Sharon Keogan (Independent) | Oireachtas source

Our 2022 census is due to take place this Sunday, 3 April. The census is a powerful tool in the making of public policy, giving an in-depth nation-wide snapshot of who is living in Ireland and how they are living. From housing to childcare, taxes to health services, up-to-date and accurate census information clearly displays the state of the nation, informing Government policy and programmes alike. Thus, it follows that the inaccuracies in the information received obfuscates the reality of the situation on the ground and hinders any possible Government response. While the issue of spoiled census forms in the manner of spoiled ballots is unavailable, it is rather a different thing for the Central Statistics Office, CSO, to direct people to give nonsensical answers on their forms. The instruction to tick both boxes, male and female, when asked to indicate one’s biological sex, for those who do not wish to describe themselves as either one, is not only devoid of reason, but is incompatible with gender theory, the adherence of which are very people the CSO is trying to appease. Gender theorists have, since the 20th century, sought to establish the idea of gender as socially constructed, unfettered and distinct from biological sex. Everyone has a sex and everyone has a gender. One cannot choose one’s sex, but one can choose one’s gender. Such is the maxim of gender theology.

I would have no problem with the CSO putting in a text box in a form where anyone could fill in a gender of their choosing, so long as the essential binary sex options were there. However, it did not think of that. Instead, it scrambled to conjure up some compromise after the forms were printed, resulting in this muddying of our data. The CSO of course knows that this solution makes no sense. It does not care, because when it comes to gender in this country, sense is subservient to sensitivities. Actors and singers have long feared being cancelled. It seems now that our CSO will forever operate under the same fear.