Gender id question on form for minors

[Justonecat]

Not happy with this: taking out a membership for a sports organisation on behalf of my 10 year old daughter. She needs this membership in order to compete. One of the first questions is if you are make or female.

one of the next questions is about gender identity, please see the attached. I’m not happy with a question like this being asked of a minor. I feel it’s inappropriate particularly as it’s an obligatory question. Can anyone help me with an email template or similar which I could use to reach out to this organisation?

Thank you in advance

just to add that I find it inappropriate for two reasons:

Why collect this data at all? There are only two categories for competitions so what purpose is this data collected for?

There is no option to not answer this question. Rather not say comes closest but j feel it is unfair to make people declare an option when they may not believe in gender id.

I remember a similar thing on a sports club form for my son a few years back. i emailed and complained because I said my child had a sex, but no gender identity, so I couldn't enrol him because his sex wasn't asked for. And as per their policies

1. He was at the age where teams were still mixed sex
2. The governing sports body had a policy which stated the sports exception as per the EA2010 but then went on to say there were an inclusive organisation and that competitors should be in the teams (and use the changing facilities for) their self identified gender!

We should complain about this kind of nonsense every time.

They need educating for sure. Intersex under the gender identity question!!!!!

Not sure if this is useful, but this was my initial email to the sporting body (in 2019!!):

Dear XYZ,

While I was filling in the registration form for my below 16 years aged child, I was surprised to see the compulsory question 'What gender does your child identify as?'

Male and Female relate to biological sex, not gender identity. Gender identity is not a protected characteristic under the Equality Act, whereas sex is. Children's teams are mixed sex, therefore I am at a loss as to why you are asking for gender identity - how is it relevant to participation?

I looked on the website for the gender policy as mentioned under the question, but could only see the Transgender Policy which I will contact Jess about as I also have some questions relating to that.

Back to the form - my child does not have a gender identity, so at present I am unable to fill in the form unless I select other, please advise.

Many thanks

Nancy

Covid did for the local club and DS doesn't play the sport any more, but there was a bit of emailing back and forth at the time and FPFW also tried to help, but in the end we hit a dead end. Possibly because the overarching organisation was Sport England I think who were captured at the time, but I don't know what their stance is currently

Thanks everyone and thanks Nancy for sharing, I’ll use this when I email them. I will update this thread when I hear back