Transport for London - gender identity but not sex - please complain!

[LewishamMum]

Okay, so I saw this poster on the tube earlier. In case the attachment doesn't work, the first paragraph states:
"London stands together against hate directed at someone on our transport network because of race, religion, sexual orientation, disability or gender identity...."

The issue is not really gender identity being mentioned (it's not about protected characteristics, eg no age mentioned), but more at the absence of any mention of sex. I can't help but think sexual harassment is probably way more common on the tube than all of the others put together. But because sex cannot be talked because it might offend people who rely on sexist stereotypes and because women are now equal to men even though they are not, we can't even in this day and age mention sexual harassment. (MeToo anyone?).
Anyway, it left me fuming! Please can you join me and put in a complaint to Transport for London about this?
tfl.gov.uk/help-and-contact/contact-us-about-tube-and-rail

To repeat, it's not gender identify that I massively object to, just the complete ignoring of SEX and SEX based harassment, even though it is such a big issue travelling, particularly at night, on trains and buses.

I completely agree. I will check out that link to make a complaint. I wonder how many women have been sexually harassed whilst traveling.

Could I ask which station/line this was?

I think the TFL/British transport police are just following the standard line? As in College of Police guidance, or this from CPS: “The term 'hate crime' can be used to describe a range of criminal behaviour where the perpetrator is motivated by hostility or demonstrates hostility towards the victim's disability, race, religion, sexual orientation or transgender identity.”
There is one police force that experimented with misogyny but it’s not standard?

@snowcobra
Bakerloo line, Paddington Station, although I suspect it's everywhere!

Maybe highlighting this via their twatter account? Sexual harassment and violence against women is off the scale yet TFL 'forget' to mention women in this.

Thanks @LewishamMum, I've just written to them too. Absolutely ridiculous that they choose to turn a blind eye to sex-based violence.

@MrsOvertonsWindow
I'm not on Twitter but would be delighted if others did this.

Thanks to those who have sent off a complaint.

I saw this today, too. On the Northern or Victoria line, and was similarly irritated. FFS! Sexist abuse must be one of the commonest.

Me neither LewishamMum. I'd self combust if I spent any length of time on there

Looks like they're using the hate crime list as a template and replaced reassignment with identity, which is very common.

Sex isn't on that list.

'colour, race, disability, nationality (including citizenship), ethnic or national origin, religion, gender reassignment, or sexual orientation'

So I think their list matches that?

I would say that it's a bit... Inappropriate really. Because wouldn't a sign saying something like-

TFL priorities the right of all our passengers to travel free of any kind of harrassment, verbal abuse, or fear.

The network is covered by CCTV in it's entirety.

If you are subjected to any behaviour of this type please call xxxxxx to report it, or report it in any station. We will investigate.

Something like that.

It is against the law to discriminate against someone because of:

age
disability
gender reassignment
marriage and civil partnership
pregnancy and maternity
race
religion or belief
sex
sexual orientation
These are called protected characteristics.

So we can now pick and choose and make bits up? Excellent.

NiceGerbil is actually, strangely correct. This particular poster is about hate crime. Women aren’t protected under the hate crime rules, write to your mp?

@NiceGerbil
Yes and no.
It is about hate crime, but sexual harassment whilst not a hate crime is clearly a crime and very closely related to hate crime. (I'm not sure most of us think it should be, but lets not go down our own version of StonewallLaw.) They can't rely on hate crime though when they are including something - gender identity - which is not only not a hate crime (or protected characteristic), but not even a legal concept at all.
Even if you take a pure hate line view, why no campaign about SEXual harassment which I maintain is a bigger issue than all the others put together?

I’m sure there are way more sexual assaults in the tube that ‘gender assaults’

[quote LewishamMum]@snowcobra
Bakerloo line, Paddington Station, although I suspect it's everywhere![/quote]
Yes, it's everywhere. I saw it yesterday in a couple of places and was not at the stations you've mentioned.

Sex should definitely be included and of course no one should receive any kind of abuse because of their gender identity but how would anyone know someone's gender identity without asking them?

It’s like the old joke ‘how do you know if someone is a vegan?’

Submitted as complaint at link above:

It's been brought to my attention that a current poster campaign against discrimination and harassment while using your services explicitly excludes sexual harassment. The poster states, "London stands together against hate directed at someone... because of race, religion, sexual orientation, disability, gender identity..." It omits sex, even though:

1. Protection from discrimination on the basis of sex is included in the Equality Act.

2. A written submission to Parliament from Transport for London states:

"Our safety and security survey showed that women are significantly more likely than men to be very or quite worried when using public transport in London (22 per cent of women compared to 13 per cent of men). They are also more likely to have experienced a specific incident of worry in the past three months (14 per cent of women compared to seven per cent of men)... According to one survey, almost half of women do conscious “safety planning” when they go out in the evenings, such as avoiding public transport and paying for taxis, leaving early or taking a different route."

publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm201719/cmselect/cmwomeq/701/70108.htm".

In the light of this, this omission is genuinely hard to understand. It has the potential to make women feel less valued and less safe and, as an explicit exclusion of a distinct protected characteristic from an otherwise inclusive notice, it feels, quite frankly, confusingly discriminatory in itself.

Please put this right in future campaigns.

NB. I've chosen travel times randomly as this doesn't relate to a particular journey.

Well done Metacat.
An excellent complaint.