And if legal sex can be changed, everyone who uses official statistics has an interest in play, since sex is one of the most predictive variables in the medical and social sciences, and one of the most important for planning public services. This may seem a minor issue, since trans people are rare – but they are hugely over-represented in certain subgroups. Some paediatric gender clinics say that half the children they assess have autistic-spectrum traits, and that most have mental-health disorders. Since these conditions manifest differently in males and females, it is essential that doctors
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