You might imagine that nothing could be less contentious than the questions that appear on a census form, but you would be wrong, alas. In a fortnight, the 2022 census will take place, and the questions about sex and religion have already sparked controversy.
Perhaps, given that these are topics we often avoid in conversation, it is not so surprising. Nonetheless, who would really object to being asked “what is your sex?” or even “what is your religion, if any?” But the first query clashes with new thinking on trans rights, and atheist groups don’t care much for the second.
In response to atheists’ objections, the census has changed how the religion question is asked. In 2016, it was simply “what is your religion?” You were then given a list of choices, starting with “Roman Catholic” and working down to “no religion” in last place. Critics said this led to a false impression of the levels of religiosity in modern Ireland. People might mark “Roman Catholic” by default, even though they rarely if ever went to Mass. Also, the question assumed people had a religion from the way it was phrased. Finally, putting “no religion” at the bottom made it less likely people would tick this box.
If you were to believe the 2016 results, then 78.3 per cent of the population still considered themselves to be Catholic. The second biggest category was “no religion”, at 9.8 per cent.
Now the question no longer assumes you have a religion, due to the addition of the words “if any”. More importantly, the “no religion” option is at the top. For me the first change is defensible, but the second is not. Almost the whole point of a census is to allow proper comparisons with previous years. This is ensured through consistency in how questions are asked. Two changes to the one about religion will make it harder to compare this year’s data with past surveys.
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There will certainly be a big rise in the number of people ticking “no religion” this year. For me, it made more sense to put “Roman Catholic” at the top because it still is the most common choice. Putting “no religion” there instead looks ideologically motivated, as if the Central Statistics Office (CSO), which oversees the census, almost wanted to inflate the number of people ticking it.
But while there is some controversy about the religion question, there will be far more in the future about the one relating to sex. You are legally obliged to complete the census form as accurately as you can. This year, however, the CSO is allowing people to tick neither the male nor the female box in response to “what is your sex?” if they don’t identify as either. Furthermore, the CSO has flagged that by the time the next census comes around, it hopes to include a new question about gender identity. Again, this is surely a deeply ideological move.
The controversy about the religion question is understandable, as what religion you identify as is subjective, to a certain extent, whereas your sex is a simple biological fact. Or so we believed until recently. Now we seem increasingly to think our sex is also subjective.
Partly this is explained by the distinction some people make between sex and gender. There is your biological sex on the one hand, and your gender identity on the other. You might have a male body but identify as female, or vice versa. Or you might decide you are neither male nor female, and instead declare yourself gender non-binary, because thinking there are only two genders is far too limiting. If you were born a male and still think of yourself as such, then according to this theory you are cis-male. In fact, believers in gender ideology say that there are literally dozens of different genders.
So how does the CSO intend to ask the question about sex and gender next time? It hasn’t worked that out yet. It has simply recognised “the importance of accounting for gender identity as distinct from sex”, and says that work is under way to devise a new question. One wonders what lobby groups it has been talking to, if any. Don’t be surprised if the gender question next time gives as many options as the current religion one. This will hugely confuse the average household.
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Some people are actively resisting gender ideology. The main opponents are gender-critical feminists, who believe having a female body is what qualifies you to identify as female, and not some subjective feeling.
The National Women’s Council staged a rally outside Leinster House two weeks ago. About the only interesting thing that happened was the hustling away of a gender-critical feminist from a group called the Countess, after Countess Markievicz. She had turned up with a banner saying “Biology Is Not Bigotry” on one side, and “Woman = Adult Human Female” on the other.
Isn’t it astounding that we have reached a point where you cannot attend a rally organised by the National Women’s Council of Ireland with a banner saying a woman is an adult human female? It suggests the country’s main campaign organisation for women can no longer say with any certainty what a woman is. Or, perhaps more accurately, that it believes a biological male who identifies as a woman, without altering his body in any way, is actually a woman. This is the kind of ideology that allows male sex offenders who say they identify as female to be transferred to women’s prisons. That the National Women’s Council would surrender to such an ideology is bad enough, but it would really be a problem if the CSO did so as well.
If it wishes, the CSO could change the question on the next census form from “what is your sex?” to “what is your biological sex?” A person might believe they are a given gender, subjectively speaking, but they can hardly deny the objective genetic and physical facts about their body.
The changes to the religion question suggest that the CSO is susceptible to ideological pressures. If it also starts asking us which of a dozen different genders we think we are, the CSO will in effect have taken sides in one of the most controversial debates of the day. It will have strayed from its true purpose, the impartial gathering of objective facts.
