What to reply when asked about my gender

[MagpiePi]

I am getting increasingly tired of application forms asking for my 'Gender' and then being asked to choose from 'Male', 'Female', sometimes just 'Other', but more and more often ' Non-binary'.

I think the last straw was when I was looking to book a covid jab through the NHS website, and if you go through the route where you don't have your NHS number you get to this....

I mean, come on?! How does this information help to match my GP records? Apart from the fact I have never discussed my 'gender' with my GP, is my name, date of birth and postcode not enough any more? Am I going to have to have this conversation with the receptionist if I phone up for an appointment or test results?

I did have a bit of a rant in the feedback survey, about did they mean 'Sex' and let me know what you consider to be the characterstics of these groups and I will try and fit into one of them etc, but what I could do with is a bit more of a measured response to use when this question comes up.

Anyone got anything good ?

I go for 'Prefer not to say' if there is only such a choice, but if there's a type-in for other, I usually say that I don't believe in gender but am a member of the female sex.

I say I dont have a gender my sex is female.

They ask these questions to find out if there’s a certain group not having it, so they can then push education in that direction.

I also tick the "prefer not to say" option if there is one.
Or if not, I'll usually go for "other".
I don't have a gender, although I am definitely a woman.

Prefer not to say or Other if there's no text box.

If there is - like on the Violence Against Women and Girls fecking consultation don't even START me on that - I tick it and write 'no gender, SEX is female'.

TBH I would just put female, as to put 'other' or 'prefer not to say' could be turned into evidence about how many people are neither male nor female, which is not what I want to achieve.

Just tick female or male- non issue being made into an issue

@teawamutu I filled out the consultation this evening, I couldn't believe the fucking gall of that "what gender do you feel you are" (can't remember the exact wording) question towards the end.

On a VAWG consultation of all things, just made me feel like I was providing feedback to an already captured institution who are just doing a lip service questionnaire so the wimmins are placated when they've already decided it's gender identity and feels all the way 🤬

I had this on the DVLA website earlier. It gave me 250 characters for "other" I said that gender meant masculine or feminine not male or female and that I was of the female sex.

I recently had to choose- I chose other and typed 'my sex is female' in the box.

I started a student mental health survey but gave up because it only allowed me to select gender.

Write sex female

I always write "I don't have a gender, just a biological sex, which is female."

I think we have discussed it before (can't think of the thread now) but I'm sure there are GDPR issues with holding non-essential information (like gender) about people without good reason

Can anyone remember the rules around that - I think there were some posters with experience of the rules.

I usually choose other and if the box is big enough I write that I have a sex which is female and no gender. If it's not big enough I just type pixie (since everyone knows they're evil little f***s like me )

I usually write 'my sex is female' or 'prefer not to say' if I can't say that.

I tick female. I don’t want to muddy the stats with semantics.

Mixing up sex and gender like that is really poor practice.

Also how are you supposed to know what your GP record says? I mean I can assume but I don't know.

I heard ages ago that records were to have 2 fields- sex and gender. Which gives a doctor everything they need to know.

Turns out the gender field was the one that got populated and the sex one not.

Also why has non binary come to such notice when there are so many other genders?

@Amielondon23

Just tick female or male- non issue being made into an issue

You may believe it’s a non-issue.

Others disagree with you.

Answer with what you best feel fits you, OP.

I generally go for prefer not to say or n/a.
I have so far refrained from eff off with that twaddle. But only just.

That would be non binary for me then I suppose. Or other.

What really irritates me as well is that they are

1. Mixing sex and gender
2. Relying on the majority of people ticking their sex without thinking

Also how is gender relevant to covid?

Rather than sex, when men have worse outcomes than women?

It’s difficult with online forms.
When I’ve had a paper copy, I have asterisked the gender question (without answering it) and explained subtext that:-
*I have a biological sex, not a gender.
*for the purpose of equalities monitoring, sex and gender reassignment are the protected characteristics.
*My sex should be acknowledged.
*Collecting data on gender (which is not legally defined) would breach Caldecott principles if used for recording/monitoring purposes and thus breaches GDPR.

The question doesn’t refer to sex or gender “which of the following best describes you?”
Other than for medical reasons I can’t understand why this information needs to be held about anyone. I hate online forms where you have to choose a “title”. I can never understand the reason for one. I have a name and that’s enough, I don’t need a prefix categorising me before people read that name.