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 ?

Which of the following best describes you is a funny question isn't it.

According to who? My mum? My dad? My kids? Me?

Also male and female are sex, surely. Non binary people don't have no sex.

All of these orgs are doing such random stuff and it's all totally illogical.

Further. If sex is not of interest. And gender ID is less meaningful than sex in a medical context.

Then why are they asking? Data protection says you ask the minimum info you need.

Baffling.

@gospelsinger

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.

This

For those who say I have a sex not a gender, if saying this in conversation, do you ever get a "well you're non binary then" reply and if so what do you say? I'm wanting to challenge something and was going to say this (that I do not have a gender, but my sex is female) but am worried that the woke will reply with "if you don't have a gender identity you're non binary". Sorry to detail slightly.

OP where's the mention of gender in this question?

While I can understand the importance of using sex & gender correctly, in this context, I don't understand making such an issue of it. It's important to give a correct answer for statistical purposes, and as already mentioned, you are making it about semantics.

@arcof

For those who say I have a sex not a gender, if saying this in conversation, do you ever get a "well you're non binary then" reply and if so what do you say? I'm wanting to challenge something and was going to say this (that I do not have a gender, but my sex is female) but am worried that the woke will reply with "if you don't have a gender identity you're non binary". Sorry to detail slightly.

No. And my response to someone who suggested I was non binary would be to say I'm not, I don't identify as that and if they pushed it, to say they can't identify someone else. Technically I'd be agender, but that's never listed.

I'd also point out that it's pretty obvious I'm not non binary as my hair is neither green nor blue. 😉

@EarringsandLipstick

OP where's the mention of gender in this question?

While I can understand the importance of using sex & gender correctly, in this context, I don't understand making such an issue of it. It's important to give a correct answer for statistical purposes, and as already mentioned, you are making it about semantics.

What is being asked in that question if not gender? Because last time I checked, "non-binary" wasn't a sex. Nor was "Other".

What are the rates of covid amongst the population whose sex is non-binary or other? I'd be interested to know. So far we've only heard how it impacts people based of the male and female sexes.

It's important to give a correct answer

In which case it's important to ask the correct question. And any "non-binaries" can be told to just answer a straight "male/female" question because it's important to give a correct answer.

"if you don't have a gender identity you're non binary"

Yes I prefer questionning the question if possible.

If it is a completely optional questionnare, where they just want to gather statistics, I say in some free text box how irritating the questionnaire is, that gender activism is anti-women, and refuse to answer any further questions and return it.

If it is part of an application to do something I want then I usually go for other if that opens a free text box or prefer not to say...

@Squeejit

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

Keep it simple👍 But wait your missing out on much needed attention they crave nowadays

I filled in an audience participation survey recently that asked for not only gender but also sexuality. Baffling. Why on earth did anyone need to know that? Where they proposing some kind of matchmaking function?! Just seemed really intrusive and unnecessary.

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

I recently tried the same site as OP and came to the same conclusion, so I ticked the how I self describe box. Because I figured the dr never asked me so I've no idea what is written in my records but I doubt its a rant about sex v gender which is what I would say if asked.

@EarringsandLipstick

If they are just asking about how I describe myself, then why aren't there answers such as 'tall', 'short-sighted', 'blonde', 'a good laugh on a night out' etc etc etc. The choice of answers indicates they are after something to do with gender or sex, but they don't specify what exactly.
You might not have realised, it is not just semantics.

...and the NHS form I referred to states that this is not just for statistical purposes; they want this information to match me to my GP records.

@arcof

For those who say I have a sex not a gender, if saying this in conversation, do you ever get a "well you're non binary then" reply and if so what do you say? I'm wanting to challenge something and was going to say this (that I do not have a gender, but my sex is female) but am worried that the woke will reply with "if you don't have a gender identity you're non binary". Sorry to detail slightly.

Non binary assumes you buy into the whole ideology though, doesn't it?

That is like someone saying 'I am an atheist' when asked which religion they follow and then being told 'If you don't follow a religion, I will allocate one to you!' to make the asker feel in control of the situation.

All these boxes to put people into, far better to just stick with the male / female sex classes and everything else is opinion / preference / individuality / personality /sense of identity.

Still male or female, though!

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.

Yep. I don't want to see headlines like x% of people don't identify as male or female because I put prefer not to say.

I always choose Other because I’m a post-gender individualist and it’s against my human rights to be forced to label myself. This means I do not have any pronouns at all, which I thoroughly enjoy because woke people find that confusing but their wokeness prevents them complaining about it.

It isn't a non issue to me.

With paper copies I will put that I have a biological sex which is female and with regards to inclusion and diversity please don't enforce a political belief on me that I do not myself hold.

On paper forms where it asks for gender and then gives male and female as options, I simply cross out gender and write SEX above it, and then tick the female box.

The muddling of sex and gender is infuriating.

If anyone's still stuck, Action for Children publishes a handy Gender Identity Guide. They also have Gender Identity Champions.

Also contains a reference to a [new one on me] possible preferred pronoun of 'zir'.

media.actionforchildren.org.uk/documents/Action_for_Children_Gender_Identity_Guide_1.pdf

It was the deliberate conflating of gender and sex that has got us where we are now.

So yes, it is important to ensure the correct terms are used and to point out when they're not.

@NiceGerbil

Also how is gender relevant to covid?

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

This. A million times this. Honestly, these health forms if wanting to be useful should have sex, and preferred pronouns. Two options.

Because that stupidity with allowing men to opt into womanhood has meant they get called in for pap smears and the like when it isn't biologically possible for women's hwalth services that are already stretched.

While I hate pronoun declarations with the fire of a thousand burning suns as woke signalling, it would more easily address the health implications by dealing with sex but politely using the "right" words to avoid less drama. Also, it gets the dtats right.

Also, while men may suffer worse covid-19 outcomes, working women are more likely to suffer from long covid. :(

I completed a work survey about future ways of working on Friday.
Gender options were
Male
Female
Prefer not to say.

I dithered, but I plumped for "prefer not to say". I felt quite rebellious!

I'd actually prefer to say "female", if it actually meant "female", and not "people who think they're female".