Maya Forstater

7. The proposal acknowledges that this 'other' category would give no indication of the transgender population, and say this is not its purpose. The purpose is just to give people who do not identify as either male or female an option to select.

8. The proposers argue against a distinct question on gender identity because this 'could prove problematic in some European languages'. Certainly the question of gender identity is complex, and language differences are a further difficulty.

9. But a silly question is still a silly question in any language.

10. The proposal jettisons sex in favour of gender identity, but in such a muddled way that it doesn't succeed in asking about gender identity in a meaningful way either.

11. I sincerely hope that this proposal will be judged on the basis of its empirical utility, as any other proposal would be.

12. Sex is a fundamental category in social science. Failing to collect data according to sex undermines our ability to talk about sexism, let alone tackle it. #surveys #invisiblewomen

@LucyHunterB @CCriadoPerez

PS @RoryFitzESS I'd be very happy to discuss this with you offline.