New study exposes coordinated push to erase trans people from UK data

A new peer‑reviewed study has mapped, for the first time, a coordinated campaign by several UK‑based groups to remove trans, non‑binary and queer people from official data sets - a move researchers warn could have profound consequences for equality monitoring, public services and human rights. 

Authored by Kevin Guyan, a researcher and writer on LGBTQ data, and published in the Journal of Gender Studies, the research introduces the term “trans‑exclusionary data activism” to describe a growing political effort to redefine sex exclusively as a biological category across key areas of public life, including the census, healthcare, policing and emerging digital identification systems.

Drawing on publicly accessible materials produced between 2019 and 2025, the study examines campaigns led by groups such as Sex Matters, For Women Scotland and the LGB Alliance. These organisations, the paper argues, have systematically pushed for data practices that erase or misrepresent trans people by insisting that “biological sex” should always be the primary - and often the only - recorded category. 

Researchers detail how these groups seek to insert trans‑exclusionary talking points into public debate, manufacturing controversy in order to keep restrictive definitions of sex and gender in the media spotlight. 

One particularly concerning tactic identified in the study is the deliberate spread of unfounded claims that major UK datasets have been “corrupted” simply because they include trans people. By portraying inclusive data as unreliable, campaigners attempt to undermine confidence in institutions ranging from national statistics bodies to local authorities. 

The article argues that these tactics closely mirror the anti‑trans data policies pursued under the Trump administration in the United States, where similar efforts were made to redefine sex narrowly in order to limit recognition of trans people across federal systems. 

Far from being a dry technical dispute, the study emphasises that the stakes are deeply personal. Attempts to remove or overwrite trans people in official records can have far‑reaching effects - from misdirecting healthcare resources to obscuring discrimination and violence in national statistics. As the researchers put it, this is not about “changing signs on toilets”, but an attempt to change something fundamental within trans people by denying their lived identities in the very systems meant to protect them. 

The findings arrive at a time when trans communities in the UK face increasing hostility in politics and the media. Campaigners and academics warn that data erasure is not an abstract concern but a strategic move in a wider push to restrict recognition, rights and access to services.

For trans advocates, the study provides crucial evidence that what may appear as dry administrative proposals are part of a coordinated attempt to roll back progress. By exposing these tactics, researchers hope policymakers, journalists and the public will better understand how data - often perceived as neutral - can become a battleground for trans inclusion.