Should sexuality be included in the 2011 Census?
What do you think about this?
Census may ask individuals to disclose sexual preference
The Equality and Human Rights Commission argues that knowing how many homosexuals there are in Britain, and what jobs they do, will improve equality legislation. They say by excluding the question it would be "an indication of invisibility" and "a major obstacle to measuring progress on tackling discrimination."
The Office for National Statistics believe the question would be unlikely to provide a true picture because sexuality is so complex. 390,127 people (almost 0.8 percent) stated their religion as Jedi on their 2001 Census forms, which shows how misleading census data can be.
Ann Widdecombe says, "It is people’s own business. It is not anyone else’s business and I don’t see why anyone should be asked to declare it."
3 comments:
They are assuming that everybody is aware if their own sexuality and others' in their household.
The above comment is a good point, for a long time I didn't tell my parents about my sexuality and if they had been filling in the form or could have seen my answers I would certainly have lied... this will certainly skew the results.
I also think that many people will say they are straight if they are unsure meaning stats will make LGB people less represented. The upshot of this may be that gay rights take a back seat as they seem like even more of a minority issue than they are already.
It's still worth asking. One advantage is that you can track changing attitudes by watching the numbers go up from census to census.
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