Kirstie Ken English (they/them)

Kirstie Ken English (they/them)

Sociology PhD student researching how differences of sex, gender and sexuality should be represented in UK surveys.

LGBTQ+ Census Guide 2022

3 minute read

Published:

The 20th of March 2022 is census day in Scotland. This census year is of particular importance to the LGBTQ+ community. Here I provide some information for LGBTQ+ people filling in the census. As a non-binary person, I’m disappointed by the binary sex question. However, that makes the optional text box in the “trans status or trans history” question more important. If your trans and feel comfortable doing so please make use of that box so our community is represented accurately.

On the 2nd of February the Court of Sessions in Edinburgh heard the case seeking to change the sex question guidance in the 2022 Scottish census. The current guidance, much like the guidance in the 2011 UK censuses, is “lived sex” guidance meaning it recommends people respond based on how they live. Therefor trans men select male and trans women select female. The case wishes to change to “legal” or “documented sex” guidance which would state that you respond based on your birth certificate. If following this guidance, only trans people with GRCs would respond based on how they are born while other comparable trans people misgender themselves.

The case was brought forward by Fair Play for Women, who previously brought a similar case against ONS over the guidance in the other UK censuses. Although, Fair Play for Women were granted permission to carry out a judicial review over the other UK censuses, the guidance was changed before any such action occurred. We do not currently know the verdict surrounding the Scottish census.

In a previous blog post I discussed the significance (or lack thereof) of the guidance changing in the census in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. The key points to note are as follows:

  1. The guidance is not legally binding, you do not have to follow it. In fact, research has suggested most people don’t even read it(NRS, 2021).

  2. There is no way to check if you have followed the guidance. They cannot tell if you have a GRC or not.

  3. The key negative impact for data users is: If followed “documented sex” guidance produces more ambiguous data due to comparable trans people responding differently with no way to tell on what basis they answered.

In previous blog posts I’ve mentioned that changing the guidance sets a worrying president. It undermines trans peoples’ ability to know themselves best and reinforces regressive binary understandings of sex. Fair Play for Women’s focus on sex question guidance is an attempt at what Collier & Cowan(2021) describe as concept capture. It is hoped that by embedding an regressive binary notion of sex based on the outdated gender recognition system in the census that this could have wider political and legal implications for the understanding of sex, which would greatly harm trans people. This is the primary reason it should be resisted. The impact the guidance has on the census itself is minimal. To make meaningful change to the way we count sex and gender we need to move away from binary sex questions, which exclude everyone outwith the binary and clearly create confusion.

References

Collier, B. & Cowan, S (2021) Queer Conflicts, Concept Capture and Category Co-Option: The Importance of Context in the State Collection and Recording of Sex / Gender Data.

NRS (2021) Scotland’s Census 2021: Sex Question Recommendation Report. [Online]. Available from: https://www.scotlandscensus.gov.uk/documents/sex-question-recommendation-report/html/.

Perspective on the Sex & Gender Data Working Group Guidance

12 minute read

Published:

On the 22nd of September, the Scottish Government’s Sex & Gender Data Working Group published guidance on the production & publication of sex, gender and trans status(gender modality) data by public bodies. The guidance is updated from the daft guidance, which the working group took feedback on in December. Here I will highlight key strengths and weaknesses of the new guidance as well as questions it leaves unanswered.

Survey: Representing differences of sex, gender and sexuality in UK population surveys

2 minute read

Published:

Survey Link! Ends on July 2nd 2021

The third and final strand of my research has begun and I need your help. My research aims to find out how differences of sex, gender and sexuality should be represented in UK population surveys. For the final strand of my research, I am surveying people ages 16 and over who live in the UK and are part of the LGBTI+ community. The survey asks for your perspectives on what information about your sex, gender or sexuality should be recorded. It features questions designed by people whose relationship to sex, gender or sexuality is usually overlooked by UK censuses. You will have the opportunity to share your perspectives on these questions and help identify if they would be good alternatives to current survey practices.

The above diagram depicts my research process. The survey is part of Strand 3. In Strand 2 I engaged with 4 different overlooked groups that were identified by reviewing current survey practices they were:

  1. People with variations of sex characteristics (often referred to as intersex people or people with differences of sex development)

  2. People whose gender identities (or lack thereof) are not completely represented by the categories of man or woman (often referred to as non-binary people)

  3. People who do not identify with their sex assigned at birth (often referred to as trans people)

  4. Anyone who does not identify as only heterosexual/straight, gay, lesbian or bisexual (for example: asexual, aromantic, queer, pansexual and polyamorous people)

In Strand 3’s survey I want to continue to engage with these groups while also talking to the wider LGBTI+ community. This is due to the fact that although lesbian, gay and bisexual people are occasionally represented in population surveys if there is no sexuality question, they are not the assumed norm unlike straight people. The purpose of the survey is to see if the perspectives shared by the Strand 2 focus group participants are held by a larger group. It also gives the opportunity to test the “ideal” questions designed by the focus group participants.

The survey will be used to construct an idea of best survey practise for representing differences of sex, gender and sexuality in the UK. I will then compare that to what is currently done to produce recommendations on how to improve upon our current approaches to asking about sex, gender and sexuality. The overall objective of this research is to further respectful representation of marginalised groups in an attempt to produce data that will help us understand our communities and meet our needs.