2 The July email newsletter talked about Statistics New Zealand’s current policy that trans people should put their biological sex on census forms. The Human Rights Commission made a submission to Statistics New Zealand’s review of Culture and Identity Statistics. The Commission said requiring trans people to disclose personal details about their gender identity places them at risk of possible discrimination.
Based on the Transgender Inquiry’s findings, the Commission recommended that any trans person who has taken definitive steps to live fully and permanently as a woman or as a man should be able to identify as that sex on their census form.
The full submission is available on the Commission’s website here, and issues for trans people start on page 24.
HRC is aware im sure of my stance. The ‘to be who i am report’ was great but buggered up something badly. Transgender.
Here you seek to do it again.
lets put it simple.
You ask what my ‘sex’ is? hetrosexual.
my gender is female.
There is a big differance.
Yes it was once correct to ask ‘sex’ and it is it stiil asked but language changes.
HRC should be aware of this
People have the right to use whatever words they want to describe themselves.
Terminology is very important. In the Inquiry report, all quotes and profiles respected the terms individual people used themselves. The Inquiry team chose to use the more neutral term ‘trans’ when it needed an ‘umbrella’ term to encompass the huge diversity of people who made submissions about their experiences of discrimination.
Terms such as ‘sex’ or ‘sexual orientation’ are one way to distinguish between people based on a specific characteristic. Statistics NZ uses the term ‘sex’ on the census and other surveys so it can collect data to analyse the different experiences of women and men. This article focused on the Commission’s concern that any transsexual or trans woman (for example) is expected to put male on her census form, even if she now has a female birth certificate.
The term sexual orientation’ is usually used to compare the experiences of heterosexuals, lesbians, gay men and bisexual people.