Census Protest at National Records Scotland

Women gathered to protest Census Day 2022 by tying Suffragette coloured ribbons and messages to the railings outside the National Records of Scotland building in Edinburgh. This year’s census includes guidance that the question “What is your sex?” does not have to be answered with what is recorded on your birth certificate. This self-ID of sex destroys the accurate collection of data on Scotland’s population, information that is vital for equality monitoring and planning of services.

As one of the labels says about the cost to the taxpayer: ” £140 million down the drain – unusable data”

See also the Times article which reports that “Scottish parents completing census forms are being advised they can assign the sex of their children, including toddlers, according to “what describes them better”.”

And the Scottish Daily Express article “Modern-day Suffragettes protest against SNP’s ‘anti-women’ census in Edinburgh”.

Campaigners have also revealed some interesting conversations with the Scottish Census Webchat, where they say there is no minimum age to identify as trans and two year olds know their minds better than their parents do. In the Scottish Express article Julie Scott said she was shocked to read that government staff were encouraging parents to assign a young child with a trans identity. “That they encouraged the idea that parents could choose which sex they wanted to record their child as and that parents could assign a trans identity to children who had no understanding of the concept is absolutely absurd.”

NB. The census form says quite clearly to only answer the trans question if you are over 16.