Thread by @fairplaywomen

Since 1804 the census has always asked "What is your sex". That question has always been answered without reference to any guidance except for a mere 1000 people who referred to some in 2011. /1

It's always been lawful to collect data on biological sex and it's always been important. In 2016 the ONS still was claiming that biological sex was "one of the most frequently used and important characteristics the census collects"... /2

.... and that it's "critical that the collection of information on gender identity for a small population does not jeopardise the quality of data collected on sex" for everyone else. /3

But the #Census2021 will break with the past and could see up to 500,000 trans people accessing novel guidance for the sex question allowing them to put their gender identity instead. /4

This is despite the addition of a new and separate question to capture information on gender identity. Gender identity gets counted twice, and sex gets muddled /5

The state recognises sex as what's on a birth certificate or GRC. It was recently confirmed, following extensive public consultation, that sex should not self-declared. Government decided this "Strikes the right balance" to retain "proper checks and balances in the system". /6

In contrast the ONS decides it will instead recognise sex as what's written on 'other' legal documents, all of which that can be updated without the 'proper checks and balances'. /7

Whatever 'other' legal documents such as passports show it cannot be 'sex'. The state can't recognise two sexes at the same time so if someone has different identity documents, they can't all be showing sex. /8

This ground-breaking change was based on a last-minute switch just 3 weeks before the census went 'live'. ONS was still telling stakeholders that sex would mean sex as late as the 28th Jan. /9

They have told us nothing about what and why things changed. That is not a robust process worthy of a £1 billion data collection exercise. /10

Withdrawing the Guidance now would restore consistency with all previous censuses, stops further data loss, and is the safer option. /11

Pressing ahead with novel guidance, under the shadow of doubts over its legality and evidence-base, is risky. /12

We will ask the high court to decide in a few days time.

On Tuesday 9th March we go to court backed by over 3000 ordinary men and women who together donated over £100,000 in just two weeks. /13

You can read more about why we must bring this legal challenge here /14

fairplayforwomen.com/sex-in-the-cen…