In another massive blow to Australia’s LGBTIQ+ community, an insider from the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) revealed that this year’s census would be randomly reassigning non-binary people to male or female.
Earlier this week, we reported that the absence of questions relating to gender and sexual orientation in the Australian Census leaves LGBTIQ+ people invisible. Currently, the Census only allows Aussies to specify if they are living with a partner of the same sex, but doesn’t account for those that are single or don’t live with their partner.
The survey also only asks for a person’s “sex” rather than gender, which is extremely othering to the trans community. While there is the addition of a “non-binary” option this year, that again, only applies to sex not gender (i.e. someone’s reproductive organs, hormones and chromosomes).
Outside of the binary and filling in the Australian Census. 1. It asks your sex, not gender
2. If you select non-binary sex, it gives you a free-text option (albeit about ‘sex’)
3. This is how I filled it in
4. Free-text means you won’t mess w/stats for ppl who are intersex pic.twitter.com/K3CkpxLK66— Prof Sandy O’Sullivan (Wiradjuri, trans they/them) (@sandyosullivan) July 30, 2021
To make matters worse, a former member of the ABS Standard on Sex, Gender, Variations of Sex Characteristics and Sexual Orientation Variables said that the non-binary data isn’t actually going to be released by the ABS.
Teddy Cook, told The Feed that the ABS would randomly assign people who’ve selected this option as male or female instead.
“The Census has let us down. What this means is we’re basically unable to assess and understand how many LGBTIQ people there are in Australia,” Cook said.
“It’s not about being inclusive, it’s the right thing to do in the most accurate way to get a sense of how many of us there are, and what we’re experiencing.”
The point of the Census is to provide crucial data on the scatterings of populations, to inform governments on where they should allocate services and funding. That’s why putting your religion as “Jedi” isn’t actually a good idea, as it may skew the data.
By excluding trans people from the Census, it means they could also be excluded from necessary government funding and resources.
“A really great way to improve the health and wellbeing of trans people is to make sure that we see ourselves reflected,” Cook said.
An ABS spokesperson told The Feed that “limitations” in collecting information such as gender identity, is the reason the main release of Census data will only present the categories: male and female.
“We found that while stakeholders did identify the value in collecting gender identity in the Census, there were some limitations in collecting this information, such as people’s understanding of why the question is being asked and the sensitive nature of the topic,” the spokesperson said.
The Census only happens every five years, so that’s five years our LGBTIQ+ community have to wait to feel represented. Not good enough.
If you’d like to talk about the issues raised in this story, you can call the QLife LGBTI peer support hotline on 1800 184 527 or chat online.
QLife operates between between 3pm and midnight daily.
Under 25? You can reach Kids Helpline at 1800 55 1800 or chat online.
