Gender choice: are you Mr, Ms or Mx?
THE AUSTRALIANMAY 23, 2016 12:00AM
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Tessa Akerman
Reporter
Melbourne
Government departments facing a July 1 deadline to comply with new federal gender guidelines are introducing new categories alongside male and female on forms and advising staff to refrain from assuming a person’s gender based on their name.
Thousands of voters updating their personal electoral details before this year’s federal election have been given an option to list their gender as unspecified, as part of a broader push to eradicate gender-based assumptions.
The Australian Electoral Commission has also recently started accepting Mx as a title, with a default gender of indeterminate.
This year’s census on August 9 will be the first where people are provided the option to identify as male, female or “other”.
In February, the Australian Bureau of Statistics issued a “standard for sex and gender variables, 2016” which listed an “other” category. “The inclusion of the ‘please specify’ write-in facility for ‘Other’ allows respondents the opportunity to describe their sex using a term they are comfortable with, while also maximising the potential for analysis of the responses provided,” the standard states.
Government agencies are following the Australian Government Guidelines on the Recognition of Sex and Gender, updated in November last year, and issued by the Attorney-General’s Department.
The ABS said the guidelines meant it had advised staff they “should refrain from making assumptions about a person’s sex and/or gender identity based on indicators such as their name, voice or appearance, and suggests that when interviews are conducted interviewers should read out the question and all response options.”
Lisa Conolly from the ABS said the agency would be careful to protect the privacy for this relatively small population group when disseminating information from the census. She said the census program was planning to carry out a separate analysis of the “other” category.
“The main aim is to be respectful to people who want to respond other than male or female,” she said. “We’re running it first in the census … we will learn from that how people react and respond to that category.”
The AEC has issued forms that provide the opportunity to identify as a gender other than male or female.
It first started accepting electors providing “indeterminate’’ as their sex in 2003.
The Attorney-General’s Department guidelines were first introduced in July 2013 and updated last November.
The guidelines complement the amendment of the Sex Discrimination Act, which introduced new protections from discrimination on the grounds of sexual orientation, gender identity and intersex status.
The rollout of the guidelines is due to be completed by July 1 and a spokesman from the Attorney-General’s Department said they would be reviewed later this year.
The changes will allow people to record their sex and/or gender in personal records as M (male), F (female) or X (Indeterminate/Intersex/Unspecified).
The guidelines state that while individuals are encouraged to progressively ensure their documentation reflects their preferred gender, there are legitimate reasons why people may hold conflicting documents, such as to ensure safety while travelling overseas if they identify as other.
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