Kristen Renn      4/30/2016 8:57 PM
Conflating Gender and Sex

Delighted that AERA is making moves to be more inclusive on membership forms, but disturbed that the options provided for "gender identity" a) conflate sex (e.g., male, female, intersex) and gender (e.g., man, woman, trans*, genderqueer, agender) and b) reinforce binary conceptions of gender. As a social science research association AERA can do better to be a model for other associations in their membership demographics, a guide for good practice in collecting demographics in research, and a leader for inclusive scholarly communities.

Catherine Lugg      4/30/2016 6:20 PM
Talk about high-handed moves

Wow. Just WOW! I am shocked that no-one bothered to read the actual research in this area nor did anyone consult with the Queer Studies SIG. It's amazing the level of contempt that this organization exhibits towards the top researchers in the field by this move. Sexual and gender identity are fluid and highly unstable. Yet AERA insists in its doomed quest for tidy variables. This is as offensive as it is factually wrong.