Measuring Transgender and Nonbinary Identities in Online Surveys: Evidence from Two National Election Studies
By Quinn M. Albaugh, Queen’s University, Allison Harell, Université du Québec à Montréal, Peter John Loewen, Cornell University, Daniel Rubenson, University of Toronto, and Laura B. Stephenson, University of Western Ontario
Survey researchers increasingly recognize the need to update their gender questions to recognize the existence of transgender and nonbinary people. In this research note, we evaluate changes to the Canadian Election Study (CES) gender questions from 2019 to 2021. Our analyses suggest researchers should add “nonbinary” as a close-ended option and an open-ended response option to gender identity questions. They also suggest that researchers should not include “transgender” in a separate, mutually exclusive response option alongside men and women in gender identity questions but instead identify transgender men and women through a follow-up question. These recommendations can help guide the design of future surveys.