The Genderqueer Activist

Hi Lotte,

Thanks for the suggestion! We will keep this in mind for future site updates. Feedback like this is helpful in making a better tool for everyone, so thank you again for taking the time to share. However, I can’t guarantee that this change will be made any time in the near future, so if you are creating a campaign, I recommend choosing one of the two for the time being.

Cheers,

[Customer Happiness person]
Customer Happiness
Indiegogo (www.indiegogo.com)

If you want to add your voice and say that you too would like a third gender option in the next update, say so - here is the contact us page, where you can fill in a really quick and easy form.

A submission from RevCleo - thanks! —Cass

I sent off an email to them saying:

Hi Archtype me!

I personally don’t identify as male or female, but I’d love to do your quiz, is there a way you could help us out by adding a third gender option? It looks super cool and a few of my friends have done it, I just feel kinda blocked out by not having a gender neutral version. Are you planning on adding one in the future? Or do you think we’re too small a market?

Thanks, Rev

And got back a response saying:

Hi,

Thanks for your e-mail and interest in joining ArchetypeMe. At this time, the quiz flow does require a user to select a gender. However, we do not want to limit your on-site experience to that of your gender, so it is for that reason that we facilitate engagement and reading of the content that is tailored to the other gender by exploring the other gender’s archetypes. We will also continue to evolve the website and content with the goal of creating an experience that resonates across our user base. We hope you continue to use the site as we work toward building a user experience where you can truly say “this is me!”.

Have a wonderful day!

Best,
Liza

https://www.archetypeme.com/

Someone on anon has been hassling me about the security of the Nonbinary Stats survey through my personal account. Their implication was that I was not ensuring the safety and anonymity of participants and I was being irresponsible with the data. They seem very scared and they’re also hassling my followers and anyone who’s reblogged the link.

I wanted to share with you my response, because I do want you to be safe. The following information is useful for all of your browsing, not just filling in informal surveys.

lottelodge:

I invited the security-conscious anon to give me more information, and they have responded by sending a message to everyone who has reblogged the survey link (it has 65 notes) to tell them that I don’t care about their privacy.

I would like to reassure anyone who’s ended up here that although no system is 100% secure, I believe that this anon is scaring people unnecessarily.

There are two sides to security:

1. At Google’s end, as the data-collectors and -holders.
2. At your end, as the respondent.

1. At Google’s end

Google are famous for their security. When people’s Yahoo and Hotmail accounts get hacked, people switch to Gmail, and for good reason. Google has a very good reputation at least in terms of security; I don’t doubt that their security is much better than anything any university can come up with for their hosted online studies.

Anon mentioned that Google store IP addresses in connection with answers that respondents give. In this case, the risk might be someone who works for Google accessing the information for personal reasons, or someone else breaking into Google’s system, or Google giving up the information voluntarily (eg: selling it).

If you doubt Google’s integrity and security, you could use a proxy such as with Tor, which is free.

If you think someone can get your information from Google and you don’t want to use a proxy, don’t fill in this survey or do anything else on the internet ever.

2. At your end

No one who hosts a survey or anything else online has any way to guarantee that someone’s personal computer is secure. If you can’t think of a reason that someone would monitor your internet activity in particular, filling in a survey hosted on Google Docs that doesn’t ask for your name, telephone number, email address, etc. should not be a concern for you.

However, if you are concerned that someone may target you somehow, there is a browser extension for Firefox and Chrome called HTTPS Everywhere that I mention in the survey intro. Their website says that the extension “encrypts your communications with many major websites, making your browsing more secure.” Information going from your computer to the host (in this case Google) cannot be intercepted.

The survey I’m doing is hosted on Google Docs, and the survey’s URL defaults to https://. (You can look for this https:// on any website to check for a secure connection.) This means that HTTPS Everywhere would have no effect for this particular survey.

If you think your online activity is being monitored from outside your home, you should be concerned about every form you fill in and every site you log into; you have more to worry about than a survey asking about your gender, and for many people that’s saying something.

If you think someone is physically checking your computer for your browsing information (eg: checking your browsing history and cookies), using the “incognito” mode on your browser ensures that (in Pookage’s excellent words) “session data will be destroyed, including [your] temp. IP, and [your] visit won’t be linked to the google accounts (or any other site).” Basically, you can do whatever you like and no one can find out by checking your browser afterwards. No history, no cookies, no survey answers, nothing.

There’s also any program on your computer that tracks your online activity. This could be a legit helpful program like a handy browser extension, or malware such as a keylogger or a virus.

The programs on your computer, your malware, and whether or not your browser and internet connection are secure (ie: everything in this section called “at your end”) are not things I can control or take responsibility for, and nor can anyone else running any online survey or form.

In summary

If you use “incognito” in your browser, people can’t turn on your computer and find your survey answers. If you use the HTTPS Everywhere browser extension, people can’t intercept your information between your computer and Google. If you use Tor browser, they can’t do either of the above and it means that Google and anyone who breaks into their system can’t link your survey answers to your IP/home address/name.

As I have chosen a survey host that I trust, there is nothing further I can do to solve these problems for you, except to recommend the above good safe browsing habits. But you should only feel that these are necessary if you think that someone might target your computer specifically or you think that Google’s systems are not safe.

And keep your computer clean!

Yesterday I put together a very short and not-too-detailed survey about nonbinary titles, pronoun choice, etc. (Link.) Here’s the questions I ask:

• How do you describe your gender?
• Do you prefer not to have a title/honorific?
• When a title is mandatory, what do you choose?
• What are your preferred pronouns?
• Anything else you’d like to say?

It collects no data about biological sex, gender assigned at birth, name changes, location, age, name or email address. I initially wrote that I would publish the results if I got over 100 responses, because I honestly wasn’t expecting to get that many people filling it in, but I took that sentence out when it hit 100 results within 3 or so hours.

Sometime today an anonymous someone asked about protecting the identity of those filling in the form, which is a major issue for many people’s safety. I admit that I know very little about Google’s security, and I chose Google Docs to collect the information because I haven’t read anything about security breaches in Google, though perhaps I have just missed some well-known articles exposing major security flaws in Google systems. A follower of mine supplied some information about safer browsing and protecting your information, which I then added to the form’s introduction.

Just now, someone on Twitter asked me why I wanted to collect this information, and I’m not sure why I haven’t thought to explain this yet but I’ll give it a go.

On a personal level, I am curious. I’ve been running this blog for I think a couple of years or so, to share my armchair activism and maybe inspire others and help them with writing persuasive letters and so on. I have no real way of judging whether I’m achieving these things! But I have been getting more and more messages of appreciation and support lately, which got me thinking about the wider picture.

On a more community sort of level, and I might be imagining things here, there seems to be more and more stuff in the media about genderqueer and nonbinary people, more and more public and professional recognition. I know for sure that there’s been visible nonbinary people fighting for this for a long time, and it feels to me like things are taking off. So I wanted to get a better idea of identities and titles and pronouns, to make sure that I am including people as best I can when I write to my MP or Royal Mail or whoever. I publish a lot of the letters that I send to organisations and I want to be sure that the people who read my letters feel heard and represented. But I’ve been largely unable to find anything conclusive about statistics on this subject, so it’s really hard to know whether or not I’m excluding anyone or making things worse.

I also think that perhaps there might be people who are inclined to use some of the ideas and phrases in my blog posts; I know there are people who use sites like 38degrees, where you can use their form letter to persuasively write to their MPs or people in positions of power, which is great for people who feel more confident in their writing if they’ve got a template to work with. As someone who publishes my letters, I feel somewhat responsible. Again, I’ve got no way of judging whether people like to use them or think they’re any good, but on the off-chance that they do I’d rather be cautious.

Finally, I think publishing some of the statistics in easily-digestible graphs and charts, if there’s a significant number of responses, might be a valuable resource. There’s very little freely-available information that I know of about the statistics of identity labels, titles and pronouns. For one reason or another I think there’s a lot of people out there that will find it interesting and useful; maybe they’re just starting out in their nonbinary transition, or they know someone who is, or they’re curious. I’m sure there’s a lot of reasons I’ve not thought of. How useful it is does depend on the sample size, of course, so I guess we’ll have to wait and see on that.

If you think I’m mistaken in some way or you want to tell me why you think it’s a bad idea, please feel free to let me know; I like to find out that I am wrong, so that I can get better at stuff. I’m probably easiest to reach here on Tumblr (ask/submit) or on Twitter (@Lottiotta). I can get quite stuck in my world-view, so I like to have it shaken up.

… and if you think it’s worth a shot, please feel free to share the link about the place.

transqueery:

When Mayor Michael Nutter signed legislation Thursday to afford equal rights to lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people, he said he hoped Philadelphia would become “the most LGBT-friendly” city in the world.

One piece of that comprehnsive legislation will forever alter the restroom options in city-owned buildings.

The legislation requires that new or renovated city-owned buildings include gender-neutral bathrooms in addition to traditional men’s and women’s restrooms.

There is more to the bill than just a neutral place to relieve oneself. Nutter, city and state lawmakers and gay rights advocates said the legislation makes Philadelphia the first city in the U.S. to offer tax credits to companies that extend the same health care coverage to LGBT employees’ domestic partners and their children as they provide to heterosexual spouses and their children.“It can be an awkward and embarrassing situation” for anyone who may “feel more like a woman, but can’t use the women’s room,” said Councilman Jim Kenney, the bill’s sponsor.

Officials said the legislation also makes Philadelphia the first city to offer businesses tax credits as a way to encourage providing transgender-specific health benefits.

“My goal is for Philadelphia to be one of, if not the most, LGBT-friendly cities in the world and a leader on equality issues,” said Nutter, adding that the signing struck a personal note because his friend, the late City Councilman John Anderson, was a gay man and a mentor who inspired him 30 years ago to pursue a life of public service.

In addition to the business tax incentives, which were backed by the Greater Philadelphia Chamber of Commerce as well as LGBT advocacy groups, and the gender-neutral restrooms, the legislation revises Philadelphia’s anti-discrimination law to include transgender people, extends decision-making rights to life partners on medical and other issues, and changes city forms and websites to offer options for same-sex couples and transgender people.

“Equal protection under the law means equal protection under the law,” said. “It doesn’t mean sanctioned by religion or custom or anything else.”

Kenney called the bill, which the City Council passed easily last month, “the next iteration of civil rights and freedom in the United States.”

“This is a city that is truly respecting all its citizens,” said state Rep. Brian Sims, a Philadelphia Democrat and the first openly gay candidate to be elected to the Legislature. “It is because of that respect that we are indeed a first-class city and we will continue to shine.”

Neither gay marriage nor civil unions are legal in Pennsylvania, and the state has a law that defines marriage as between a man and a woman.

We’re probably all familiar now with the idea that titles are not legally binding in the UK. (How about in other countries, international followers?) But lots of systems don’t seem to have figured that out, and their attitude to titles apparently makes it pretty difficult for people who’ve changed their name and title to get any kind of meaningful credit report.

Someone on Twitter very kindly shared a conversation from a Facebook group with me, and the following things came up:

• If you have the title Mx or Msc, Experian is a major problem. Applying with Mx/Msc means you will probably have no credit at all, and if you apply using a different title any accounts in which you are Mx/Msc will not be a factor. According to the personal account on the thread, Experian know it’s a problem and they say they’re working on it.
• Call credit are able to correct their problems for individual customers if you ask them, but it’s apparently not system-wide.
• Someone who had Mx as a title on their driving license had the title read as a first name - be careful there.

I’m not really sure what action to suggest, as I’ve not had much experience with credit checks. Hopefully this information can act as forewarning, at least, to know what you’ll be up against.

But if you know the system well and feel inclined to contact them about the title fiasco here’s some contact details.

• For Experian, here’s their contact details:

Experian
Landmark House
Experian Way
NG2 Business Park
Nottingham
NG80 1ZZ
United Kingdom

Telephone 0844 481 8000.

• And Call Credit’s contact details:

Contact form

Telephone 0845 366 0071.

Thank you, just-one-mx, this is fantastic. —Cassian

~~~~~~~

I’ve been signing petitions on Care2.com for a while now but having to use the title ‘Dr’ so i didn’t have to use a gendered title. Also when signing up, a ‘gender’ has to be chosen.

I finally sent an email their way kindly asking them to provide more room for those who don’t sit in the gender binary. Sorry it’s so long.

”Hello,

I’m contacting you today in regards to the ‘gender’ and ‘title’ options that are available on your online registration form/ petitions for “Care2.com” and a few tiny tweaks would make so many more people happier to use your site.

I identify as Neutrois*, this means that I personally do not identify as male/ female or within the gender binary. This can unfortunately put me in pickle when using your online registration form as it requires me to state an appropriate ‘gender’ and your current options are only male or female which defiantly ignores those who are Intersex** or identify as Nonbinary.
If you could offer a third option for Nonbinary and Intersex people you would be welcoming many more people to your site as we wouldn’t feel ignored.

When it comes to titles, those who do not identify within the gender binary are often faced with the following options:

Mr. - I’m not male.
Mrs. - I’m not a married female.
Miss. - I’m not female.
Ms. - I’m not an unmarried/ never married/ divorced female.
Dr. - Although this is gender neutral I’m not qualified to use this title.

None of the above are suitable for people like myself. However commonly used alternatives within the Nonbinary community are slowly being recognised, these include:

Mx - Pronounced “Mix”*** (I have included a link of evidence that Mx is accepted).
Misc - Pronounced “Misk”.

Titles are honorific and have no legal standing, no title is legally needed so a possible solution could be not to require a title at all. Another idea would to be to provide a blank space for users to put their own title in, that way everyone can be comfortable.

Please feel free to contact me with any questions you may have.

It would be great to hear back from you. Thank you for your time.


Many thanks,

Mx Ashton Samuels.


* www.nonbinary.org/wiki/Nonbinary
** en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intersex
*** www.scribd.com/doc/137340953/The-Growing-Use-of-Mx-as-a-Gender-inclusive-Title-in-the-UK”.