Mick Hartley

This is strange and worrying – but perhaps not too surprising:

More than a third of UK residents do not know that transgender women are biologically male, according to a poll, calling into question public understanding of the debate over gender.

Campaigners said that the finding showed politicians, journalists and pollsters needed to be more explicit when speaking about gender issues, as in many cases members of the public did not know what politically correct terms meant.

The survey, carried out by Edinburgh-based policy analysis group Murray Blackburn Mackenzie (MBM), found that 35 per cent wrongly believed that a “transgender woman” was someone born female, or they were unsure.

The confusion was even greater for the shortened term “trans woman”, with 40 per cent either being unsure or believing it meant someone who was registered female at birth.

I've been caught out by this myself, in the early days of reporting of trans issues. It's by no means clear, if you're not familiar with gender-speak, whether a trans woman is a man who's transitioned to a woman or a woman who's transitioned to a man. In fact the intuitive response would surely be that a trans woman is exactly that: a woman who's transed. The usage whereby a trans woman is a man who now claims to be a woman carries the misleading implication that the transition is a fait accompli, a success.

MBM said several bodies, such as the BBC, regularly used the terms without further explanation, for example, in stories about transgender participation in sport or the debate over self-ID.

In many cases, the terms were adopted as a result of lobbying from trans rights activists, who often claim it is discriminatory and offensive to refer to a transgender person’s biological sex.

However, MBM said the results of its poll showed there were “high levels of misunderstanding and confusion” about the terms and that there was a need for language to be more explicit.

“Using these terms, without spelling out what they mean for a person’s sex as matter of course, will leave a large minority of people at best uncertain,” Lisa Mackenzie, one of MBM’s founders, said.

“At worst, they will have a back-to-front understanding of what they are being told or asked.”

She added: “These results show that to avoid confusion and misunderstanding, journalists and others need to spell out clearly what sex of person is being referred to, in any context where sex matters….

The terms were understood least in London, where 35 per cent thought “trans woman” referred to someone registered female at birth, a finding potentially linked to higher numbers in the capital having English as a second language.

By age group, the terms were least understood among people aged 25 to 34, with just 55 per cent correctly saying that “transgender woman” meant someone who was considered male at birth, falling to 52 per cent for the term “trans woman”.

Understanding was far better among people aged 18 to 24, the survey found. For those aged 55 or older, 62 per cent correctly understood the term “trans woman”, rising to around 70 per cent for the term “transgender woman”.

Maya Forstater, director of the Sex Matters campaign group, said it was “very worrying” that commonly used terms were so widely misunderstood.

“When policy decisions are being made and rules are explained it is crucial that people understand what is meant,” she said.

“Whether it is accuracy in a news story, politicians explaining a policy or service providers communicating a rule, they need to spell out clearly whether the person is male or female.

“Terms like ‘trans woman’ and ‘transgender woman’ are confusing – intentionally so.”

It makes you wonder whether the (surprising) number of people who think that trans women should be allowed to play in women's sports, or be housed in women's prisons, in fact believe that they're being asked whether biological women who've transitioned should still be treated as women. No wonder the results are strange.