A survey let people explain what "other" gender they were. It did not go as planned.

A window into the battle over gender vs. sex in open-ended survey responses

Earlier this week, I dug into the Cooperative Election Study (CES), a nationally representative survey of U.S. adults done every fall, to examine trends in nonbinary and transgender identities. From 2006 to 2020, the CES gave two options for its question about gender/sex: “male” and “female.”

Starting in 2021, the CES instead asked “What is your gender?” with four options: “Man,” “Woman,” “Non-binary,” and “Other.” When respondents chose “Other,” they could then type in the term of their choosing.

This did not go as planned.

Well, sometimes it did. A number of people wrote in “transgender” or variations such as “transsexual man” or “transfemme.” Others wrote “gender fluid,” “agender,” “questioning,” or “demi-boy.” These are the responses the survey administrators presumably intended to get.

Several people, though, took the opportunity to protest the question, often loudly. “Humans don’t have gender, they have sex,” wrote one. “There should only be two answers to this question!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!” wrote another, with too many exclamation points to easily count. There were several variations on this theme: “Man, the only other real choice is woman. The rest is insanity,” “My gender is not ‘woman.’ My sex is female,” “Gender is bullshit, sex is real,” “I have no gender. I am an adult human female,” “There are only 2 a man and a woman I’m a man in Gods image you morons,” “male, non binary is a fairy tale,” and “My SEX is male. Biological creatures do not have ‘gender,’ only words do. I am human, not a word.” Several wrote in “male” or “female.”

Others were even more blunt. “Stupid question,” wrote one, while another was more, mmm, colorful, writing simply, “Fuck you.” A slightly less angry but significantly more exasperated respondent wrote, “Give me a fucking break.” A few wrote “none of your business” or “not answering that.” Another wrote, “Stop with this gender nonsense.”

Some used it as an opportunity to communicate other political views. “White Nationalist,” admitted one. “LGBFJB,” wrote another (a MAGA slogan; the first three letters stand for “Let’s Go Brandon,” and the last three are, let’s say, a comment about the prior president some Trump supporters put on their flags 2020-2024.)

Some got their views across with humor. For example:

“I identify as a potato,” wrote one. “Mini fridge,” claimed another. They kept coming: “attack helicopter,” “sexasaurus,” “lesbian born in a male body,” “cat,” “vaccinated coffee pot,” “wombat,” “rainbow tard,” “plant,” “alien spacecraft,” “doorknob,” “dog,” “a piece of layer cake,” “Gungan Sith Lord,” “demon,” “weird,” “I identify as a Vulcan who grew up on Klingon” (to which I can only say: It’s Qo’noS, you newbie.) “Honky/cracker,” wrote another, perhaps lost on their way to the race and ethnicity question.

A screenshot of some of the responses typed in by participants after they chose “other” for their gender, CES 2021

Only a tiny percentage of respondents chose “other” for the gender question, and not all typed something into the text field. But those who did give a stark picture of a divided America. There are those who consider themselves nonbinary, gender queer, transgender, gender fluid, or demi-boys on one side, and those who say “Gender is bullshit” or “nonbinary is a fairy tale” on the other. Reading these responses, it becomes clear why the Republicans used slogans like “Kamala Harris is for they/them. Donald Trump is for you” during the 2024 election and why those slogans may have been effective in reaching at least part of the U.S. population. The anger in these responses to the gender question in the CES leaps off the page of the datafile.

Above image: A screenshot of some of the responses typed in by participants after they chose “other” for their gender, CES 2024

A small segment of people will always try to mess with survey administrators by putting odd responses into open-response windows. But the responses to the gender question were notably more angry and absurdist than the similar opportunity under “other” for the race and ethnicity question. There, nearly all responses mentioned a place or identity, including “Russian American,” “White and Mexican,” “Egyptian,” “Hawaiian,” “mixed race,” “indigenous American,” “Arab Jew,” or “African.” (Though one person did write “Mutt.”)

A few wrote simply “American” or “Human.” But no one said they were a coffee pot or an attack helicopter. No one identified as a root vegetable. No one claimed to be a household pet. The funniest it got was someone who wrote “I am a meat popsicle,” and the other who wrote, “Whatever race isn’t being actively hunted.” (A close runner-up was the one who wrote “Italian American” and shared, “My Roman ancestors bred with everyone.”)

Noticeably fewer wrote angry responses than for the gender question, though one did write “Fuck off you racist,” and another protested “Caucasian or Anglo! I am NOT a ‘color’!” Fewer disagreed with the premise of the race question, though responding “human” could be taken in that way, and one person did write “Human. Stop trying to divide us” and another wrote “race is irrelevant.” With these scant exceptions, few disputed that race or ethnicity exists, but many more disputed that gender — especially more than two genders — exists.

The responses to the “other” gender question, from the diverse gender categories to the pushback to the political statements to the absurdist answers, are a small window into Americans’ views on gender. They suggest that debates around gender labels, pronouns, gender transitions for children and teens, and which bathroom transgender people should use will continue to be heated. They are not going away anytime soon.