Gairm Na Fitheach

[ survey.gendercensus.com ]

The 13th annual international gender census, collecting information about the language we use to refer to ourselves and each other, is now open until 13th August 2026.

It’s short and easy, for most participants it takes 5 minutes or less.

After the survey is closed I’ll process the results and publish a spreadsheet of the data and a report summarising the main findings. Then anyone can use them for academic or business purposes, self-advocacy, tracking the popularity of language over time, and just feeling like we’re part of a huge and diverse community.

If you think you might have friends and followers who’d be interested, please do reblog this blog post, and share the survey URL by email or at AFK social groups or on other social networks. Every share is extremely helpful!

Survey URL: https://survey.gendercensus.com

The survey is open to anyone anywhere who speaks English and feels that the gender binary doesn’t fully describe their experience of themselves and their gender(s) or lack thereof.

Thank you so much!

[ Link to survey ]

We just hit 12,000 responses! 😁🎉

This is a few thousand fewer than usual by this stage, and I'm not sad about it because 12,000 is SO MANY. I do have some theories.

I have been busy! I have had some important life admin, and also I've been trying to give more time to social stuff during the Gender Census just to avoid the hyperfocus downsides.

The new survey provider (Tally) is an LLM-filled façade of work displacement that I've had to pour my scarce time and energy into mitigating after the point-of-no-return and I'm a bit worried about the fallout regarding data quality and also quantity.

Bit stressed about that second one!!!!

BUT the survey is going, and as always the responses are epic and fascinating, and the more the merrier. I am hoping that I've run into all the problems I'm going to run into and done everything I can about them, and now I will be free to concentrate on promotion again.

All of your help with promotion is very much appreciated! Here is the end-of-survey page with all the social sharing links and whatnot. Remember that person last year who put a QR code in a queer venue's unisex toilet? Let's bring that energy, folks. Surprise me!!!

You are capable of harm

You have some level of power and agency

Ergo it is your responsibility to communicate your needs and boundaries

If you lie to someone about something being okay when it isn't, that is on you

Something being a trauma response doesn't exempt it from harming your relationships and the other people in them

Enabling your trauma responses will not make them go away, and it is your responsibility to work on yourself for your own wellbeing as well as the people around you

Being A Victim cannot be a pillar of your identity forever, and being victimized does not make you incapable of harming other people (see above)

You are not a mouse in a jean jacket you are an eel with a gun / adult human being who can use your words even if it's Scary

Yes, everything about me is fucked up, but what if that was secretly awesome?

(The Wire)

(Past Tense)

(Life Support)

(Hippocratic Oath)

(In Purgatory's Shadow)

(Ties Of Blood And Water)