New Gender-Aware Guidelines And Standards For City Of Boston Services
These guidelines serve to support the implementation of the Gender Inclusion Ordinance and components of the Chosen Name Amendment..
The City of Boston will no longer use gender markers on marriage certificates issued by the city and is implementing new guidelines and standards for city departments.
Developed in partnership with members of the LGBTQ+ and gender diverse communities in Boston, these guidelines and standards are the first version of how we expect City employees to engage with people when it comes to gender identity. These guidelines will evolve over time as we figure out how to apply them throughout City services and get direct feedback from the people we serve. We greatly appreciate any thoughts, questions, or feedback you'd like to share at [email protected].
When we design and run programs and services, we create an experience for constituents that can benefit them. In fact, our main objective is to achieve an outcome that benefits our constituents. These experiences consist of processes that are carried out in physical and digital spaces. We create data whenever we capture information, in either digital or physical forms. The design of a service and the data collection matters: How and what we ask might change how the process works in later steps. We designed this document as a set of standards and guidelines that can support our public servants in determining when and how they should collect gender identity information.
A person's gender and sexual identity can be tremendously important to their overall identity. These guidelines and standards seek to balance the right to be affirmed, against risks and constraints. To be affirmed is to be able to be recognized by others as you recognize yourself. In government, we may create harm by not allowing people to affirm their identities throughout our processes, especially as we collect information that misrepresents who they are. On the other hand, collecting information can also increase risks of identification for vulnerable groups and create barriers to participation. Data can be a powerful tool to understand disparities and to drive equitable outcomes. But, embedding the collection of data into government programs can often have negative consequences for the people those services and programs were intended to help in the first place. These consequences can be magnified when data collection is mandatory or tied to other Personally Identifying Information (PII). As these are complex issues that involve trade-offs, we expect the standards and guidelines to evolve.
The City delivers services to its constituents. These services are supported by processes which create experiences for our constituents. These processes also generate administrative data to reflect government processes, as well as other data that can be used to improve policies or programs. However, our goal as a City is to provide affirming, dignified experiences for all constituents and our workforce when they interact with the City of Boston.
For more information visit www.boston.gov/gender-aware-guidelines-and-standards-city-boston-services