Ask about sex, not gender, to protect the truth, government officials say

Sex Matters has published its own guidance on collecting data on gender identity

Government authorities should ask people specifically about their gender, not self-identified gender to avoid an «ideological attack on truth and evidence-gathering», campaigners said on Tuesday evening.

Gender-critical group Sex Matters has produced new guidance for those collecting official data to put ending «disagreement, confusion and fear» about how to record this information.

It says if schools, universities and other public sector organizations continue to confuse sex and gender, it will affect the reliability of statistics and could harm women's rights.

Sex Matters warned that many organisations, including NHS Mental Health, were only recording gender information, meaning women were included in the same group as men who identify as women.

They said that this is incorrect because information about biological sex is necessary for many purposes, including security, medical record keeping, eligibility to participate in athletic competitions, and the prevention, investigation, and prosecution of crimes.

An investigation was conducted earlier this year. has begun reporting on how sex and gender were taken into account in the 2021 Census in England and Wales after analysis found that those who speak limited English were five times more likely to be counted as transgender.

Michael Biggs, associate professor of sociology at the University of Oxford, whose analysis found widespread confusion among respondents to the census question on gender identity, said: “A desire to appear inclusive or a desire for respondents to feel visible are not good reasons to confuse sex with gender identity.

“It’s hard to overstate how dire things will be for scientifically sound analysis in the coming years if organizations continue to routinely and deliberately compromise sex data.”

“Imagine being a decision maker in 2030 and being faced with the problem of planning and allocating resources in a certain sector without good data on sex, because that's where things are headed.

“This guidance is important a step towards countering the ideologically motivated attack on truth and evidence.»

Earlier this month, Science Minister Michelle Donelan announced a review of the “utter nonsense” of calls for public bodies to collect data on self-identified sex rather than biological sex.

She criticized “biology denial and the relentless spread of political correctness.”

In the NHS Mental Health dataset, people are recorded as 'men (including trans men)', 'women (including trans women)', 'non-binary' or 'other'.

Sex Matters says: “Note. that «trans men» are women who identify as men and therefore are women, and «trans women» are men who identify as women and therefore are men.»

< p>Other organizations offer a wide range of «gender identity» options, including the Information Commissioner's Office, which asked job applicants to choose from a drop-down menu including «Male», «Female», «Transgender», «Agender», «Aporagender» «, «Bigender», «Queer» and some other new gender identities.

Oxfam asks staff if they are «men», «women» or «non-binary/genderqueer».

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Maya Forstater, chief executive of Sex Matters, said: “From official statistics to HR records, the collection of sex and gender data has been bordering on dystopian for years thanks to lobbying from trans activist groups.

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“Accurately recording sex is critical, especially when it comes to issues such as protection and service delivery.

“We've received countless requests from organizations trying to do the right thing, and we hope this guide will help bring a return to common sense when it comes to data collection.”

The guide aims to provide clear and actionable guidance on collecting data on gender and identifying transgender people under current legislation, including in the UK. General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), Equality Act 2010 and Human Rights Act 1998

Sex Matters advises that data on whether people identify as transgender is confidential and must be collected only for a good reason and using a question that everyone can understand.

Potential reasons for asking people about transgender identity include operational ones (i.e., identifying transgender people as a population with special needs) , social statistics (i.e. knowing how many people identify as trans in a particular population group) and for equality monitoring.