Scots can identify themselves as men or women in the forthcoming census, without documentation, which triggers fears of 'awakened' nation
The Scottish Bureau, which is responsible for the country’s 2022 census, has said it will allow people to self-identify their gender in the millennium survey, but some are concerned that this “waking” development could compromise the data.
According to new guidelines published by the National Records of Scotland (NRS) on Tuesday, Scots can now choose their gender, regardless of official documentation and medical opinion, in the 2022 census.
Scottish residents do not need a gender recognition certificate which states that someone must have lived in their intended new gender for two years or submit journals highlighting their gender dysphoria.
“If you are transgender, the answer you give may be different from what is written on your birth certificate," reads the text. “If you are non-binary, or if you are not sure how to respond, you can use the gender recorded on your official documents, such as your passport," adds it, although gender stated on a passport can be changed without a formal legal process.
The census - which has already been delayed for a year, bringing it into conflict with the rest of the UK - also includes a question for over 16s on transgender status and history.
However, the idea of reconciling gender and gender identity in the census has not been universally well received, with some pointing out that it will compromise the data obtained, while others have noted that the move will mean Scottish census returns are not in line with the rest of the UK. .
A person asked on Twitter, whether the point of the census was still to know how many men, women and children lived in the country, while others insist giving people this option would render the data “useless." “When you see that gender is now fluid, do you check the box based on how you identify yourself at the time you fill out the form, even though you could identify differently the next day?" asked one.
Others agreed, claims Scotland can bid “Goodbye to useful census data” and saying the information is no longer reliable.
Some commentators claimed that the Scottish National Party (SNP) was “Chasing the awake voice” and that their decision would lead to chaos all over the world.
Others claimed that the SNP was just trying to be different from its English neighbors, who along with Wales conducted a census earlier in 2021, delaying a year with the pandemic.
All to be different from England. First, the SNP made sure that our census was in a different year than the rest of the UK, now this nonsense. What a farce.https://t.co/y50fSY7Tms
- Agent P 🏴 🇬🇧 (@ AgentP22) August 31, 2021
Another Twitter user blamed SNP leader Nicola Sturgeon, who claims the nationalist has voted “Slaughtered” the census for her own vanity project.
Meanwhile Lisa Mackenzie from the political analyst collective Murray Blackburn Mackenzie told the Guardian that the decision will compromise their data adaptation to the rest of the UK and adds that the gender issue in the 2022 Scottish Census is not compatible with the 1920 Census Act. The 1920 Census Act defines gender as “Gender as registered on a birth certificate or gender recognition certificate."
There was some support for the decision online; a person claimed that understanding people is a good approach and that in 100 years people will look back and wonder what the problem was with self-assigned sexual identity.
Others, however, were more jovial, with a single person Make fun, “Well they wear both skirts” - a reference to wear on kilts in Scotland.
Scotland has been at the center of several debates on sexual identity and transgender rights in recent months, with many seeing the SNP as the driving force behind the development. Earlier in August, the government decided that children as young as four can change gender and name in school without parental consent.
The debate resumed on Tuesday when Scottish feminist campaigner Marion Millar arrived in a Glasgow court after being accused of hate crimes after several historic tweets were considered transphobic and homophobic.
Hundreds of her supporters gathered outside the court to demand that the case be dropped, claiming that Millar stands up for the rights of hard-won women in the midst of rising self-assertion among transgender groups.
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