COVID test consent forms asking for gender

[accessorizequeen]

I’ve just had to complete forms for my dc at two different secondary schools to consent for them to receive COVID testing. One form asked for Gender and the other for Gender at birth. Neither asked for sex. Can anyone suggest the best way to raise my objection to this conflation of gender with sex. The data is not being recorded properly and there’s no such thing as gender at birth. Who would be behind the form design?

Same here. Digital form, so I just put a line through gender and wrote sex.

What I didn't do (was having chatted to the teacher collecting the forms because my ds turns 16 between the form being submitted and the date of the tests) was tell them that I fixed the error on their form. I wanted to. I filled it out on the day the HoL debated the maternity bill. So it felt quite serendipitous.

@Wannabangbang There's only 2 male and female. Trans people are either female or male

Well, no, there are two sexes, male and female. Though that's not strictly true as there are also people who are intersex and other variations on the XX and XY chromosomal setup.

As for genders, there's woman, man, transman, transwoman, non-binary, and a whole range of other new options being added to all the time.

When it comes to medical issues, clinicians need to know what sex a person is. Gender is irrelevant.

Well, no, there are two sexes, male and female. Though that's not strictly true as there are also people who are intersex and other variations on the XX and XY chromosomal setup.

But the variations are not evidence of the existence of an additional sex.

A sperm and an egg are required for human reproduction. There is no third gamete required.

If there was someone other than myself and my partner involved in the conception of our children this is the first I’ve heard of it.

Well, indeed, @merrymouse, I just felt it was important to cover all the bases before someone else chimed in with 'but intersex people exist too'.

What's important to note is that biological sex is non-transferrable and permanent. You can medically manipulate a male body into artificially looking female or a female body into artificially looking male, but that body will forever fight back and try to return to its natural state. No matter what your brain might tell you about your gender identity, you're born either female or male and will ever be thus.

I will also add that I always change 'gender' to 'sex' wherever I can. I've been working as a biomedical editor and writer for a number of years and get very cross when even scientists mix up sex and gender, and always correct it in the documents I work on.

I often wonder whether we'd have such a baffling range of confusions on the issue if 'sex' weren't also a 'naughty word' that people try to avoid using out of misplaced embarrassment.

You lot seriously have nothing better to be focusing on? Fill in the form and stop creating more problems for the schools already trying to deal with an unprecedented task. They don’t need you writing to them and creating more work.
Gender is not going anywhere no matter how many posts you write so just limit yourself to raging here and let the rest of the country get on with what’s important.

Gender is not going anywhere no matter how many posts you write

Gender - cultural and social expectations linked to sex - is the thing that has restricted women’s right to education, employment, healthcare, the right to drive, the right to vote, the ability to participate in sport, the right to own property.

I will give you the benefit of the doubt and assume your post is evidence of ignorance, not malice.

It’s important to question why seemingly irrelevant details are requested on forms, not least because of the distress it can cause people suffering from dysphoria.

Sex - an objective detail that is sometimes very important, sometimes irrelevant.

Gender - who knows what they are asking for?

Note in all the examples I have listed above, gender is externally applied and linked to sex.

When people believe that some humans should have less rights than others, they really aren’t concerned about internal identities.

@Wannabangbang

there's fuck knows how many genders insulting. There's only 2 male and female. Trans people are either female or male

Nice erasure of non binary identities there, bigot.

17 yo DS filled his in by crossing out " gender" and writing, "sex-male". I asked him what he would say if asked about this. His reply: "Gender is a social construct which has no relevance whatsoever to the information needed for testing". I'm proud of him!

I am now interested in how and when “sex” became a naughty word. Looking at literature from the past sex clearly referred to male and female. Intercourse seemed to mean interaction for example a conversation and from that your get sexual intercourse or an interaction between the sexes. So quite a heterosexual word then too. It referred to the reproductive act. It was a euphemism. A bit like toilet and lavatory which both come from words meaning to wash not from urinating and defecating. Was there ever a socially acceptable word for the reproductive act which wasn’t focused on the reproductive aspect?

AnnieLobeseder you have blown my mind a bit this morning with thinking about the linguistic origins of our current problems!

QueenCocunut its impossible to fil out the form.

They ask for information about something we dont have.

So gender is a euphemism for a euphemism...

We really have had quite long term problems with discussing bodily functions in clear and direct language.

I hope that we can get back to the clarity of sex on forms when that information is relevant and the acknowledgment that there are only two categories for human beings.

Gender ideology and queer theory are minority beliefs. Minority beliefs should not be forced on the majority. I don’t want to be coerced into participation in someone else’s belief in order to participate in any aspect of public and community life including education and healthcare.

Agree. It's all a bit putting pantalettes on piano legs, isn't it? Somehow we're redoing early Victorian society again.

@QueenCoconut

You lot seriously have nothing better to be focusing on? Fill in the form and stop creating more problems for the schools already trying to deal with an unprecedented task. They don’t need you writing to them and creating more work. Gender is not going anywhere no matter how many posts you write so just limit yourself to raging here and let the rest of the country get on with what’s important.

You have nothing better to do with your time than lecture us?

Just did DD's this morning. Question was worded as Gender, with three options - Male, Female and Non-binary. It was compulsory, with an accompanying note explaining that it has to be collected for "Health and Social Care research purposes".

The trouble being, of course, that no one will be able to use the data for either purpose. It is useless for health purposes because it doesn't capture sex, and useless for a broader social understanding of gender identify because it doesn't differentiate between people who have a gender identity and those who don't.