Equality and Diversity — sex no longer a protected characteristic

[Shockedandbefuddled]

I know I was late to the party and this has been mentioned elsewhere but I hadn’t realised sex had already been scrapped as a protected characteristic.

Looked at my local council and the Home Office and both have replaced sex with gender. Home Office is a Stonewall top employer.

It’s worse than I thought.

The Act is Equality only, and sex 'is' protected. Change the thread title?

@Newwayofthinking

How would I know if they have replaced sex with gender?

Where should I look?

I Googled key phrases of sex, gender, Equality Act on my Council's website and it brought up the pages.

I used this to request that all references to gender be replaced with the correct protected characteristic of 'sex' WRT the Equality Act.

After looking at a few organisations I think they are taking some real risks.

In a sexual discrimination claim any half decent employment lawyer would pick up on this. Would an employer failing to recognise sex as a protected characteristic make for a hostile working environment?

From the Home Office's "Equality and Diversity" page:

Equality objectives
To support the Home Office business plan to cut crime, control immigration and stop terrorism - and to meet the requirements of the public sector Equality Duty - the department has devised specific equality objectives.

The objectives have addressed equality issues across our functions and the services we provide. We work with stakeholders to deal with the issues that are most pressing for the department.

We will not discriminate on grounds of age, caring responsibilities, disability, gender, gender identity, marriage and civil partnerships, part-time working, pregnancy and maternity, race, religion or belief, sexual orientation or any other factor irrelevant to a person’s work.

External benchmarking
Setting external benchmarks helps to assess our performance against our aims. We have been in the top 10 of the Stonewall Workplace Equality Index for the past 5 years and were named a ‘Stonewall Star Performer’ in 2015.

We have also been recognised in The Times Top 50 Employers for Women. The award recognises the department as a workplace where women can thrive. It also recognises our wider commitment to improving diversity across the public and private sector.

Sorry, a few bold fails there.

@Thelnebriati

The Women And Equalities Committee is at it as well, its changed the protected characteristic of 'gender reassignment' to 'gender identity'.

committees.parliament.uk/committee/328/women-and-equalities-committee/role/

Email: [email protected]

Address:
Women and Equalities Committee
Committee Office
House of Commons
Palace of Westminster
SW1A 0AA

Thank you for highlighting this.

I've just emailed the Chair to ask what is 'gender identity', how is it defined in law, and how and why they are measuring it, given that it isn't a legally protected characteristic.

I've checked my borough council and they have the correct wording - sex and gender reassignment. I've written to thank them for abiding by the law.
Not checked my county council yet.

I've just checked a council page and it (correctly) includes sex, but as another protected characteristic has 'gender (including gender reassignment)'. If gender is only mentioned in the EA 2010, have the council added in their own additional category here?

yes i believe so - mine has gender reassignment/gender identity

nope!

I believe it is acceptable to have additional categories in diversity policies. Socio economic often comes up but it is the removal of sex that concerns me.

Both the UK government and UN acknowledge sex and gender are different things.

maybe but its not acceptable to misrepresent the 9 protected characteristics of the Equalities Act

its gender reassignment - they cant just tag gender identity onto that because they feel like it

This is my local University, I might feel courageous this evening and email them

Kit19 - you are correct misrepresenting Equality and protected characteristics defined in law is different to having a wider diversity policy.

I can’t believe I’ve been so blind to all this gender nonsense.

It’s like the Gender Pay reporting - if a woman is paid less than a man it’s a sexual discrimination claim at a tribunal. Can you report depending on which way one of your senior executives are identifying that day like Credit Suisse.

I - cant remember why - looked at the University of Westminster site and they were waaay high up on the woowoo scale.

The Women And Equalities Committee is at it as well, its changed the protected characteristic of 'gender reassignment' to 'gender identity'.

committees.parliament.uk/committee/328/women-and-equalities-committee/role/

Email: [email protected]

Address:
Women and Equalities Committee
Committee Office
House of Commons
Palace of Westminster
SW1A 0AA

Going back to this, it's a clear misrepresentation of the equality strands:

"The Committee fills "a gap" in previous accountability arrangements - the Minister for Women and Equalities and the GEO will now be held to account by a select committee for the Government's performance on equalities (sex, age, race, religion or belief, sexual orientation, disability, gender identity, pregnancy and maternity, marriage or civil partnership status) issues. The Committee joins more than thirty Parliaments worldwide with dedicated equalities committees."

They will change the wording now that it has been pointed out to them (unless whoever is responsible for this is absolutely determined to carry on misrepresenting the law ), but that's not enough. WHY do we have to point it out to them?

Who made this change, when and why? Who approved it?

I actually noticed this the other day on my LinkedIn. A very eminent QC had posted a statement about committment to E&D within a particular part of the legal profession. Great. But they have referenced gender, and not sex. They had some other random bits and pieces in there (they mention colour and race) and don't mention gender reassignment, which is a protected characteristic.

Unfortunately I do not feel in a position to point it out, as doing so, even in a nice, professional way, would be suicidal for my career.

Councils and other organisations where I can point it out as a private citizen, not linked to my job, are a different matter!

I noticed a few months ago that my dd's school have updated a few of their equality and diversity policy documents. "Sex" hasn't gone completely, but they've changed it to "gender (sex)" and gender is used then onwards. They've also changed what I think was previously "gender reassignment" to "gender identity and reassignment". Because sex is still there, I wasn't sure if it was worth writing to them about this. What do any of you think? They also reference Stonewall training and say they may appoint someone to train as a "Stonewall champion". I have concerns about this but I am not sure how to word them and I don't really know enough about what having a Stonewall champion would entail.

@BlueBooby

I noticed a few months ago that my dd's school have updated a few of their equality and diversity policy documents. "Sex" hasn't gone completely, but they've changed it to "gender (sex)" and gender is used then onwards. They've also changed what I think was previously "gender reassignment" to "gender identity and reassignment". Because sex is still there, I wasn't sure if it was worth writing to them about this. What do any of you think? They also reference Stonewall training and say they may appoint someone to train as a "Stonewall champion". I have concerns about this but I am not sure how to word them and I don't really know enough about what having a Stonewall champion would entail.

My son's school is a Stonewall Champion and DRM school. I sent a detailed letter to the HT outlining and evidencing the reasons for my concern. I asked why (then) year 8s were taking a quiz that asked about suicide and why Stonewall are peddling an incorrect statistic re trans teen suicide that has been debunked by health officials.

My concerns related to these unqualified adults teaching gender ideology as fact, describing homosexuality as 'medical' 🤔 and a whole alphabet soup of terminology.

The HT now thinks I'm a bigot and homophobe.

They are in violation of the law. This has usually happened as a result of the council or business being the victim of fraud.
Please alert them to the fact that they may have been the victim of fraud and give them an accurate list of the protected characteristics and a link to the EA2010 law.

It particularly annoys me because one of the private organisations I’m looking at are in so many ways really pro woman.

They actively encourage flexible working, heavily involved in workshops to get women in to science etc and have senior execs going out to talk to girls about opportunities in a traditionally male field.

Cannot even list the protected characteristics correctly. I shall be emailing them this weekend.

I checked my local town council this week to check they still had the correct characteristics. The Equality Policy has been removed. I have written to the council to ask what their protected characteristics are and why the EQ policy is not avail.

Also note it has been removed from the district council's website too.

Of twenty schools in my area, only 2 had the correct characteristics listed 6 months ago when I checked them all.

The 2 secondary schools (same trust) mention the Equality Policy in their Transgender Policy, but do not have a copy of it on their website, not did the school have a hard copy when I phoned.

The other 16 schools have variations of gender, gender identity, or gender/gender ID & transsexuality. I have seen some schools with gender, transsexuality & pregnancy on the same line which Income astounding.

It hasn't been scrapped - WPUK has a good resource: womansplaceuk.org/sex-is-a-protected-characteristic/

I quoted it when my doctor's surgery had a notice up with their equality statement. You guessed it, they listed gender and not sex or gender reassignment.

I wrote to them pointing out if they received a sex discrimination complaint they would likely lose because they hadn't expressly stated they do not discriminate on the grounds of sex.

Next time I went in, they'd changed it.

Challenge and demand they put it right!

It works.

I'm convinced there's still embarrasment about saying and writing 'sex'.

No organisation has the right or the power to rewrite legislation. We need to challenge this a)wimpish b)deceptive behaviour and our them right whenever we see it. It can't be allowed to be normalized. Sex sex, sex. Sex.

The HT now thinks I'm a bigot and homophobe

I'm sorry that happened to you HandsOffMyRights. At least you know you did the right thing.