Census 2021 leaves LGBTIQA+ community feeling 'erased' after questions left out
ABC Southern QldBy Georgie Hewson
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Tonight millions of people will sit down for Australia's largest survey, but many won't be able to find a box to tick to accurately say who they are.
Toowoomba's Nathan Anastasi says discrimination is part of his life as a transgender man and now the federal government has proven it does not care about him either.
He is among the country's LGBTIQA+ population who feel they have been "erased" by this year's census, which fails to ask questions about gender or sexual orientation.
"What it means to me is that, in short, I've been excluded," Mr Anastasi said.
"For me, the census is the biggest data collection that occurs in this country and, so, it should be designed to include a collection of data on all Australians, not just a few."
This year's census will have three options when it comes to selecting a person's sex: male, female or non-binary.
As a LGBTIQA+ domestic violence support practitioner at Lifeline, Mr Anastasi said it was vital that data on sexuality was collected to better inform services.
"Because the census is about providing information that alludes to governments as to where to put new services and what sorts of services that we need, then I’m wondering why LGBTQI+ [questions] aren't included in that," he said.
"Why don't they want this information from us?"
Missed opportunity
With questions on ethnicity, religion and, for the first time, health and military service, Mr Anastasi said it was a missed opportunity to cater to minorities who were also LGBTQIA+."It's vital," he said.
"We're part of every community across Australia, so why wouldn't you want to help us be active and participating members?
"We are already feeling like we're being marginalised and excluded."
University of Southern Queensland researcher and LGBTQIA+ woman Annette Bromdal said including more LGBTQIA+ questions would help calculate how many people were marginalised in multiple sectors.
Dr Annette Bromdal hopes the next census will add questions on sexual orientation, gender identity and variations of sex characteristics.(
"Researchers, like myself, often make use of this and the data in order to make claims, support arguments or even to just better understand what is our population," Dr Bromdal said.
"Not having that data … doing your own regional research doesn't even come close to tapping into that."
Questions didn't make the cut
Census director Caroline Deans said questions on gender and sexual orientation were originally on a shortlist to be included in this year's survey."Through ongoing assessment, feasibility testing and research within the community, the ultimate questions that got up were around health and veteran service," Ms Deans said.
"What we have now been able to do is include those questions in more of our other surveys, so they won't be on the survey this time, but they are included in things like our national mental health survey."
In a statement on its website, the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) defines a person's sex as being based on their sex characteristics, such as their chromosomes, hormones and reproductive organs.
It says gender is about social and cultural differences in identity, expression and experience as a man, woman or non-binary person.
It also says a person's gender may differ from their sex and may also differ from what's indicated on their legal documents.
More questions recommended
Dr Bromdal disagreed and called this "exclusive"."Most people who are born with an intersex variation, it's not a non-binary sex, it's about a variation in sex characteristics and ABS has that information, but somehow the current government have chosen to do something else," she said.
Dr Bromdal has called for the 2026 census to include three separate questions on sexual orientation, gender identity and the variations of sex characteristics.
"It puts the spotlight on how complex our society is if we use this data," she said.
