A pilot project announced by the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) seeks to track the sexual orientation and gender identity of research doctorate recipients—a move raising concerns about the potential invasion of privacy and enforcement of LGBT quotas.
The Survey of Earned Doctorates (SED), conducted annually by the NSF, aims to collect personal and demographic data of individuals who have earned research doctorates from an accredited U.S. institution in the past year. The survey already collects data related to sex. However, the NSF’s new pilot project, announced in May, seeks to collect information regarding sexual orientation and gender identity as well. The “gender identity question experiment plan” (pdf) asks, “What sex were you assigned at birth on your original birth certificate,” providing two options—male or female.
