Making intersex and non-binary people count? Ambivalent in_visibilities in the German microcensus

Abstract

This article discusses the recent introduction of ‘diverse’ and ‘no entry’ along ‘male’ and ‘female’ as gender categories in the German microcensus. It describes how intersex and non-binary survey participants are simultaneously made visible and invisible through different systems of gender classification and assignment. The article combines the analysis of documents by the Federal Statistical Office with expert interviews with activists and researchers working on legal and statistical gender identification from a non-binary and intersex perspective. Although two non-binary gender categories are included on paper at the point of data collection, they are subsequently randomly assigned ‘male’ or ‘female’ in data publication. Interviewed experts critically contextualize the survey practices of the microcensus and point to some of the problems with this approach. However, they also stress the non-linear connection between recognition and visibility and agree with data protection concerns related to super-visibility. Their criticism points towards several ways of rethinking gender classification and assignment in population surveys. This article contributes to discussions about the contested inclusion of subjects with marginalized gendered experiences into the population through legal and statistical technologies. Using the framework of in_visibility, it also points to the potentials and limitations of a politics of visibility.