National newspaper attacks trans people in cartoon over inclusive census
The Times has attacked transgender people after news that the next UK census could have an optional ‘sex’ question.
The attack comes following the news that the 2021 census in the UK could make the “sex” question voluntary in order to be more inclusive of trans people.
A “tentative” recommendation has been made by the Office for National Statistics (ONS).
A report on gender identity by the ONS suggested that the change could be made in order to be more inclusive to trans and non-binary people.
Today the Times newspaper published a cartoon featuring a bird and a bee.
In the illustration, the bird says to the bee: “I’m a non-binary bird who wants to be a bee”
The Sunday Times reported that this would make the census data inaccurate when it comes to a record of the number of men and women in the UK compared to other countries.
It also published an article attacking transgender charity Mermaids, which has been nominated for a PinkNews Award after winning last year.
The article attacks the charity, which provides support for trans young people and their families.
It criticises Mermaids UK for receiving £35,000 from the Department for Education and £138,000 from the national lottery’s Awards for All fund and the BBC’s Children in Need appeal.
Labelling the charity a “controversial transgender group”, the Times article attacks the charity for sharing information about a fast-track assessment service for hormone replacement therapy in appropriate cases.
The article also criticises the charity following a court case in which a judge removed a child from the care of their mother, and ordered the charity not to contact the family.
At the time, Mermaids said the decision by the judge was “horrific”.
It also quotes notorious trans-exclusionary radical feminist Germaine Greer.
According to Greer, “biological women are ‘losing out everywhere’”.
She added: “I’m sick and tired of this. We keep arguing that women have won everything they need to win. They haven’t even won the right to exist.”
The social services are also attacked in the article for “not acting”.
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Research by the ONS suggested that the census question was inappropriate, especially given that it asks about “sex rather than gender”.
The 2011 census included the “sex” question which was mandatory.
The report says the question of whether a person is male or female “was considered to be irrelevant, unacceptable and intrusive, particularly to trans participants, due to asking about sex rather than gender”.
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As well as making the question voluntary, the report explored other options.
This included making a “hybrid” question including an “other” category.
But the report suggested that providing an “other” category was “thought to homogenise trans people and differentiate them from the rest of society,”
Changes were suggested by the authors “to better meet the needs of trans respondents”.
Meanwhile, in the US, Trump officials revoked Obama-era requests for data on LGBT people to be collected in the census, documents have revealed.
Under President Obama, a number of government departments had formally requested that the US Census Bureau begin collecting data on sexual orientation and gender identity through the ongoing American Community Survey (ACS).
Documents published by NPR show that Obama’s former Housing and Urban Development Secretary Julián Castro had argued that “valid, reliable, and nationally representative data on sexual orientation and gender identity are essential” to the government catering for LGBT people.
Meanwhile, the Department of Justice under LGBT ally Loretta Lynch had also formally requested “that the Census Bureau consider a new topic in the ACS relating to LGBT populations”.
However, under Donald Trump, that decision has been swiftly reversed
