Reliable data on the proportion of the population that is lesbian, gay or transgender will be gathered for the first time in next year’s census, with members of the public asked to provide information about their sexual orientation and gender identity.
The questions – which will be voluntary and for people aged 16 and over – will help to build a clearer picture for policy-makers and service-providers, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) said.
“Without robust data on the size of the LGBT population at a national and local level, decision-makers are operating in a vacuum, unaware of the extent and nature of disadvantage which LGBT people may be experiencing in terms of health, educational outcomes, employment and housing,” Iain Bell, the ONS deputy national statistician, told the Observer.
The question begging being, well, that assumption that there is a disadvantage being suffered by LGBT in terms of health, educational outcomes, employment and housing.
Employment for example, gay men earn – on average, on average – less than het men. The usual route is thought to be they’re less likely to have children and thus under less pressure to earn. Lesbians, on the other hand, earn more than het women. The lack of children and childcare being the supposed reason there. So, advantage or disadvantage?
I don’t even fill in the compulsory field that requires me to identify by race or ethnicity. Nobody can use that information other than to discriminate by race or ethnicity. It’s not useful for anything else. The same will apply to this ‘voluntary’ question, but this is not even asking about a situation where you are born that way and that’s it, but lifestyle choices, at least in part, and mental illness that might be treatable.
We should judge people not by how they are born, but by their behaviour. So we can still be prejudiced against, for instance, pikeys, but not brown folks. Unless their religious behaviour offends, and that is a different thing.
Reliable data?
Self reported?
ISTM that being fashionably oppressed drives many declarations of identity these days
I’d say the reason that lesbians earn more (on average) than heterosexual women is down to the fact that they don’t have children and thus are able to progress their careers at roughly the same pace a man would. And match the male earnings. Isn’t it the case that childless women in general (of whatever bedroom leaning) earn more than women who have had children? Lesbians are just part of that childless subset. The important bit is ‘no kids to hold the career back’ not the reason why there are no kids.
That’s what I meant even if that’s not quite what I said……
And homosexual men don’t (usually) have children, so that even a stable partnership usually always has two salaries and no further dependants. In effect, that means that they can sustain a lifestyle that a heterosexual couple can only achieve if the sole earner (usually, but not always the man) has to work double-plus hard to obtain.
I once worked in a department of a town centre University with a very loud (scruffy, and rather smelly) homosexual colleague. He and his bum-chum lived a very short distance from the place in a house I couldn’t afford, and which meant that he (a) didn’t need the expense of a car, (b) didn’t have to meet the costs of commuting, (c} didn’t waste two hours every day doing the commute, and more time (and sometimes expense) in parking. As a result, he always moaned about the space devoted to car parking on the campus, which eventually stopped being free.
Incidentally, he always advocated (loudly) that bum sex was a cure for piles, something that I’m not inclined to believe. Something about the blood supply to the anus and the general looseness of the anal ring muscle – a factor which probably accounted for his general stench.
The last laugh was that the pair of them expired of a nasty disease that appears to have been anally injected, and was definitely a death sentence. The man’s personal life was his own business (apart from the shit smell, and perhaps his immunity from piles, of course) but it was his hatred for the car that really pissed me off!
‘it was his hatred for the car that really pissed me off!’
As always EM, it is intolerable that you shouldn’t tolerate his lifestyle, but it is also intolerable that he should be expected to tolerate yours.
Isn’t the census done by household? I.e. the “head of the household” fills it in for everybody that lives there. What if 19 year old who still lives at home doesn’t want to tell his/her/xis/xer/(etc) parents yet? What if lodger tells landlord to mind his own business?
That’s just off the top of my head, I’m sure there are many more such questions.
Excavator man, a very fragrant comment on a Sunday morning.
Having spent a fair bit of time recently completing online application forms, it’s noticeable how many have expanded the options in the equality monitoring forms. I’ve been tempted to make up stuff (e.g say I’m non-binary or whatever) just to see if it increases the chance of being invited to interview!
Wont even be filing the fucking form in.
The census is long overdue to going back to a single sheet of A3 per household, 15-ish columns of information, one line per person (continuation sheets for boarding houses and institutions). 90% of the rubbish I filled out last time is of no use to anybody other than population control fetishists. The 1901 Census form is just about the exact right size.
Highly unlikely there will be an England and Wales census next year. They’ll dilly and dally pretending but, as usual, eventually follow Scotland in COVID cowering.
And if they do go ahead, it’ll be even easier to avoid than the last two.
Incidentally, he always advocated (loudly) that bum sex was a cure for piles, something that I’m not inclined to believe.
I am not particularly friendly to the Gay community but it is reasonable to ask why you weren’t inclined to believe? I mean I would think he had extensive experience of the affected body part …
Last time around, mine was lost in the post. Apparently.
Wouldn’t be surprised if the Royal Fail lost the next one too.
ONS statisticians exist to make pollsters look well informed.
Reliable data on the proportion of the population that is lesbian, gay or transgender
Well, that would be nice to have. When they come out way lower than the activists would have you believe they will get swept under the carpet though.
“Without robust data on the size of the LGBT population at a national and local level, decision-makers are operating in a vacuum, unaware of the extent and nature of disadvantage which LGBT people may be experiencing in terms of health, educational outcomes, employment and housing,” Iain Bell, the ONS deputy national statistician, told the Observer.
And how exactly, Mr Bell, without ‘robust data’ do you know this to be so?
No self-awareness some people so they do not see their self-contradictions and inconsistencies.
The ONS should spend
itsour money on doing a better job of capturing the number of people actually inhabiting these Isles. It’s a very fair bet that the 2001 census undercounted by at least 10%, leading to much to-and-fro with councils, whose money from central government often depends on how many people are thought to live there.If we need to know more detail about personal stuff, such as sexual habits, an in-depth survey of a relatively small sample of the population is perfectly adequate for this purpose. And I know that exactly this is already done, because I’ve been subject to one.
In a sane world the proportion of the alphabet soups would be constant but my money’s on them being skewed towards the younger inner city generations.
I’m also reminded about what happened when they started asking about religion and found out we have a significant Jedi population.
Finally, if they’re starting to get this intrusive we have far too much policy making going on.