Trans people to protest at Holyrood over proposed Census changes
It would involve changing questions relating to gender.
Trans people are set to protest outside Holyrood this week against a proposed change to the Census in Scotland.
Instead of one question about gender, it is proposed by SNP MSP Joan McAlpine, that there would instead be two - one about gender at birth and a second about identity.
In a Twitter thread posted back in February, Joan McAlpine wrote, "For many individuals, identity is very personal and important.
“But sex and identity are not the same thing and require separate questions. Biological sex is an important demographic variable needed to record and plan services and understand different population trends.
“There is a view that there is an attempt to misrepresent their conditions to push unscientific claims that "sex is a spectrum" and lots of folk are intersex.
“Sex is binary. Using the 1 in 5500 babies to claim sex is a spectrum is like saying human beings don’t have ten toes because some human beings are born with more than ten toes, or less."
James Morton, Manager of the Scottish Trans Alliance said, “In all previous Censuses, trans men and trans women have answered using their lived sex, and that has worked well.
"To change that would fundamentally undermine the long established practice, and internationally established human right, of recognising our lived sex.
"There is no doubt that if those who want this change to be made in the Census are successful, they will move on to try to stop trans people being recognised as our lived sex in other areas such as our use of services including the NHS and education, and in government and other equality policies.”
He added, “If the Census is changed in this way, it will be the first time that LGBT equality in legislation has gone backwards anywhere in the UK since the introduction of section 28 under Margaret Thatcher in 1988. Section 28 labelled same-sex relationships as ‘pretended’.
"The suggested change to the Census sex question would similarly state that trans people’s lived sex is not real.
"That’s why we’re here at the Parliament to defend against this threat to trans rights, and to say Our Lives Are Real.
“Individual census returns remain confidential for 100 years. Many respondents might find other mandatory questions about illness, ethnicity & personal circumstances sensitive and difficult. But they answer them knowing their privacy is protected."