The Other Option: Examining Write-in Responses to Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity Surveys

Background: When asked to affiliate with listed gender identity and/or sexual orientation options in large population surveys, increasing proportions of respondents indicate “other” and write in their identities that are not captured by the traditional multiple-choice options. These “other” responses often receive little inquiry and are often categorized as incomplete data or as though respondents identify with a sexual and/or gender minority identity. Objective: The purpose of this qualitative study is to identify categories that are left out of sexual orientation and gender identity (SOGI) questionnaires using survey items from the Healthy Minds Study, a survey of over 935,000 undergraduate and graduate college and university students in the United States. Methods: A diverse panel of seven reviewers differing in terms of age, SOGI status, and race and ethnicity was established to examine verbatim “Other” responses to SOGI survey items from the Healthy Minds Study. Panelists were prompted to develop their own taxonomies to describe and categorize the responses they encountered. After convening to discuss their findings, panelists established a shared taxonomy and re-categorized the survey responses into the shared taxonomy, with inter-rater reliability estimated as a qualitative parameter. Finally, quantitative descriptions of the response-category distributions and associated survey respondents’ demographic descriptors were generated. Results: Preliminary results show several large categories routinely left out of SOGI answer choices. These often include individual descriptions of attraction that do not depend on the identity of partners, such as asexuality and polyamory, as well as many different descriptions for individuals attracted to partners of multiple genders, such as queer or pansexual. Additionally, there are a large number of respondents using the write-in option to express political opinions, transphobia, or a desire to see changes in the way the questions are worded. Conclusions: Developing a qualitative understanding of the identities that are currently being left out and largely unexamined can inform future survey development, increase dataset accuracy, and improve participants’ subjective experience. This study presents the opportunity to more accurately capture the broad spectrum of sexual orientation and gender identities on surveys which will both help researchers to better understand the experiences of all respondents, and allow participants the opportunity to correctly and concisely share their identities, ultimately leading to a more affirming and accurate process for everyone involved.