On the night of 11 August, millions of Australians will fill out the same 66-question survey, and for the first time it will ask them directly about their sexual orientation and gender. The census reaching that point at all is its own story: the government initially planned to leave those questions out entirely, only reversing course after sustained backlash.
What the new questions actually ask
The updated form asks respondents about gender, with options including man, woman, non-binary or another term, and about sexual orientation, with choices covering straight, gay or lesbian, bisexual, another term, or the option to decline to answer. The question about sex has also been reworded to specifically ask for sex recorded at birth. Taken together, the Australian Bureau of Statistics says the responses will let it produce, for the first time, a national picture of how many Australians are cisgender, transgender or gender-diverse.
It's a modest-sounding change with a long backstory. National census spokesperson Emily Walter describes census updates as generally
Source: The Guardian
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