The latest Sunday Times trans lie is quite a whopper. The question on sex has never left the census and has been unaltered since the reign of George III. This year new questions are being added on sexuality and gender identity so it’s not a “blow to trans rights” (1/3)

In his article @ShippersUnbound claims that the 2011 had a question on gender identity. It didn’t, the National Archive has last year’s census on its website. The question has been unaltered since the first one in 1801. (2/2)

The inclusion of the new questions on sexuality and gender identity is groundbreaking. They are optional but will give the first truly national picture on the LGBT+ community, rather than much smaller surveys. That’s why transphobes and homophobes are so angry about it (3/3)

Minor correction in tweet 2 I said last year’s when I meant last decade’s. Same point though!

Via @christineburns here are the questions under discussion. Despite what the Times and various transphobes tweeting me say, the sex question does not contain the phrases “birth sex” or “legal sex”.

Also: this piece has a joint byline by @NicholasHellen, the transport editor. Former Sunday Times journalist Andrew Gilligan (who wrote lots of dubious trans stories for the ST) is now transport special advisor at Number 10. Wonder if there’s a connection?

Mysteriously, the headline has now been changed replacing “trans rights” with “trans lobby”. Either way the headline is false. Try again Sunday Times. Love from the lobby