Census stuck in the ‘80s

As a frequent listener to music from the ‘80s, the first song that’s running through my head during this census week is Alison Moyet’s Invisible.

As I sit down to fill out my census form, I’m limited to one of two boxes for male or female. If I’m someone who experiences intersex, I can hand-write either “intersex” or “indeterminate” so I don’t perjure myself – although I’ll only have someone at the ABS arbitrarily assign me as male or female at their whim.

If I identify as genderqueer or bigender, I’m still humming along to Alison. Perhaps the government and ABS need to change the vinyl record over to an MP3 of Karma Chameleon?

I could put my religion as intersex, transgender or similar – but do I then wipe out my True Faith? Clearly we need a New Order here. I suppose I can put my religion as ‘other – kosher bisexual transgender cowgirl’ – but will that too become a case of Like Wow – Wipeout?

I also notice question 32 which asks “for each female, how many babies has she ever given birth to?” If the USA’s Thomas Beattie lived here, his kids are now also invisible. Do you see what I see?

If you’ll excuse a bad pun to mention another ‘80s track, (from Cold Chisel) it “goes on and on and [it] don’t make no census”.

Seriously (for just a moment), it’s just another reason why we need comprehensive federal equal opportunity law covering sexual orientation, sex/gender identity/expression and intersex status. With these in place, we’d have grounds to challenge the discriminatory nature of these census questions and change it to be more equal, thereby giving the government some amount of data to shape helpful policies for the lives of queers and their families.

Most of all, remember to be really visible and rock along to the Equal Love rally in your city this weekend – check Facebook for details. Now there’s a case of The Power and the Passion.

By Sally Goldner, VGLRL Treasurer, TransGender Victoria spokesperson and co-presenter of pansexual ‘80s music on 3CR’s Out of the Pan, noon each Sunday.