5 minute read
COUNTING US IN
COUNTING US IN
Vic Valentine, policy officer at the Scottish Trans Alliance (STA), and lead on STA's non-binary work, moved from Brighton to Edinburgh in May 2015 and have been involved in trans activism and research for several years
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) Being counted matters. Across all nations of the UK, the next Censuses in 2021 will ask two new questions specifically about LGBTQ+ people. One will ask about a person’s sexual orientation, and the other will ask whether a person is trans. This will give us information such as how old our communities are, helping us make the case for things like improved awareness in care homes so older people with same-sex partners don’t face discrimination. We’ll know whether we’re more likely to have long-term health conditions, so we can make sure our LGBTQ+ services do more to include disabled members of our communities.
It will also demonstrate changing social attitudes towards LGBTQ+ people. When the last Censuses happened in 2011 there were discussions about including a question on sexual orientation. The question was considered too unacceptable to the general public – too many would refuse to answer the question, or stop answering the Census at all, if people were asked if they were straight, lesbian, gay, bisexual, or described their sexual orientation in another way. So the question was ruled out. A trans question was not even considered. It’s good that we’ve moved on and that, forthe very first time, LGBTQ+ people will be counted. These new questions will be voluntary. This is the right thing to do – some people may feel their sexual orientation or trans status is private and they don’t want to share it. But everyone will have that choice – and if we choose to answer, we could find out things about our communities we’ve never known before.
Another question the Census will ask everyone, as it has since the first UK Census in 1801, is whether they are male or female. Most people will barely register being asked –it’s a question you see every day. Yet for some people, having just these two boxes will put them in a difficult position. I’m non-binary, which means I’m a trans person who doesn’t identify as a man or as a woman. For me and other people like me, having to tick either box will mean we aren’t counted as who we really are. I know what some people will be thinking. It’s just a box. Why not skip it if it bothers you so much? Well, unlike the new questions on sexual orientation and trans status, the question about sex won’t be voluntary. And with most people being encouraged to complete the Census online next time, for those who do, it will be impossible to skip the question.
Okay then, you might now be thinking it’s a question about sex? Then you do know which one to tick really – whichever one matches your sex at birth. But this isn’t the case either. A trans person in 1801 who had someone knock on their door to ask their details was very unlikely to volunteer their sex at birth to the person asking. And for the last couple of Censuses, guidance was specifically given to trans men and to trans women that they should answer this question in whichever way felt best for them. They didn’t need to answer with the sex on their birth certificate. They didn’t need to answer based on their biology when they were born. A trans man could tick ‘male’ and a trans woman could tick ‘female’. This won’t be changing. And that’s good, because it is the right way to count trans people. In a highly gendered world that tends to want us to categorise ourselves as male or female often, and to do so based only on our sex at birth, trans people feel deeply uneasy, and like we don’t fit. For us, how we think of ourselves doesn’t match up with what others would expect based on how our bodies looked when we were born. That is why, for the last couple of decades, moves to improve equality for trans people have at their very foundation the principle that recognising how trans people think of ourselves and how we live our lives should be paramount. Still not convinced? Biology, after all, is important. What about health services? Cancer screening? Well to start with – decisions about individual’s healthcare aren’t made with Census data. And trans people across the UK can update our medical records to reflect who we are rather than our biology at birth, while still getting appropriate screening. Putting that aside though, it is still worth answering. For 99% (probably more) of the population who are not trans, when they answer the sex question you can make some useful assumptions about the types of body they have. For trans people, whether you ask a sex at birth question, or one that allows us to answer in a way that better reflects us, it gets a bit more complicated. Many trans people take cross-sex hormones, or have gender reassignment surgeries. This means it is hard to make good guesses about what our bodies are like, however we answer this question. And asking the new question about whether a person is trans, while letting trans men or trans women at least respond to the sex question in the way that’s right for them, gives us the information we need about how much of the male and female population it’s harder to make these guesses about. The Census aims to take a snapshot of each person living in the UK. It is exciting that for so many LGBTQ+ people, who we are and how we live our lives will be recorded for the very first time. But we need to keep making the case that all of us deserve to be counted –and hopefully by the time the next Census comes around, ten years from now, that will mean people like me will be too.
MORE INFO
) “The Scottish Trans Alliance works for gender identity and gender reassignment equality and human rights in Scotland. We strive for everyone in Scotland to be safe and valued whatever their gender identity and to have full freedom in their gender expression.” For more information, visit:
