Not counting trans and intersex people, as they specifically identify, in the Census is a form of bureaucratic erasure. For an exercise that is chiefly about creating a data-driven snapshot of who we are and how we are changing, not including the full spectrum of the LBGTQI+ community is both insulting AND unscientific. So that makes the decision to knowingly not include specific groups of people as political – quite frankly it feels like an act of erasure.
Someone on a Facebook group asked: Who cares? What even is the Census?
It echoes a general sense of suspicion about the once-in-five-years national survey, and queries what purpose it actually serves. It’s not government overreach. Of all the surveys you fill out, this one is important. It’s where we find out powerful information about the big picture of how we live, from the little snapshots of who we are.
For instance, at the last Census it was ascertained that there were one million empty homes. In the middle of a housing crisis, the data told us that it’s not necessarily only, or even, a supply issue. There are other market forces at play which means while record numbers are homeless, record numbers of homes were people-less. And yes, homeless people are included in the Census. Although they could do much more in collecting data from this group to feed back to the government as well.
So why is the Census important?
It helps us understand what we need now and into the future. The data is used to make important funding decisions and to allocate resources and planning for schools, health care, transport, housing and infrastructure. The Census is used to obtain accurate information for subdivisions of the population. Trans and intersex people are a subdivision of the population. So why aren’t they included?
A Labor minister has said they wanted to keep it ‘simple’. Wow. That’s insulting on many levels. Exclusion has been ‘keeping it simple’ for years. It harks back to a world with no disabled access to buildings, where women and Aboriginal people don’t vote, with no social security support for disadvantaged people. Simple times. Where the dominant culture centred themselves in all their decision making. Inclusion is a key and necessary value of a progressive and humane society. Nobody should be left behind. Sometimes the ‘simple’ pathway is the wrong one. Especially if not all Australians can travel along it.
And does the minister believe the very community who authored the language they choose to describe themselves can’t understand it? That doesn’t make sense. Or are they implying that the good people at the Australian Bureau of Statistics are struggling to comprehend what happens when you break the binary?
The trans and intersex community are overrepresented in nearly every area of social vulnerability. More likely to experience poor mental health and suicidality, and afraid to access mainstream services. A survey found almost half of all trans people experience thoughts of self-harm and suicide. One in five young trans people have experienced homelessness. It is without a doubt that trans and gender diverse individuals experience homelessness at higher rates than the broader community.
For both intersex and trans communities there are higher rates of poverty, they are more likely to be unemployed and experience issues in accessing mainstream support services. A Census would give us a much more detailed and accurate understanding, and could provide the data needed to secure funding for a life-changing future service.
Not including trans and intersex people skews the data. It is a form of misinformation bias, or misclassification, and it impacts the validity of research. The point of the Census is to find out who we are – so why wouldn’t you broaden the questions to reflect our diverse community? Knowingly excluding a group of people is not just wrong, it undermines the very point of the Census.
Maybe it’s time to get better statisticians. And while you’re at it, get better politicians too.
For four decades The Echo has printed the stories some people loved, some people hated, and some pretended not to read. If you want us to keep telling the truth, the real truth, not the sugar-coated version. We’ll need your support to keep the presses rolling. 
