Australian Census offers ‘other’ option for gender question

[Adrian]

An update…Saturday morning got through to the Census information service (1300214531).
Selected the on-line inquiries option and got to talk to a real person….
… who had never heard of the “other” gender option.

“So you want a paper form?” she says “that’s the only option I can give you”.

“Oh no” I reply. I have information from the ABS that says there are two ways to get the “other” gender option, and one is to phone you and request a different login.

A surprised pause the other end. “I’ll put you on hold whilst I bring up the information” – which I interpreted as “Hang on while I rush to find a supervisior who can tell me what this other gender thing is all about”.

A long silence (no banal on-hold music though).

Finally she came back. Took my address, and an email address and issued me with a new login code.

Being of a doubting disposition I wrote down the “receipt number” just in case there is no “other” on the 9th August.

But this all does beg the question. If I can get an improved form with a new login code… why couldn’t everyone have been given the form? Are they worried that census-haters will all tick other and write rude words as their gender?

All I can say is with these hurdles in place the statistic of “number of other gender responses” will be a gross under-estimate. This could be a bad thing as well as a good thing.

So please – let’s educate the census help line staff and all request the alternative form!

[Anonymous]

Why cant you just tick the gender you identify with when you are completing the census

[Adrian]

Joanne_13 wrote:

Why cant you just tick the gender you identify with when you are completing the census

Because a large proportion of the transgender community do not identify completely with the concept of having a totally and exclusively male or female gender.

Granted that those on a a gender journey to become as close to a binary female as they can (commonly referred to as being TS) will want to tick the woman/female box as often as they can. But for the rest of us the male/female gender choice is putting us into a box where we don’t belong.

The census is a chance for everyone who feels they don’t belong in the boxes to be counted. If enough of the transgender community take the time and effort to tick “outside the box” then it will help others understand how diverse we are as a group.

[Anonymous]

Thanks Adrian. This does seem poor work by ABS and is surely likely to provide less than accurate statistics. The ABS Census site indeed also states: ‘The default question asks whether you are male or female. We have special procedures if these responses do not apply to you.’ ‘Special procedures’ is hardly an inviting phrase and writing on the form in a non-existent box is clumsy to say the least. It will be interesting (and possibly frustrating in outcome) to see if the results will match previous research suggesting that up to a third of trans & gender diverse Australians could identify as other than male and female: Sally Goldner’s SBS comment piece today seems a balanced reflection, including continuing issues re names and security – http://www.sbs.com.au/news/article/2016/08/01/comment-making-census-gender-identity

[Elizabeth]

Is it me or am I a cynic?
I wouldn’t trust any government organisation let alone personal information regarding my gender status. That being said I would like to be counted amongst the gender diverse, but no. I guess I shall mark myself as male, which I’m not. Why? with Adrian’s experience and the Bureau of Statistics why the hell would you trust them? One of their own answering the phone and hasn’t a clue then what chance have we as a community?

[Adrian]

Liz wrote:

I wouldn’t trust any government organisation let alone personal information regarding my gender status.

I might be first up against the wall when the revolution comes – but I’m proud to be transgender and want to be counted. After having lived most of my life in fear I’ve realised that hiding achieves nothing (other than making one a psychological basket case). I don’t know or care what a government department can do with my gender status – but at least when I die I will go knowing that I existed – officially.

[Jane]

So….I have just tried to log on to the census web page.
One of the first questions is ‘are you male or female?
After a couple of questions you are presented with male or female.
It then goes on to say “…for information on how to identify as other than male or female’ you call 1300214531..Call this number. The guy I spoke to had not had someone ask this question at that stage but he was able to find the appropriate response after looking it up in his procedures.
If you tell the person who answers that you are calling in relation to the above then they will send you an sms with a new log on number. Once you log in with the new number you get a new password.
The new page then gives you an option to identify as ‘OTHER’. You can type in ‘transgemder’ or whatever…..
Seems like it is OK so give it a go…..
Jane

[Anonymous]

Had the same problem with phone connection, So I send them a note by email, waiting
for the reply. I was told the reason for the complication was so that the field is not entered as a joke, to me it might be another trick by the LNP.
Thanks

[Anonymous]

I called 1300 214 531 this morning and asked the person for a new number for the online census and he was very helpful, he knew exactly what I required.
What I don’t understand is: if the government is so concerned that people would not answer this one question properly (so they leave out the option to correctly identify oneself for about 2% of the population and no public advice to how to access and answer it correctly) then what about all the other questions, don’t they care if we answer them incorrectly. I would have thought the threat of a $180 fine for answering the questions incorrectly would have been enough of a deterrent seeing as we have to put our name and address on the form this time. It sort of makes the gathering of information a bit of a farce really.
Last census I wrote Transgender next to the question, drew a box and ticked it, I wonder how many more Trans people did the same.
Cheers Karly

[Anonymous]

Hi,
I received the reply to my email, I had 2 options, a) apply for a paper form or phone and ask for a special Login, tried to phone but the line was too busy and couldn’t get through so I Applied for a paper form and registered with my logon id to receive a paper form.
Don’t understand why they had to introduce such awkward procedure which will not produce a reasonably accurate stats.
Lol
Jenny

[Anonymous]

I hope everyone left feedback for the 2016 census, I left the following statement:

I should not have to ask for a new form just because I am Transgender, there is over 2% of the population effected by this and due to having to “ask” for the correct form and having to put our name etc on the form you will not get a true figure for your statistics. We are a highly discriminated minority and this years census was just another blow below the belt. If you don’t trust people to answer the questions properly then don’t do a census.

Cheers Karly

[Elizabeth]

Well, the 2016 census was indeed one almighty cock-up, all round. I doubt very much the statistics that may be gleaned from the reply of all Australians would be anywhere near accurate. As our beloved PM said, ‘heads will roll’ Perhaps next time the Census will be conducted properly, not relying on electronic answers which can be manipulated, hacked, compromised and, or otherwise stuffed. How on earth can an accurate answer on the numbers of Transgender people in Australia be obtained from some ambiguous question that is neither honest or straight forward.
I consider the correct question ought have been, Do you consider yourself ‘Gender Diverse’? Like many things people pussy foot around fearing offending someone and the necessity of being PC.

[Adrian]

OK – after all that complexity just to record an “other” gender we finally see the results
http://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/abs@.nsf/Lookup/by%20Subject/2071.0~2016~Main%20Features~Sex%20and%20Gender%20Diversity%20in%20the%202016%20Census~31

2016 CENSUS OPERATIONAL CHALLENGES

Quote:

The special procedures relied on contact with the Census call centre. A significantly larger than expected volume of calls was received before and after Census night, which meant that some people were unable to get their calls answered in a timely fashion. This may have deterred some or many from following through on the special procedures to receive an access code for the special online form or to seek advice on procedures for the paper form.

There were also some reported incidents of call centre staff being unaware of the special procedures, possibly due to additional staff being brought on quickly to assist with the larger than expected peaks. Call centre management addressed reported issues as quickly as possible.

The withdrawal of the online form for 43 hours also may have led to some people reporting on paper rather than online, and they may have been unaware of how to report as other than male or female on the paper form.

2016 CENSUS RESULTS
The ABS does not consider the count of people reporting as other than male or female in the 2016 Census to be an accurate measure of the number of people with other than male or female sex or gender. The ABS has made this assessment in consideration of the inherent limitations of the Australian Census for this topic, the limitations of the approach used for the 2016 Census and the operational challenges experienced.

Quote:

There were 1,300 people who provided a sex or gender response other than male or female that could be validated, a rate of 5 per 100,000 people. Approximately one-third of these simply answered with no text or no meaningful text. The remaining two-thirds gave descriptions that will be helpful for understanding the complexity of sex and gender.

A further 2,400 people provided a response which may have been meant to indicate another sex or gender, by marking both the Male and the Female responses on the paper form (multimark) without writing any text. These marks could have been intentional, for those people not aware of the special procedures. The marks may also have been mistakes. Where both sex boxes were marked, but one was clearly crossed out, the records were excluded from this analysis.

There was a dramatic increase in the proportion of this type of reporting from the 60 years and over age groups. This could indicate that the older age groups found it difficult to or chose not to follow the special procedures, or alternatively they could have simply made an error and not crossed it out. In addition, multimarks were only possible on paper forms, and the proportion who used paper forms also increased with age.

The highest possible count, therefore, for sex/gender diverse responses as measured in the 2016 Census is 3,700, representing a rate of 16 per 100,000 people. Around one- third (35%) of this group (1,300) were able to be validated as intentional. It is not clear how many of the remaining 65% (2,400) intended to indicate that their sex or gender was other than male or female.

There is a LOT more to read in the report.
http://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/abs@.nsf/Lookup/by%20Subject/2071.0~2016~Main%20Features~Sex%20and%20Gender%20Diversity%20in%20the%202016%20Census~31

Next Steps
This overview is the first release of results from the 2016 Census’s collection of non-male and non-female responses to the Sex question. Over the upcoming months, the ABS will publish several articles on this topic:

[ul]
[li]Final results of sex and gender reporting in the 2016 Census, including analysis of descriptive terms[/li]
[li]Characteristics of people whose sex/gender is other than male or female[/li]
[li]Lessons for future collections.[/li]

[/ul]
The ABS will seek advice on articles from peak groups and undertake targeted peer review, and welcomes feedback from the community.

[Anonymous]

Maybe next time someone may have the brain power to put a third option of “gender diverse” on the main form and get some real results. Having to ask for another type of form altogether was ridiculous, were they trying to save on ink LoL it was online after all.
Cheers Karly