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Trans identity/history

Guidance on equality monitoring in relation to trans identity/history.

Trans is a term used to describe people whose gender is not the same as the sex they were registered at birth.

Recommended question:

Are you trans or do you have a trans history?

  • No
  • Yes
  • Prefer not to say

Institutions might wish to provide further information on what is meant by the terms trans and trans history, such as:

Trans is an umbrella term that describes people whose gender differs in some way from the sex they were assigned at birth. The term ‘trans history’ can refer to people who no longer identify as trans but were assigned the opposite sex at birth (ie they have transitioned).

Advance HE advises against asking about a respondent’s gender and sex on the same monitoring form as this may confuse respondents and, when response options are combined, inadvertently out someone who identities as trans.

Advance HE’s recommended question does not align with the question recommended by HESA. Therefore, when returning data to HESA, Advance HE recommends the following question:

Is your gender the same as the sex you were assigned at birth?

  • Yes
  • No
  • Prefer not to say.

HESA’s question format mirrors the approach adopted in the new census question on trans/gender identity in the English and Welsh census. However, the question design used in England and Wales differs from the approach in the Scottish census, which will ask:

Do you consider yourself to be trans, or have a trans history?

  • No
  • Yes, please describe your trans status (for example, non-binary, trans man, trans woman).

Advance HE believes that asking an explicit question about whether someone identifies as trans or has a trans history is easier for respondents to understand, particularly among students, and helps avoid confusion between concepts such as ‘gender’ and ‘gender identity’.

The Northern Irish census does not ask a question about trans/gender identity.