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Lies, damn lies, and trans statistics
All data is dead on arrival, a carcass to be picked over as an artefact of the moment it was collated. Even “real time” data is simply a facsimile of reality, a subjective selection of data points that provided a distorted understanding of the world. No data set, no visualisation, and no data analysis can ever give you the sum total of the human condition. If anyone tells you that all the data points in the world will recreate what it is to be alive and human they are selling you a bridge. Yes, I am a data sceptic, and given the anti-trans rhetoric based on shonky data that scepticism is fully deserved.
Trans lives defy normative data analysis precisely because normative data collection does not account for people across the trans spectrum. To be trans is to inherently subvert data points, it is to say that the data collected about you up to the point you transition is wrong. Once you come out data collectors struggle to define and reshape you within the data precisely because “normal” only fits a narrow substrate of any society.
Which is why when trans datasets, such as the 2024 trans prison data, can never account for the full plurality of trans personhood. Trans data is always voluntary, and even when official documents have been changed unless a State actively seeks to track every person who changes their records being trans is not a matter of State interest. Voluntary data collection is always a shifting proposition, especially in societies where being trans is dangerous or illegal. Those who collect the data get to set the questions then get to present the data, so unless you are prepared to interrogate the data yourself you are forced to accept the presented report.
Media headlines about the trans prison data have been wrapped up in a gender critical howl of outrage about the number of trans female sexual abusers in the prison system. Yet, the reality behind the headlines takes time and energy to engage with. As a data scientist I am trained to scrutinise the data and see the issues, especially when the report makes it clear there are significant flaws in the data collection. Trans identities have been weaponised due to the paucity of data combined by a hard right gender critical ideology that has turned identity into philosophy. Data can never be the answer, especially because data can be twisted, and…
