Measuring Sex, Gender Identity, and Sexual Orientation (2022) / Chapter Skim
Currently Skimming:
1 Introduction and Background
1 Introduction and Background
Pages 13-25
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From page 13... ...
The panel also recommends areas for future research and question development, including the need for additional gender identity response options (e.g., nonbinary) , alternative two-step measures that do not rely on sex assigned at birth, the effect of changes in the recording of sex on birth certificates, how proxy reporting affects data quality, and expanded testing among youth and non-English speakers (Recommendation 5)
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From page 14... ...
general population, racially diverse samples, urban and rural residents • Ages 12–85 years Adjustments to • Female-first response list corresponds with both alphabetical and Previously Tested population size ordering Items Included in • Replaces "none of these" response with "I use a different term" Recommended followed by a free-text field Measure • Includes Two-Spirit category in automated data collection where racial identity is collected and AIAN is indicated Weaknesses and • Format for current gender question is forced choice, but Challenges response options are not necessarily mutually exclusive • Write-in gender identity field will have to be cleaned and coded for reporting; newer terms not listed (e.g., nonbinary) may grow in popularity and need to be assessed for inclusion as explicit options • Asking for sex assigned at birth is considered sensitive for some transgender people and may not be appropriate in settings where privacy and confidentiality cannot be assured (e.g., employment contexts)
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From page 15... ...
RECOMMENDATION 6: When the National Institutes of Health seek to identify people with intersex traits (differences of sex development) in clinical, survey, research, and administrative settings, they should do so by using a stand-alone measure that asks respondents to report their intersex status.
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From page 16... ...
The consistent use of validated measures of these complex concepts and continued efforts to refine them will advance science that can be used to improve the well-being of sexual and gender minorities well into the future.
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.1 Sexual orientation is conceptually linked to sex and gender because individuals are classified on the basis of the relationship between their own sex or gender and that of their actual or preferred partners. This has sometimes led to the conflation of gender (non)
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The report detailed the remarkable progress that has been made in research about these populations, but it also highlighted glaring knowledge gaps caused by a lack of reliable data. Most national surveys and other important sources of data in the United States do not yet collect demographic data on sexual orientation, gender identity, or intersex status: although measures of sexual orientation are increasingly included on population surveys, measures that allow researchers to identify transgender populations remain less common, while measures that identify populations with differences in sex development (DSD)
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From page 19... ...
recommended measures for these constructs in different settings, such as surveys, clinical settings, and administrative forms. In response to this request, the National Academies appointed the Committee on Measuring Sex, Gender Identity, and Sexual Orientation, under the standing committee of the Committee on National Statistics, to carry out this task.
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From page 20... ...
As noted above, gender and sex are conceptually distinct, but they are often used interchangeably due to normative assumptions that sex is binary and immutable and that sex assigned at birth defines gender. Neither gender identity nor gender expression is defined by sex traits, however, and both can be temporally and contextually fluid.
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From page 21... ...
It is important to note, however, that not all individuals who are classified as transgender under this definition identify themselves as transgender.4 For this reason, within this report we make a distinction between transgender experience5 -- when someone currently identifies with a gender identity that is different from their sex assigned at birth -- and transgender identity -- when someone currently identifies oneself as transgender. • Sexual orientation is a multidimensional construct encompassing emotional, romantic, and sexual attraction, identity, and behavior.
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From page 22... ...
Gender Identity and Sexual Orientation in an Indigenous Context There are 574 federally recognized American Indian and Alaska Native (AIAN) tribes that are sovereign governments and, as such, have a nationto-nation relationship with the United States.
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From page 23... ...
. Under this holistic view of personhood, Two-Spirit is a placeholder term that captures not only gender identity or sexual orientation identity, but also a social and cultural position that shapes and defines all aspects of one's life.
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From page 24... ...
Recognizing that a parallel problem of invisibility often arises in LGBTQI+ data collection methods and research, the panel is highlighting the specific cultural needs of Indigenous populations as part of our evaluation of measures of sex, gender, and sexual orientation. CONNECTING CONCEPTS TO THE MEASUREMENT OF LGBTQI+ POPULATIONS The growing visibility of transgender, intersex, and emerging sexual minority populations is an important factor contributing to the increasing recognition that sex, gender, and sexual orientation are more complex than current measures of these concepts may suggest.
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From page 25... ...
This "twostep" method of collecting sex and gender identity information has become an increasingly common and validated method of identifying people with transgender experience because it identifies a wider range of transgender people than "single-step" methods that ask whether respondents identify as transgender (Saperstein and Westbrook, 2021)
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