really need to know whether I prefer dresses and high heels or whether they're trying to find out my sex instead to make sure they call me up for the right kind of tests. (Or check if I'm pregnant before injecting me with radioactive isotopes. I mean that kind of matters more than whether I reject or embrace femininity.)

Effective because most people still assume gender is being used because the word sex carries a second meaning of sexual relations (In the movie On the Basis of Sex, Ruth Bader Ginsberg's assistant tells her she replaced every mention of sex with gender in the filing she's submitting to the Supreme Court, because she doesn't want men to think about shagging when reading the word sex as is meant to stand for sex class and she wants this to be taken seriously.)

A lot of people in this situation are using forms designed by someone else and haven't thought about this. I've been told that it's important to raise this as an issue (if you can) because data usability is being badly effected by this nonsense, but without patients making a fuss, it will not be registered as a serious and longterm problem with data collection.

One of the questions asks what religion I am. Its occurred to me that they haven't asked if I still "identify" with the religion that was assigned to me by my parents shortly after my birth. Why the interest in one and not the other? Or is it that I can only change a belief in one segment of my identity?

If it's a paper form I'd go to town and explain why it's a ridiculous question to ask. Might even have to staple an addendum sheet if I ran out of space!

Plan International just asked me my gender identity.

Now, I like Plan, and they seem in no doubt that girls in developing countries are girls and get no choice in the matter, and they aren't really in need of my sex or gender for any useful medical purposes, so I only wrote mildly, 'My sex is female, if that's what you meant?'

Did roll my eyes though.

I had a similar form recently. I wrote:

I wasn't given a Gender at birth - that's so unfair! Mean cheapskate NHS - I insist you give me one now!!!
FYI; Sex at birth is observed - gender is a social construct. Medical staff should know the difference.

For religion I wrote "Jedi - as your gender question shows this form is really about personal fantasies, not facts."

I was not in a good mood

What is the point of this question?

Balloon juice.

I tried to download the zoe app the other day - total wokeness on a stick, with the assigned at birth nonsense and it won't let you get any further with signing on without subscribing to the belief. Shame really as I am registered with Prof Plomin's twins study which is linked, so they would have had loads of data.

I had a minor win on this the other day. A manager at work asked for my feedback on an E&D staff survey they’re planning to run (guess they know I have Opinions and would have something to say!) and I immediately pointed out they were only asking for employees’ gender and not sex how these are not the same etc. After a discussion of different approaches they said they are going with 2 separate questions for sex and gender that hopefully accommodate everyone (people who believe in gender and those who don’t) whilst also recording the actual protected characteristic of sex. Both questions will have free text boxes and prefer not to say options.

If you really want them to take it seriously, email the chief executive and copy the complaints team. If you ask for a formal response and stick it in front of the CEO eventually questions get asked rather than dismissing you as a crank and binning the comments.

Well, I went for my appointment today and wasnt actually asked to hand over my form, and when I enquired was told they dont usually get returned 🤦🏼‍♀️

And on the plus side, I got the all clear 😁

Well, I went for my appointment today and wasnt actually asked to hand over my form, and when I enquired was told they dont usually get returned

Yeah, that's my experience, too. Probably why nobody noticed the nonsense creeping in.

And on the plus side, I got the all clear

Woo hoo, so glad for you. Do something nice to celebrate

not ever sure which one to pick anyway. I like hair and makeup, am currently living for the old lady things thread in S&B, I have a couple of motorbikes. I've no idea what to "identify" as

Well if you don’t know, just say so. It’s a form. It’s causing you a lot of trouble?!

Thanks for your helpful input, nosnuggles.

@torquewench

And on the plus side, I got the all clear 😁

Brilliant!