Australia’s ‘most progressive’ census comes at personal cost to April – but it means their family will finally be counted

April Long with their son Kai. At the upcoming census, Australians over the age of 16 will be asked to identify their sexual orientation and given separate questions on their sex at birth and gender for the first time. Photograph: Dean Sewell/The Guardian

Self-professed “data nerd” April Long was excited to fill in their first census after welcoming their son, Kai, to the world. But as they opened the 2021 survey, they quickly realised it wasn’t made for them.

It excluded Long’s role as a parent, made assumptions about their gender and asked where Kai’s mother and father were born – when he has two mums.