A coalition of at least eight LGBTIQ+ community groups has called for Australia's Census to include questions on gender and sexuality.

Drag queen Courtney Act, whose real name is Shane Jenek, is also supporting the call, saying the change is long overdue to see LGBTIQ+ Australians counted in the Australian Census.

http://www.sbs.com.au/news/it-s-2021-people-courtney-act-backs-call-for-lgbtiq-australians-to-be-counted-in-census

Personally, I was quite surprised such an option was not put down for people to select in the Census, but I am wondering what others think.

After the ridiculous sight of blokes pretending to be girls at the Olympic games, it would be a good idea if these people pulled their heads in for a while.

Has been,
Nail head hitter!!

The census is a gross trampling on our privacy and personal life.
There should not be more questions - there should be 0 questions!

Dear Nathan,

The Census is meant to include ALL Australians
therefore LGBTIQ Australians should be counted.
Definitely.

Who decided they shouldn't be?

Dear Yuyutsu,

This is a tool for wealth distribution which enables our society to function in the way it does. I'm fully supportive of the Census and we are luck to live in a place which employs one.

Dear NathanJ,

Pretty simple ask one would have thought.

“Let the dead bury the dead”.
The question is too ridiculous for comment.

Dan

I think some of the questions were an invasion of privacy.
Just like voting, you should be able to put your name and date of birth, and then not have to fill anymore out.
If they also wish to know my sex at birth, I don't really have a problem with that either, but the rest of it...

- None of ya business -

They're probably just making sure all the info is up to date for when they send the army to do the mandatory vaccinations...

"Drag queen Courtney Act, whose real name is Shane Jenek, is also supporting the call, saying the change is long overdue to see LGBTIQ+ Australians counted in the Australian Census."

... What others think

You know what?
I don't even care.
The question is it wrong for me to not care, or to even just say that I don't care about this, in 2021?
Am I supposed to care?
Is this supposed to matter to me?
Like number 3 on the list after 'Climate Change' and 'Women's Empowerment', 'Drag Queen equality' on the list of the toughest issues facing humanity.
Does it matter to any of you?

I truly don't mean 'Courtney Act' any ill-will,
nor any ill-will towards you either NathanJ;
It's just that I... just - umm, don't care.

It is claimed that the Census reveals information needed for government to provide services. I have to say I didn't see this time any reason for most of the questions, and I certainly do not see how freaks and perverts being "counted" could be of any value.

Hi Yuyutsu,

You might like this, some months back I received a letter from the ABS "inviting" me to take part in a survey of theirs, something aged care. I ignored the invite. Got a second letter, which was a polite reminder that I hadn't gone on line and done the ABS survey, forgot that one as well. Then a third letter arrives, a letter of demand, complete YOUR survey or you could be prosecuted under some act of 1907. I took notice and done the survey.

On the Census should include all genders, under male, female, other. For me there was nothing overly invasive.

My gripes is that there were no questions like "have you ever been a victim of crime" or "do you have bad internet/phone coverage in your area".
Or "Which Govt Dept. is the most difficult to deal with". Or "Would you support a National Service Scheme". Or "Would you support a Flat Tax" etc.
There wasn't a single question to which answers could prove to be Nation & Society building !

With such question, you then have to provide detailed explanations.
Take the question;

"Would you support a National Service Scheme?"

My answer would be a big tick in the Bloody Oath square! but only for old aged welfare recipients, as I am a believer in physical fitness I want to see plenty of heavy lifting and physical exertion in the hot sun. That would knock those frail old folks back into shape in no time. Think of the saving in hospital beds etc, etc!

Minorities and individuals who have decided against mainstream behaviour and mores can expect to conduct their private lives as they see fit - as long as their behaviour doesn't affect the majority. They can identify as anything they choose. What they cannot do is expect the majority to facilitate their nonsense.

As for the rights and wrongs of the Census, you have no say in it because you have allowed the government to control you. You have been careless or disinterested in the 'by the people' part of the democratic credo. If you don’t do the census, you will be fined; if you lie, you will be fined. You can't give a false name and address, or leave that blank, because you will still be fined. Big Brother knows the identity of people occupying all dwellings.

While many offences against against citizens are brushed off as not worth as not worth bothering with - e.g last night on the news an Adelaide Chinese male getting a mere good behaviour bond for assaulting a Chinese woman on TV (no doubt about the crime). Big Brother does not allow you to offend against him because you have allowed him too much power, you sheep.

Rather than worrying about weirdos, tax paying sheep should be concerned that their ABC has settled a defamation suit brought against it by outgoing MP Andrew Laming, after a tweet by star ABC journalist Louise Milligan. $130,000 in damages and costs to Laming is coming out of your pockets.

Dear Paul,

«You might like this, some months back I received a letter from the ABS "inviting" me to take part in a survey of theirs»

It is horrible.
What can I say - I know someone who fled their home in the middle of the night in fear of them ABS and to avoid having to fill their survey. Fortunately she was only renting so she did not lose her own home.
Obviously she then kept her new residential address in secret.

In the past I have considered being deliberately out of the country for the census night. This of course is not possible at the moment.

Foxy,
They were counted in the census, every one who filled in the form is counted.

My gripe is the waste of our money; despite instructions being given on the form a letter arrived addressed ‘To the Householder’ with the same instructions.

Is Mise,

Thanks for that.

However questions on gender and sexuality were not
included. Should they have been?

Foxy,
There was a question on gender, male, female or whatever.

It's reported that the question that got most attention was the one about who did the most housework. That's the sort of thing more important to the sheep than small minorities who want everyone to know how different they are, and want to be congratulated about it to make them feel better.

NathanJ,
Come on - you already knew how predictable the response was going to be from the permanently outraged who regularly post here.

The suggestion that I would make is that a lot of the information could have been pre-filled much the same way as filling out online tax returns.

I got the feeling that the Census was quite short and was designed either for or by those who flip quickly through social media with diminishing attention spans. I was hoping to be asked much more.

As for LGBTIQ+ - why not.

It's the typical outraged Forum posters who will be upset by this.

Maybe they are frightened that their perception falls a long way short of reality.

Should questions on sexuality have been included?
Not anymore than (and not as important as):
Do you own a car?
What make of car do you drive?
Is it petrol, diesel, electric or other?
Does it have disc brakes on all wheels?
Is it an open or closed vehicle?

Now all those questions have more to do with Australia’s future needs than the fancied sex or gender of anyone.

Is Mise,

My husband did our census online so I wasn't
fully aware of the type of questions being asked.

However, I don't have a problem with the LGBTIQ
communities wanting to be asked about their
sexuality. Although I can't quite understand why.
What do they want to achieve by this?

I mean what difference does one's sexuality make
to anything? I thought that one's sexual preferences
are a private matter.

I was really amazed they didn't ask really important questions like, "do you have breast implants". "If so, what size". How can we function with out knowing such critical information?

Hasbeen,

Perhaps they were being polite because so many women
nowadays have suffered from breast cancer and have
had all or partial breasts removed and the government
did not want to cause them further angst.

Foxy,

I can only guess that questions about LGBTIQ+ provide information about changing attitudes and identities within Australian society.

If information about religion provides data about a changing society then why not LGBTIQ+.

I ticked the YES box when asked about same sex marriage mainly because I was indifferent about it.

I did know, however, from the Irish experience that very few same sex couples were likely to take up the offer.

The whole expensive exercise seems to have been more about the perception of inclusion rather than the inclusion itself.

If information about the LGBTIQ+ community means that resources can be more appropriately distributed rather than wasted on perceived grievances than I am all for it.

WTF,

Same here!

Next census they will be asking for your favourite colour.

There are changing attitudes within Australia society towards much of accepted social behaviour, relationships and marriage included. There is no longer any kind of stigma associated with forming a live in relationship, or in separation/divorce, its readily accepted that "things don't always work out". Family breakup is a tragedy, often with very painful emotional and economic consequences, particularly when children are involved.

We live in a progressive society, and what might be viewed as radical today, is often readily acceptable tomorrow. Those who hanker for "the good old days", delude themselves into looking back through their old pair of rose coloured glasses. They overstate the "good times", whilst denying or ignoring what was bad and unjust back then, simply deluding themselves as to what was the reality of the times.

SM,

Yes. The comment that should end all comments. The whole idea of enquiring into people's sexual particulars is absurd. The Census is extensive enough, and causes enough problems for those responsible, without having utter nonsense added to it. And, do these alphabet people really want the government nosing around their bedrooms and private lives, or is the whinge just from an ultra ratbag, picked up by an odd bod poster? My instincts say, yes. A lot of fuss about nothing.

Some people are pessimistic, cynical, and utterly
disparaging of anyone else's positivity. Putting
others down is almost second nature to them. It's
an automatic response to anything remotely
cheerful. And if they see you trying to share any
good news with people or trying to seek positive
solutions or some words of encouragement you're
likely to receive the polar opposite.

If people want to act in not normal ways then that’s their affair, as long as their actions are lawful, but we don’t need to know about it; there are far more important things to include in a census.

When a whine goes up about minorities, aborigines, alphabetics - you name it - others are encouraged to whine about themselves.

A woman identifying as a "proud Katchin woman" (Burmese) has now kicked up because she doesn't have special place in the ASCCEG statistics, but is instead "lumped under" the category of South East Asian. It makes the poor dear "feel like we are disappeared".

There is also a growing list of other ethnic whingers.

Isn't multiculturalism great!

Lets go back to the "good old days," when we were
all expected to be exactly the same. And anybody that
was different we'd all go crook on.

Ah, the "good old days!"

Issy and others,

What or who, are these so called "NORMAL" people in society? do normal people abuse women and children, do normal people take drugs or steal to feed their habit, do normal people work or collect aged welfare? There are lots of what could be termed abnormal behaviour by lots of people in society. Is killing our little fury friends with a gun, NORMAL!

I see old Indy wants about a half dozen questions added to the census, question that interest Indy. Why stop at Indy, let everyone add a few question that interest them. My rough calculation say that's about 50 million questions, from, should we go to war with Ethiopia, to do you like having ants in your pants. My rough calculation tells me that the average Joe Blow will complete the 2021 census, just in time to start the next census in 2061.

BTW, if you're interested I don't like ants in my pants. The only bloke who answered YES was Fred Jerk from Jerksville who posed the question in the first place.

The alphabetics could always rent themselves out for parties if they want recognition. And the poor, unnoticed ethnics? Well they could trot off back to whence they came where there are lots of them.

The self-hating, anti-white, racist Left will be pleased to know that America's white population has fallen by 8.6%.

We know it doesn't take many of these people to make a great deal of noise, so surely we don't have to know how many of them there actually are.

I wonder how the white population is doing in Australia?
Has it fallen as well?

Didn't many of the ten pound Poms who came out to OZ
after the second World War go back to their Mother
Country because life here in the "colonies" was too
hard for them. Interesting.

Paul,
You’re right, normal people don’t do all those activities nor do normal people engage in exotic sexual practices, glad that you’re on the ball for once.

The questions that I suggested about cars do not reflect my interests but would be useful in planning for the future.
Questions that would reflect my interests would have to do with steam cars, vintage and veteran cars and traction engines but they wouldn’t be relevant.

Hi Foxy,

There were the 'Whinging Poms' like our friends and neighbours, Helen and John. She came to Australia with nothing more than a negative conceited attitude, he was much more understanding of the reality. In her defence she had gone through a lot, a war which shattered her life. She had been brought up in a middle class family, and all was lost because of that war, migration 10,000 miles was a big decision, in those days made by the husband, not withstanding they had a daughter and family living here it was still a difficult decision. John understood the reality, and engaged in the stiff upper lip stuff, as required of an officer of the Royal Air Force, while Helen never got over that sense of loss. Her way of dealing with that loss was to hanker for a previous good life and by default criticise her new adopted homeland. They both died in Australia, never seeing good old "Mother England" again. War has many victims in many ways.

Hi Paul,

All of us have our stories and our experiences.
Sharing them and trying to understand others
is what could unite us however not every one is
willing to do that or even try. Still that
does not mean that we should give up because
of the attitudes of others. The nay sayers
and the haters are usually a minority - and they
will end up on the ash heap of history.

At all times vigilance is the price of liberty.
We must remain vigilant because while it might
be us today, it will be some other group down
the road 20 years from now. The measure of our
society over history is our fidelity to our principles.
We must remind our government and our people to remain
faithful to those principles or otherwise our society,
like so many in the past, will be swept on the ash heap
pf history.

cont'd ...

Giving others a "fair go," is what this country
should stand for - it's what Australia was meant
to be.

Hasbeen

The Lefty media makes all the noise for them. I wonder how many more undesirables we will get now that the Taliban is quickly taking back Afghanistan as they were always going to. The are already talking "evacuation" as though it were Dunkirk. None of our business then, none of our business now.

ttbn,
Some of it is our business now, particularly those Afghans who worked with/for Australia, they are in real danger of their lives.

Not being a fan of the Taliban, whist some would see these 50,000 "interpreters" as Afghans assisting the jolly band of freedom fighters from such far away places as Australia. Others, such as the Taliban, could possibly see them slightly differently, maybe as paid traitors worthy of having their heads chopped off. Always depends on what side of the fence you sit. I see another Saigon 75. With the Americans saying; "WE USED YOU, WE NOW ABOUSE YOU, SO "F" OFF "SUCKERS!

All the locals need to do is keep their heads when the Taliban blow into town.

Paul,
All the locals need to do is keep their heads…
Was that a bit of macabre humour or just a mere inappropriate observation?

Stiff cheese for the Afghans who worked for "us". If they knew their own history they would have known that all foreign powers have been kicked out of their flyblown sandpit eventually. No sympathy for them. They don't belong here.

Yes it is the true time to consider the LGBT community also the important part of nation.

ttbn,
OK, leave them there to be murdered, their wives and daughters to be raped then murdered.
Of course some of them saved Australians’ lives, but that doesn’t count.
I wonder if they are equipt to effectively defend themselves?

Is Mise

What don't you understand about it-is-not-our-business. It wasn't our business to go to Afghanistan in the first place, and what happens in that awful country now, as was inevitable, is also not our business. I believe that there are around 80 ADF members still there. After they finally return, Australia should never again mention Afghanistan. Afghanistan was never a threat to us, and it's well past time we started to work seriously on the real threat, Communists China. You can continue to feign concern if you wish (without any personal involvement, of course). Honesty is my policy, and I don't give two hoots about non-Western countries who have had centuries to learn from us but who have decided not to follow our example. Their choice, their problem.

Well Issy,

We laid another egg in Afghanistan, just like Korea, Vietnam and the Middle East, plus a few other places which weren't our business to begin with. The local collaborators who assisted our invasion of their country are entitled to our protection and assistance. Plane loads of prospective taxi drives and pizza delivery guys with their entourages should be landing on our shores at any tick of the clock. 50,000 they say, why did we need so many people who could speak Swahili? Couldn't we just have got a few Afghans to talk to them in the local speak?

ttbn, since Australia is in a bit of lull at the moment when it comes to invading other countries, I agree an invasion of China is in order. I think you personally should be at the head of our expeditionary force. When you land there, since you don't speak the local lingo feel free to sign up some interpreters, we have plenty left over from Afghanistan. When you get the chance, first order of business, place that Xi bloke under arrest for Scotty to interrogate later, from the safety of the lodge.

consider the LGBT community also the important part of nation.
Jack123,
I consider them as part of the community but no more important a part of the Nation than any other !

IF YOU ARE A GENUINE LGBTI FOREIGNER AND YOU BELIEVE YOUR LIFE IS AT RISK IF YOU GO BACK TO YOUR COUNTRY, CLICK HERE TO FIND OUT YOUR CHANCES OF GETTING A PERMANENT RESIDENCE IN AUSTRALIA.

Just spotted the above Ad here,

A youngster without support is not eligible to join his/her parent in Australia yet Gays can join their lovers ?
What is it I'm not getting here ?

Yuyutsu,

I did find some of the questions in the census quite invasive, particularly the one about if you wanted to have your details available to others in about 99 years via the Australian National Archives and I said no. I suggested such an option be taken out, when putting forward suggestions at the end of the Census.

I suppose re this issue for myself if people are going to have to fill in a Census form or face penalties, it is not unreasonable to recognise people and be more inclusive. I know of some people who had to be recognised as Chinese when they are not. They wanted no link to China at all and yet they had no choice.

Some have also highlighted there is no other way of recording the amount of certain types of people in the community, such as LGBTIQ+ in Australia, but I don't know if that is necessary. To each their own. Some may want privacy respected and if they want to identify themselves fully there is nothing stopping that in real terms via other forms such as speaking out, talking with others, Facebook pages etc, but I generally don't like to discriminate in circumstances like this one.

Nathan,
How is a question invasive if one does not have to answer it?

Census returns, when they are released after everyone is dead are invaluable to historians, particularly to those engaged in genealogical research.

I’m more than happy to have researchers in the future know what I was and where in 2021.

Dear Nathan,

You may be interested to know that the Bible forbids censuses and consider them a sin: King David disobeyed and conducted a census, resulting in a plague with 70,000 fatalities.

The census is spiritually detrimental because it encourages us to falsely identify with whatever material things we temporarily have: our homes, our jobs, our cars, our gender, our age, our name, our family arrangements and now some are even asking to add sexual orientation to the list. We are none of these!

The census accepts any lies other than the Truth of who we are, as expressed in the following poem: http://shlokam.org/nirvanashatakam

(continued also over the next post)

"
Neither am I the mind nor intelligence or ego,
Neither am I the organs of hearing (ears), nor that of tasting (tongue), smelling (nose) or seeing (eyes),
Neither am I the sky, nor the earth, neither the fire nor the air,
I am the ever pure blissful consciousness; I am Shiva, I am Shiva,
The ever pure blissful consciousness.

Neither am I the vital breath, nor the five vital airs,
Neither am I the seven ingredients (of the body), nor the five sheaths (of the body),
Neither am I the organ of speech, nor the organs for holding (hand), movement (feet) or excretion,
I am the ever pure blissful consciousness; I am Shiva, I am Shiva,
The ever pure blissful consciousness.

Neither do I have hatred, nor attachment, neither greed nor infatuation,
Neither do I have passion, nor feelings of envy and jealousy,
I am not within the bounds of dharma (righteousness), artha (wealth), kama (desire) and moksha (liberation) (the four purusarthas of life),
I am the ever pure blissful consciousness; I am Shiva, I am Shiva,
The ever pure blissful consciousness.

Neither am I bound by merits nor sins, neither by worldly joys nor by sorrows,
Neither am I bound by sacred hymns nor by sacred places, neither by sacred scriptures nor by sacrifies,
I am neither enjoyment (experience), nor an object to be enjoyed (experienced), nor the enjoyer (experiencer),
I am the ever pure blissful consciousness; I am Shiva, I am Shiva,
The ever pure blissful consciousness.

Neither am I bound by death and its fear, nor by the rules of caste and its distinctions,
Neither do I have father and mother, nor do I have birth,
Neither do I have relations nor friends, neither spiritual teacher nor disciple,
I am the ever pure blissful consciousness; I am Shiva, I am Shiva,
The ever pure blissful consciousness.

I am without any variation, and without any form,
I am present everywhere as the underlying substratum of everything, and behind all sense organs,
Neither do I get attached to anything, nor get freed from anything,
I am the ever pure blissful consciousness; I am Shiva, I am Shiva,
The ever pure blissful consciousness.
"

Yuyutsu,
Whatever you do, do not leave the house ! Repeat, do not leave the house !

Is Mise,

Invasive:

4: tending to infringe

http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/invasive

So, I only need feel my personal space being infringed upon and I am put off or find such questions in the census "invasive".

I may not be forced to answer a particular question, but I do find such a move invasive as per the above definition and I was shocked such questions were even asked, like the one referring to the national archives.

Let's say a swarm of wasps or bees were near your own home, I could say, well they'll go away, don't worry about it or I could argue they are invasive.

I kept a diary (a personal one), not just one required at high school. I'm glad I got rid of it and it's not part of an historic family collection or something the national archives or others can read 99 years down the track. That itself is invasive as people would know so much about my private life!