NZ Census 2023 - sex and gender questions

[Thatsenoughinternetfortoday]

It’s census time in NZ and the forms are asking for ‘gender identity’ and ‘sex at birth’. Unlike the question for religion, which provides an option to object to answering the question, the options for the gender question are ‘male’, ‘ female’ and ‘another gender’ with no option to object to the question or say you don’t have a gender/don’t believe in gender.

Stats NZ have said that if you don’t fill out the gender question (which can’t be skipped online; you need a paper form to skip it) they will complete your gender for you using other data. As one tweet about this points out, this means we’ll have an “assigned gender at census”.

Also alarming to see that the official position from the census people is that ‘ a person’s sex can change over the course of their lifetime’…

There is a movement to boycott the census entirely.

It’s going to be interesting to see how this pans out.

That's appalling!

I note that they haven't decided how they will assign a gender if you skip that question, only that they may include your sex at birth as part of the information they use.

I hope there are also questions on favorite colours, skirt-swishing ability, number of trousers owned, amount of time spent pouting, ability to change a car tyre, and angle of head tilt - otherwise I really don't see how they can possibly work it out.

Disgraceful - NZ is sadly getting more ridiculous by the day (the new science curriculum is a case in point).

Anyway, here's an archived copy of the Twitter thread mentioned above: archive.ph/hUVgd

And a tweet about boycotting the census: twitter.com/SpeakUp4WomenNZ/status/1630298045043863552

So male and female are now genders? Yet sometimes they are supposed to be the two sexes?

@BinturongsSmellOfPopcorn Funnily enough I haven’t seen those particular questions!

@TheBiologyStupid thanks and yep, a disgrace.

I had (naively) hoped for better in the census as they had sought opinions via a public consultation a few years ago. At that time I seem to remember they had intended to only ask about gender.

I lived in NZ during the 1996 census and I remember it well because Graeme Cairns (who I sort of knew) of the McGillicuddy Serious Party spent census day hovering above NZ (well, the Waikato mainly) in a hot air balloon to avoid being counted. Maybe it's time for the women of NZ to take to the skies in protest.

@Igneococcus I think I’ll save myself the money on hot air balloon hire and simply identify as being out of the country on 7 March. Presumably that will suffice.

That should be absolutely fine @Thatsenoughinternetfortoday just self-ID as "absent" and have a meltdown if someone dares question it.

I haven't filled ours out yet but I believe the gender question comes before the sex question (please correct me if I'm wrong), which is confusing in itself. I don't want it assigned to me so I think I'll go for "another gender" and let them work out what to do with that information. Will also do this for my four kids who are "kidgender" and not covered by the other options.

I'm not sure this is a problem.

The two separate questions implicitly recognise that sex is one thing and gender is another.

Asking for one's sex "at birth" implies recognition that one's sex can't be changed.

I expect the Dept of Statistics is well aware of the bloody nose that the UK census got in court a few years ago* as that judgement would be certainly be cited in any court proceedings here, and this is why they have two seperate questions.

*Lots of people here will know this, but the UK census, on the advice of Stonewall, said that whether one was male or female should be answered by reference to gender identity alone. This was held to be unlawful.

The government and culture of NZ seem to be unduly influenced by post-modernist twaddle in general. I see someone has already referenced the nutty science curriculum for schools.

I got the email from SUFW NZ about this a few days ago, and have submitted a query to Census NZ asking them what I should do if I don’t have a gender identity, along with a few other questions. Still waiting to hear back

I think it’s the fact that the gender question comes before the sex question, that the gender question will be automatically filled in on your behalf if you don’t answer it, and there’s no ‘object to answer’ option, as with the religion question. To name a few issues….

Asking for one's sex "at birth" implies recognition that one's sex can't be changed.

On the contrary, it implies that ones sex at birth cn be different from ones sex at another time.

But they are not asking about it at any other time, meaning they don't regard it as worth asking about.

That depends on what they've said they'll use to 'fill in' the blank. Have they said how they'll do it? What if they simply copy across the answer to sex at birth? World you object to that?

I agree, notwithstanding the views I have expressed on the census issue.

A small group of ideologues are making this country look ridiculous.

I was the first person to use the dwelling code for my house. This meant I was asked to name and gender ALL the people who would be in the house on Census night. I think that contravenes Yogyakarta Principle 6. Not to mention that I might commit "literal violence" by misgendering someone who is not ready to reveal their gender.

The information collected is going to be inaccurate for a number of reasons. Everyone is supposed to specify their gender, even pre-verbal children. Parents will presumably complete the form with a gender that matches their sex characteristics. The data for young children will be very unreliable, but at what age does it become reliable? And what is the point of trying to measure something that is not clearly defined? What will the data tell us?

All the members of my household are gender critical- we've each chosen to address this in a different way with our census response - the equivalent of spoiling a ballot paper, I suppose. But we have certainly not just slid into the "my gender is the same as my sex" bollocks.

Oh and if they are going to impute gender using the "sex at birth" response, they are basically saying that if there is no gender information, they will assume sex=gender. Isn't that what "wrong" that they are trying to put right?

@TomPinch
No it is a problem. 'Gender identity' will now be how all subsequent data is sorted (not sex).

If you do not enter a Gender Identity the Dept of Stats will infer one for you using as yet unspecified sources. But possibly including the answer to your 'sex' question and previous census.

If you stick 'none' it will be coded as 'other'. So the possible results for the gender identity question are 'Male' 'Female' and 'Other' (which includes (I think) around 47 possible options).

There is NO option to opt out. You cannot select 'none' without them inferring a 'Gender Identity' and assigning it to you. There is no 'I have no gender identity' option.

Pushed post too soon.
So data on sex based violence, wages etc from now on will be sorted on gender identification not sex.

@LikeGolddust that's why we have each thought of a way to the 60 characters we have to describe our gender to express our disagreement with having to do it at all:)

“Your sex at birth” = “your sex”

The words “at birth” are redundant, and always will be.

I thought part of the purpose of a census is to inform future planning for schools, hospitals, public facilities…for which information sex is wholly relevant: for example, governments would gain some idea of how many maternity wards may be needed in X years’ time.

If they are gathering information about unicorn or mermaid gender, how does this aid the process (apart from giving an idea of what percentage of the population lives in cuckoo land)?