It's yet to be decided whether a new 'gender diverse' option will be included in the next Census. A range of advocates have, for years, been calling for data on both gender identity and sexuality to be collected to provide a picture of our communities, in order to better inform policy, and ultimately improve services and advance rights. Statistics New Zealand has today unveiled what it's calling a 'world-first' standard, setting the groundwork for people to select 'gender diverse' rather than just male or female on forms and surveys. Statistics NZ says it will now consider how to use the standard across its own information collection. On whether the next Census might have that option, spokesperson Jo-anne Allan says public submissions on the topics for the 2018 Census closed on 30 June,and Statistics New Zealand now has to assess them to see what should be included. "We have criteria against which all topics are assessed, before testing, and then making a final decision." In the meantime, the online discussion on the topic is available to read here Several government organisations are now also considering how to implement the new standard. The option 'gender diverse' also comes with subcategories, including the term gender diverse itself, transgender "FtM" and transgender "MtF". On the question of whether people might be able to select these subcategories rather than the umbrella gender diverse term, Allan says the standard does have"further and more detailed categories within gender diverse" but it's"not mandatory for people to use so we can't say how people will apply it". Response today has been that many people would like to select multiple options, such as both 'gender diverse' and 'female'. Information on the Statistics New Zealand website suggests there may be scope for this. It says "when collecting detailed information about gender identity, multiple responses are classified to the relevant detailed categories. Where this is not possible multiple responses are classified to gender diverse not elsewhere classified." It also adds that for some people, the gender identity question may be too personal and they may refuse to answer. This will be recorded as "refused to answer". Read more here
Credit: GayNZ.com Daily News staff
First published: Friday, 17th July 2015 - 8:14pm