THREAD: Today ONS has published a report on how it decided that the Census question "what is your sex" should *not* mean the sex you were born

The ONS considered 5 difference concepts of sex:
Sex registered at birth,
Sex recorded on birth certificate,
Sex recorded on legal/official documents,
living / presenting sex,
Self-identified sex.

/2
A big part of their evidence for why asking 'sex registered at birth' was unacceptable was that trans people won't like it and might boycott the Census. /3
From this they concluded "The highest negative impact on accuracy & reliability is anticipated if sex registered at birth was collected due to the likely negative impact on response rates caused by the perceived invasion of privacy" /4
and that "The data need [for birth sex] is not considered to be strong enough to justify collecting this" /5
So what was this important and influential piece of research they did to gauge the response of the trans community and women? /6
They interviewed 52 people; cisgender, transgender and trans allies.

.... some members of women's groups /7
They don't go into details but we know from elsewhere:

"participants were recruited through existing databases from those who had ‘opted-in’ to take part in future research *and via a professional agency*".

Who is this professional agency that supplies trans & trans allies? /8
And are these voices representative of ordinary trans people or are they selected trans activist voices? How many were there? Perhaps a dozen of each?

So many questions unanswered. /9
But these dozen or so views was enough to convince the ONS there was a risk of boycott if they asked people what sex they were born /10
Who were the 'women's groups' they interviewed to make sure they heard the other side?

Not us.... not any of the gender critical groups in fact.... /11
Again, they don't give detail in the report but we know from elsewhere that "14 women’s groups were represented, e.g.: Women’s league for peace and freedom, MIND Women's forum, Swarm Association, Women's Equality Party; amongst others)" /12
Has this really been a fair and transparent assessment by an independent organisation whose purpose is to collect accurate data?

We don't think so, do you? /13

More from Society

Patriotism is an interesting concept in that it’s excepted to mean something positive to all of us and certainly seen as a morally marketable trait that can fit into any definition you want for it.+


Tolstoy, found it both stupid and immoral. It is stupid because every patriot holds his own country to be the best, which obviously negates all other countries.+

It is immoral because it enjoins us to promote our country’s interests at the expense of all other countries, employing any means, including war. It is thus at odds with the most basic rule of morality, which tells us not to do to others what we would not want them to do to us+

My sincere belief is that patriotism of a personal nature, which does not impede on personal and physical liberties of any other, is not only welcome but perhaps somewhat needed.

But isn’t adherence to a more humane code of life much better than nationalistic patriotism?+

Göring said, “people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the peacemakers for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same in any country.”+

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