Speaking as an immigrant. I have said from the start that the whole trans / pronoun madness thing is incredibly discriminatory against people whose first language is not English.
This census screw-up is a good example. There are fairly significant recent-immigrant groups in parts of the UK, especially London boroughs and the Midlands, who are fairly culturally insular (as recently immigrated peoples have tended to be throughout history) and whose English is not yet fluent. They porobably have no idea what a 'trans woman' is.
Is it an older woman? An unmarried woman? A pregnant woman? A menopausal woman? Ah, that must be it, well I'll tick that box then.
The confusion is not helped by the fact that even fully integrated, fluent English speakers can't agree on what a trans woman is e.g.
- Stonewall thinks it's any man who ever liked the colour pink or thought about cross-dressing, ever
- Nicola Sturgeon thinks it's any man who puts on a wig, unless of course he commits a sex crime in the wig, in which case he's a fake trans, which is somehow different from a true trans
- Judith Butler thinks it's a performance
- Monroe Bergdorf thinks it's an ineffable inside feeling
- Dawn Butler and Layla Moran think the soul is gendered and the body isn't, and only certain very special people can see what gender the soul is (needless to say, Dawn and Layla are two of these very rare and special people)
- Kier Starmer thinks it's a tiny population of very vulnerable people which silly women should stop getting their knickers in a twist about
- Rachel McKinnon thinks trans women have ladybrains and, subject to the correct doses of hormones, the body will soon follow
- Owen Jones thinks trans women are much better than real women, unless of course he's searching for a broody lesbian
If native speakers are this confused, what hope is there for a poor woman just off the plane from Poland or Pakistan?