The government should tread carefully with ‘gender identity’ ideology
by Caroline ffiske, Free Market Conservative:
The Conservative Government is certainly keen on the concept of ‘gender identity’. This is the notion that we all have an ‘inner’ one which may or may not be aligned with our biological sex. The Government is so keen on the idea, that it’s planning to roll it out to every household in the country – via the Census. Never mind that there is no science behind the idea, most of the country have never heard of it, and a great many who have, have serious concerns.
Under current plans, for the first time, the 2021 Census will include a voluntary question about gender identity. But bizarrely, if the current format of the question and guidance testing is maintained, the Census will also allow people to self-identify their sex. The guidance for the sex question used in rehearsals for the Census last year said ‘If you are one or more of non-binary, transgender, have variations of sex characteristics, sometimes also known as intersex, the answer you give can be different from what is on your birth certificate’.
See the problem? If every trans-identified person self-identifies their sex and then gives the same gender identity, they will disappear as a population. We actually won’t have any idea how people responded to these overlapping questions. We won’t have accurate data – the thing which the Census, at great expense, is supposedly for. Concerns about this have prompted 80 of the country’s top social statisticians, quantitative social scientists, and epidemiologists to object strongly. They sent this succinct letter to the Times in December:
‘We are concerned about the proposed online guidance to accompany the sex question in the 2021 census, which advises respondents that they may respond in terms of their self-identified gender. This will effectively transform the sex question into one about gender identity. We are concerned that this will undermine data reliability on a key demographic variable and damage our ability to capture and remedy sex-based discrimination and inequality. We welcome the decision to include a voluntary question on gender identity in the 2021 census in England, Wales and Scotland. Sex and gender identity are distinct and should not be conflated.’
You can see the letter and the full list of signatories here.
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