I objected to gender ideology at work and now need support

Good luck! You're being really brave. We need more and more people to stand up and be counted. It's scary when you're one of the only people doing it.

However my senior said that TWAW is a factually correct statement due to the gender recognition act giving legal status to TW.

The factually correct statement would be “a minority of transwomen are legally recognised as women for most purposes” but it’s not got the snappy thoughtstopping qualities of TWAW.

Hi OP.

Trans women are only considered women as a matter of law if they hold a GRC. Only about 5000 GRCs have ever been issued, so it is safe to assume that most of the people your colleague is referring to when they talk about trans women are not legally considered women.

The Equality Act recognises the legitimacy of single sex spaces and permits organisations to exclude even people with a GRC from single sex spaces in certain limited circumstances. It does not give people without a GRC the right to use single sex spaces for the opposite sex at all. Obviously there is a difference between what the law says and what is actually happening in practice.

I would also point out that sex is a protected characteristic under the Equality Act, whereas gender identity is not. You cannot protect what you cannot define. You could ask your colleague what language she thinks we should be using when we want to refer to people by sex, not gender. The term "cis women" doesn't do the job as it excludes female people who identify as trans men or non binary, and the term "AFAB" or "assigned female at birth" is simply unscientific. Being forced to use these terms forces you to express yourself using the terminology of a belief system you do not share. This is disrespectful of your beliefs, and it is not something we ask of any other groups holding a protected belief.

Equality act I think - which gives sone examples of where sex not gender matters

Transwomen are only legally women if they hold a gender recognition certificate. That makes them legally recognised as women, a legal fiction created to be kind to the old fashioned sort of transwoman that had all the available surgery and wanted to "pass". Factually, they remain male whatever their legal status is. Even a gender recognition certificate doesn't require them to be "treated as a woman" in all circumstances, if there is a need for single sex services to exclude them eg excluding them from single sex rape crisis services.

It’s admirable that you’re prepared to stand your ground on this. If you get pushback on including GC views in their official materials, then I’d widen the scope.

If it’s about D&I, what focus do they apply to making the workplace inclusive or attractive to the disabled? Or for BAME colleagues? How much awareness do they raise about adjusting for the effects of the menopause on female staff? Or mental health for everyone?

One would hope that these sorts of issues, which are likely to impact on a much wider pool of your colleagues, would have greater focus placed on them than pronouns and gender ideology.

Well done for speaking out. I did listen to a very prominent GC woman recently who said that sometimes you can do more WITHIN your organisation than out of it. So sometimes going completely against everything isn't the way forward. It's so difficult because you only get respect if you comply a certain amount.

Having said all of that, I'd maybe do the bare minimum of what is expected of you (you could try not doing things and see if anyone says anything, e.g. ignore this request to put pronouns in your email signature). Then continue to have conversations where you question the logic. I suppose when it comes to it, it depends how strongly you feel?

Maya Forstater has helped us so much, so do remind your employers gently if you need to that your beliefs are protected by law. Hope this helps!?

I work in HR and have used the approach of referring to any GC stuff in the news to have a 'hey what do you think of this' approach to test the water and appear to 'consider' the GC view without outing myself as GC, I'm aiming to appear as a neutral fence sitter.

I've Hopefully opened a few eyes with the maya ruling and suggested inclusion = all views discussed respectfully etc which got some agreement

OP could you consider this approach as it will allow you to suss out who is open to a different viewpoint without putting yourself fully out there.

@Whitehorsegirl · Today 10:23
You are employed in the public sector. They will always pursue a strict equality and diversity policy.

Often the Equalities law is being misinterpreted, and other protected groups, put at a disadvantage. Misleading language may also be used in poorly written up guidance. Or freedom of belief suppressed in the interest of one group, say by enforced pronouns.

It is happening in many cases.

Whitehorsegirl
Most of us leave our politics out of the work environment.

Your are perfectly entitled to have your own views and beliefs and you should not be discriminated against because of it, but your workplace chooses the culture it want to create for its employees and you then have the choice of working there or not working there if their values don't match yours...

Hang on, how do pronouns fit in with 'leave our politics out of the work environment' then? Surely that is imposing a belief system on other, not leaving it out.

Also, advising someone to leave because the work culture is so uncomfortable is basically saying 'put up or shut up', not exactly inclusive is it?

Companies are free to create a culture for its' employees - what they are not free to do is ignore the Equality legislation while they do so.

The last post is off

She is trying to explain that having a narrow concept around gender is not being diverse and most organisations want to be diverse and inclusive

My feedback as a manager: choose your battles.

What do you think will happen in the end? what is it that you are trying to achieve?

You are employed in the public sector. They will always pursue a strict equality and diversity policy.

All you have achieved here is to stand out for all the wrong reasons.

Also you do not speak for all feminists and I would find it personally offensive to have someone claim that they are doing a presentation on the feminist view of gender identity. Your view is only that, your personal view. You would be presenting views that are held by some feminists, not all.

Most of us leave our politics out of the work environment.

Your are perfectly entitled to have your own views and beliefs and you should not be discriminated against because of it, but your workplace chooses the culture it want to create for its employees and you then have the choice of working there or not working there if their values don't match yours...

The thing is, there is being polite, and then there is indoctrinating people into your belief system. I don't believe in gender ideology, and I actually think it is harmful for women and girls. So I don't want to play along with someone elses version of reality.
Like religious belief, I don't think it should be pushed in a workplace. People are free to hold their own beliefs, but nobody should be forced to adopt someone else's belief system.
That goes beyond 'being nice and polite'.

Sorry there are so many spelling errors, haven't had my coffee yet. We need an edit button!

*a few people

Also, another tactic that few people have raised is the issue that pronouns may be more or a hindrance in the workplace for women, as women are usually paid less than men and usually not given as much clout or responsibility, or listen to as men.

I'm sure there are studies that show that people with a male name etc. are taken more seriously. Why would women voluntarily sign themselves up to be taken less seriously in the workplace?
Does your company have a gender pay gap? Maybe they should address that first.

This is why I'm so glad I don't work in HR anymore - so much virtue signalling nonsense. The company pretending to give a shit with easy, frivolous things that don't cost much time or effort and look like they care without actually having to do anything.
If you wanted to push back a bit, you could have look at what they have done recently about disabled facilities in the building, or to be more inclusive of older workers etc. Basically see if they have spent as much time and energy on protected characteristics that are actually covered by law, rather than genderwoo which isn't.
It would be a good way to say to them, actually they need to be this enthusiastic about all characteristics, not just the rainbow ones.

GC stands for gender critical. People who agree that biological sex should take precedence over gender ideology in law and policy.

Sorry, what is GC?

Well done, you are brave. But also know you have the law behind you. Choose your next words well - rely on Sex Matters - try to keep any communications calm and measured.

I don't understand much that is going on even though I have tried. All these pronouns and stuff is making my brain go into overload. It feels like too much information and complicating life. Why can't we call just be nice and polite to each other instead of complicating life.