Small Acts of Rebellion

[GrimDamnFanjo]

I'd like to start a thread for "armchair activists" like myself who want to campaign but can't publicly for various reasons.
If we have an ongoing conversation then perhaps we can keep track of those small acts of rebellion and focus efforts?

Dear St Georges,

I am writing to yo about the Public Sector Equality Duty & Protected Characteristics.
The list of protected characteristics you are using on your Equality and Diversity and Inclusion web page is incorrect.
www.sgul.ac.uk/about-us/governance/equality-and-diversity
There are 9 protected characteristics covered by the Equality Act 2010 (age, disability, gender reassignment, marriage & civil partnership, pregnancy & maternity, race, religion or belief, sex, sexual orientation).
You have incorrectly listed "gender" and "transgender" as protected characteristics when the protected characteristics are "sex" and "gender reassignment".
Not only is this incorrect but it is misleading and may prevent people from accessing their rights under the law.
Please consider changing this so it is accurate.
I look forward to hearing from you.
Yours sincerely,
Moment0mori

Love this thread - thank you for the inspiration! I’ve had a busy few weeks but next week I have a free day all to myself so I’m going to see how many emails I can write. I’m also going to prod my MP again. I know she’s GC but I think it’s high time she actually DID something. Doesn’t have to be public, but she really does need to contribute something to the cause.

I cross out gender and replace with sex every single time. Nursery. The dentist. Everywhere

Just had the yearly Stonewall survey come in. They wanted ALL staff to complete it so I obliged. Its so vague as to be practically useless anyway, and there are no comments. They allow you to write your gender in so I wrote "My SEX is female. Gender = stereotypes". I'm sure they'll sneer and go "TERF". Last year's survey prompted them to focus on non-binary and gender variant people. Quelle surprise.

Well I have been inspired and have emailed my NHS trust who have also used gender and gender identity as protected. I will update when I get a response - if I get a response. I actually found it very hard to find which email address to use and have ended up sending it to PALS as they are the only email address for complaints listed on their website.

The St Georges webpage has a massive Stonewall advert on it so good luck with that one Moment0mori!

And here's St George's:

Thank you for your email to St George’s, University of London raising the content on our webpage.
You are absolutely correct in the points you raise. St George’s is launching its new website on Monday 26 September 2019 and we have redesigned our EDI pages for the new site. The information on the new page will be correct, with the characteristics listed as sex and gender reassignment as defined in the Equality Act 2010.
Please do let me know if you have any further questions.
Many thanks,
Liz Grand
Diversity and Inclusion Adviser
Human Resources

St George’s, University of London

Result Coldwater, I just got the same email :)

Who to target next?

The St Georges webpage has a massive Stonewall advert on it

I've noticed that quite a few of them are "Stonewall Diversity Champions"

Perhaps they have been advised that the wording in the EA is out of date!

I think the problem may be the NHS Constitution, revised in 2015:
www.gov.uk/government/publications/the-nhs-constitution-for-england/the-nhs-constitution-for-england

It says:
'1. The NHS provides a comprehensive service, available to all
It is available to all irrespective of gender, race, disability, age, sexual orientation, religion, belief, gender reassignment, pregnancy and maternity or marital or civil partnership status. '

No reference to sex! So if a council or NHS Trust are wrongly citing the Protected Characteristics, they need to correct them. But general statements can be made because this key document got rid of sex!
I wonder what we can do about that?

Hence Sussex (I thought Brighton would be worth a look...) on their E&D page list the characteristics correctly, but much higher up quote this inaccurate rewrite...

And I have no doubt Stonewall Champions have encouraged this whitewash!

I wonder what we can do about that?

Well there’s an “anything wrong with this page” option at the bottom of the page. Perhaps we could query why they have not listed sex along with the other protected characteristics.

I've just been weighing up the pros and cons of glueing loo seats down in all women's / gender neutral toilets. I suppose certain users won't care and will just piss on the seat anyway but it would make a point these are for women only wouldn't it?

A reminder there are several crowdfunders for legal fees out there at the moment :)

Can I ask what department you arr emailing at NHS trusts? I can not find a relevant department to comment on the Bucks NHS E&D pages on the website or on a google search. It's almost as if they don't want people emailing them....

Suggest you email PALS or Freedom of Information if you can't find a particular contact. They have to answer emails on the whole.

If anyone wants to join me, you could email:
Walsall [email protected]: E&D Strategy lists PCs as ' race; disability; gender; age; religion and belief; sexual orientation; pregnancy and maternity; marriage and civil partnership and gender reassignment'.
Or Wolverhampton [email protected]: Equality Act 2010 page lists 'Disability, Gender re-assignment, Marriage and civil partnership, Pregnancy and maternity, Race, Religion or belief, Sex /gender,Sexual orientation'.
Or Liverpool Broad Green PALS&[email protected]: Equality Objectives list 'age, disability, gender, gender reassignment, marriage and civil partnership, pregnancy and
maternity, race, religion or belief and sexual orientation.'
Or Essex Partnership [email protected]: 'Information for Protected Characteristics' heads the Sex section:
'Gender then uses both terms interchangeably: '... sex/gender'
Sorry, I'll stop now. I'm on a roll.
Anyone know what happens if they don't reply and continue to list incorrect legal information on their websites?

Write comments to articles in various newspapers, whether it's the Times, the Daily Fail, or whatever. Contradict anyone who spouts nonsens, add your agreement to GC articles. Every little helps.

I do this to a lesser extent on Facebook, as I'm there under my own name. But I "like" the good articles and often join in the comments threads, as long as the post is either a private GC group, or I don't know anybody else following unless I'm sure of their stance. It's a bit risky, but I'm careful. I cannot come out just yet. I'd get "literally violated" (if they can say it, why can't I?).

Lots of blogs and articles are on platforms like WordpressDOTcom and Medium that have a bad record of deleting articles and whole accounts at the behest of trans activists. However, it is usually free to create an account and then you can "Like" or comment on articles.

If you set up a WordpressDOTcom account you can often also "Like" or comment on self-hosted sites that use Wordpress software.

For privacy, you can use a "special" email address to register, rather than your regular email address, use an alias and choose a "username" for display rather than your real name.

Most of the "traction" on blog posts comes via social media via Twitter, Facebook, etc. However, "Likes" and positive comments directly on blogs can be very encouraging for the authors - and also help to counterbalance the inevitable negative comments.

Well done re the nhs websites.
We have had the same recently regarding our anonymous staff surveys and a lot of people have been putting random things in to upset the Apple cart when it comes to sex/gender questions.

You know, Gizmo79 it seems like in the most part we are pushing against an open door with most of these things.

The impression I get from the lack of argument is that people either genuinely don't know they have got it wrong or they know it was a bunch of sh!te and they are happy to have a reason to put it right

The "small acts" like getting individual NHS sites to tell the truth are really important, just as important as the "big acts".

Inspired by this, I've just checked the website for Wiltshire CCG and it not only correctly lists gender reassignment as a protected characteristic but this:

"Sex (male or female)"

It couldn't be any clearer.

I'll keep searching though...

The majority of errors on Equality pages I've complained about have been met with no response. Presumably this has to be escalated.

I’ve been quietly peaking people by making innocuous “omg have you heard about that isn’t it crazy” comments whenever I get the chance, and just leaving people to think on in their own time. I’m finding the key is:

• keep it light. A little joke about pronouns or non-binary bins goes a long way. Everyone has their own favourite snowflake bin joke.
• everyone understands and relates to and gets the implications of children being allowed to make life-changing decisions too young.
• don’t mention toilets because a lot of people don’t care
• don’t mention any of the TRAs’ behaviour because it’s too much for people first encountering it and they think you’re exaggerating, or unfairly extrapolating from a minority of crazies
• don’t mention feminism or the patriarchy or misogyny or conspiracies

I received a letter from NHS Scotland yesterday asking me to complete an online survey on patient experiences, which I did. At the end along with the usual race, religion etc questions it asked 'What is your gender?' with male, female, other options.

I left it blank and sent them an e-mail explaining that I don't have a gender and if I did it would not be relevant to my health care needs. That I do have a sex which is hugely relevant to my health care needs and which is a protected characteristic, unlike 'gender'. I asked that in future they ask my sex and that any question on gender includes an 'I don't have a gender' option.

We shall see what they say in response.

posterArnoldWhatshisknickers I got that as well - not completed yet but I might follow your lead!

Slogans on banknotes.

This is a great thread. Thank you.