ONS reversed decision to record census by sex

[purpleboy]

mobile.twitter.com/fairplaywomen/status/1359875526261882887?s=19

The ons has reversed its decision to record the census next month by sex.

Time for a mass campaign? Shall we all ID as men?

Might make them take notice, especially if they hear in advance?

thingybob
Yes you are tight in order to put gender critical under other you first have to identify as trans. So only trans people get yo choose a gender the rest of us can't. But I'm perigender on Wednesdays and on Thursdays I am a perigirl why aren't they interested in that 😉
This means we have to put Gender Critical under religion as other posters suggested.

right not tight

@Bargebill19

That’s not what the photoshot of their website states.

Your screenshot says that the gender identity and sexual orientation questions are voluntary - NOT the sex question, which is what is being discussed here. - I know this can get confusing

===========

Another screenshot - of the ONS Page about the "Sex Question" showing the "breadcrumb trail" to where the page is located on the ONS website.

Home > Census > Census transformation > Question development > Gender identity > Census 2021: Final guidance for the question “What is your sex?”

This might seem a little nerdy but "website structure" and navigation is meant to help users to find their way around. However, it is often a reflection of how an organisation categorises information, rather like a filing system based on subjects/topics and sub-categories.

(Some of you might recall that before we filed documents in "Folders" on PCs the terminology was "Directories" and "Subdirectories", which is much the same idea.)

In this case, ONS seems to think that site visitors looking for information on the "Sex Question" would expect to find it by navigating to "Gender Identity" as the over-arching concept.

How did they get that idea?

The idea that biological sex (the most basic, verifiable, binary distinction between all human beings, recognised from childhood and essential to continuation of the species) is commonly understood to be an aspect of "Gender Identity" (a hypothetical, non-verifiable, psychological state which a tiny proportion of the population contend that they, and only they, are aware of possessing)?

This is another indication that the ONS has been persuaded that "Gender Identity" has, or should have primacy, over sex.

True that the ONS refers to "legal sex" - but for the vast majority of people legal sex = biological sex.

That ONS has been well and truly "Stonewalled" shows in its reference to the "concept of sex" when it should be referring to the fact of legal sex and the concept of "Gender Identity".

This issue is not the degree to which Census results will be skewed by the ONS backtracking on its previous commitment but the fact that it is exceeding its remit by propagandising a fringe political, unscientific ideology, leading to a lack of trust in the impartiality and integrity of the ONS and the validity of the Census.

What can we do? Complain to the Office of Statistics Regulation that they need to conduct an urgent Compliance Check?

osr.statisticsauthority.gov.uk/our-regulatory-work/compliance-checks/

On the basis that the ONS is in breach of the Code of Practice for Statistics?

Trustworthiness

Confidence in the people and organisations that produce statistics and data

Trustworthiness is a product of the people, systems and processes within organisations that enable and support the production of statistics and data.

Trustworthiness comes from the organisation that produces statistics and data being well led, well managed and open, and the people who work there being impartial and skilled in what they do.

code.statisticsauthority.gov.uk/the-code/trustworthiness/

What do you think, @MurrayBlackburnMackenzie ?

@ThatIsNotMyUsername

I’m going for pastafarian. It’s a real thing apparently...

I’d go for Church of the Subgenius but I can’t be arsed.

Thankyou Femaleandlearning, I'd missed the posts where it was suggested entering gender critical as a religion

@cormorantstrike

I really feel for the people that will need this data to do their jobs but no, if they want lies they can have them on the whole document.

It’s been ages since I did the census. Remind me - do we have to do it, can we write comments and can we miss out questions of they are of ‘questionable’ use?

@MoleSmokes

It is! For me sex is something I haven’t done for 20 years and gender is what my chromosomes state.

Suspect I will do what I’ve done in the past and not bother with this census either. I’m obviously too old and of zero importance to deal with this total utter farcical state we have arrived at.

Trustworthiness comes from the organisation that produces statistics and data being well led, well managed and open, and the people who work there being impartial and skilled in what they do.

Yes, that sums up nicely why I am no longer prepared to hand over highly confidential data and all the time and effort required in entering it.

Or to enable something that is of massive cost to the tax payer when the results will be pointless and actively misleading. Get JK Rowling or David Walliams to write the results for a fraction of the cost, it'll be better written and as much use.

I’ve not RTFT, but just checking people have seen the following...Boycott the Census is trending on Twitter... mobile.twitter.com/fairplaywomen/status/1360276445856153600

^I will be answering my census questions accurately as possible.

It seems to me that to do otherwise plays into the hands of queer theorists. They seek to discredit and destabilise data, science, truth and objective reality. I won’t join them in that goal. Their aim is to obscure facts with fantasy and to promote the ever changing feelings of individuals over concrete facts.

They would love nothing more than proof that data collection is pointless.^

@DaisiesandButtercups I agree. We need to make sure that the data is as meaningful as possible. The Judith Butler et al brigade would like nothing better than to render the data meaningless.

*I did wonder though if those who cared about more accurate data could retrospectively find who had put inaccurate sex data by using the "sex" and "gender" questions in combination... So if you say you are "female" due to having a GRC, but then answer "trans woman" for gender, then the data scientists could account for this being an originally male person?

I am bothered about how the ons have been captured by pseudoscience, but wondered if there was a way to protest this which didn't break the data- eg. If we lose data on the numbers of women in their 40s and 50s then they may allocate less healthcare provision eg. For menopause.

Somehow my quote broke- the first part was me replying to daisys

I really feel like stating I am a demiqueer man or some such nonsense.

On the other hand, they might take a shitload of extra men as a way to take more funding away from womens issues. So I am a bit..torn.

@HeadIsFucked

I really feel like stating I am a demiqueer man or some such nonsense.

On the other hand, they might take a shitload of extra men as a way to take more funding away from womens issues. So I am a bit..torn.

Yea- if I stated that I was agender- and therefore a form of trans- then it would conflate me with someone who would want all words about women to be changed, rather than the opposite

Birth certificate or passport is not as bad as I expected. Yes it will allow some people to put down something that isn't biological sex, but relatively small numbers. And children's sex should be accurately recorded. Some may still lie. It is a question I can honestly answer, even if I'm pissed off they're not collecting what they really need from a monitoring medical needs and social consequences of biological sex perspective. I might get a paper copy and write in "biological" by sex.

The wording of the gender identity question sounds problematical. If "the gender you identify with ..." - I don't identify with a gender. Options: fill in with gender - gender critical. Or don't fill in.

I prefer the former but only if a significant number of people are doing the same. Then they have to recognise us separately to not corrupt gender data, otherwise I think it's just +1 in the gender "other" category. We'd need to be more common than nonbinary basically. I don't think that would be hard to achieve, most nonbinaries are 12 or something.

I'm equally keen to put gender critical under religion if that's a mass move, I don't have any religious belief system and can just as happily put down my non belief in gendered souls as my non belief in deities.

I'm listening to what others are planning. Moving in synch is going to be key to getting our dissatisfaction registered.

The ONS has been thinking about this for a couple of years at least. They are aware of the fact there is an issue. There was a thread on here ages ago pointing to a survey about sex and gender categories and how they should structure the question.

They obviously want high compliance so don't want to piss people off. Gender idealogues have shown themselves to have quite a lot of weight behind them when they get pissed off. But, unfortunately for the ONS, more and more people are starting to see what feminists' concerns are all about.

I bet whoever has made the final decision thinks that it's about feelings on both sides. They think feminists will feel happy because there is a question on sex, and trans people will feel happy because they can answer the question on sex however they fancy. I'm really concerned that an organisation whose sole existence is to gather accurate data hasn't the thinking capacity to work out the problems with the solution they have come up with. I'm also frustrated that they haven't actually been listening when feminists point out inaccurate data harms everyone, trans people included. Possibly especially trans people.

Perhaps if the ONS balls this up it will be used as an excuse to stop funding them as a government department and use private firms for statistics instead.

Thank you for the link to the FPFW Twitter thread. I agree with one of the posters on that thread: I will be waiting for FPFW and the other excellent grassroots women's rights organisations to get together and follow their lead. There needs to be one, united and uniform approach of a statistically significant number.

@MichelleofzeResistance

Thank you for the link to the FPFW Twitter thread. I agree with one of the posters on that thread: I will be waiting for FPFW and the other excellent grassroots women's rights organisations to get together and follow their lead. There needs to be one, united and uniform approach of a statistically significant number.

Totally agree with this. The last thing we want, as a PP said is for a certain demographic of women to be underestimated leading to less funding for eg menopausal issues or female cancers

Added to all the issues about commissioning public services based on misleading data collection, there is the problem that if the ONS do this is it then appears to be the default official UK position. Making it much harder to row back from.

This whole debacle should surely have been expected to arise sooner or later, once the very concept of “legal gender”, as different to sex, was introduced.

I honestly think the women behind the argument for repeal of the GRA are onto something.
www.repealthegra.org/the-argument-for-repeal

I would be tempted to say I identify as a French person or as a Vulcan or perhaps as a cat to make a point.

On one of the Twitter threads it said the decision was in part because they were worried that there would be an organised disruption of the census completion in protest if they went with sex at birth.

They assume of course that docile women would never do something like that...

That Twitter hashtag boycottthecensus is amazing in so many bad ways.People saying women are mad because there is a gender question. Also missing the full story that the guidance on sex is not based on your birth sex so does matter. If this is allowed in National Statistics that should be accurate and truthful it will happen everywhere. I think another poster said it could become the gold standard. Give an inch and all that.
Looking forward to mass action on this.

I'm with you all and not willing to participate in a dishonest game.

Please find a way to protest whilst still registering your demographics- just look at who's gleeful at the thought of their being less services available for women: