LGBTQ training at work

[BrassyLocks]

Does anyone know anything about the Diversity Trust? They're providing training in LGBTQ+ awareness, and I'd like to know more about their stance in advance of the training so I can prepare some questions. Anyone have any experience with this organisation?

The Diversity Trust wrote the Trans guidance with SARI for the Bristol and North Somerset CCG. However, the Equality Impact Assessment demonstrated their guidance was discriminatory to other protected groups (and would harm women, older people and children) and in the end the NHS CCG said they would not agree to it. The Sari/ Diversity Trust refused to change it, and would not recognise women as a sex, despite the Equality Act, which they prefer to deny/ ignore, nor the safeguarding needs of children esp girls, nor lesbians as a same sex attracted group/.

Here's a link to the carefully worded newspaper article
www.bristolpost.co.uk/news/health/health-chiefs-not-endorse-trans-5628804

and if you look back on the threads about the Bristol CCG trans guidance from a year or 2 ago you will find access to the full horrors of their proposed guidance , including the Equality Impact assessment, and more information about Diversity Trust leadership.

PS the CCG only carried out the EIA and raised objections to the Diversity Trust / SARI guidance after they got a lot of complaints from women (including mumsnetters) and groups working with vulnerable groups eg domestic abuse support.

You could ask how those with gender critical beliefs will be protected as is the law, as the Forstater case recently confirmed. A really good summary by her lawyers here.
lionsheadlaw.co.uk/a-gender-critical-belief-is-a-philosophical-belief-which-is-entitled-to-be-protected-under-the-equality-act-2010/
This should be enough to make organisations think twice about who they use for this sort of "training".

I'm going to have a quiet word with the organiser and ask that they research further before booking training providers. Then we'll see what happens during the training. I've made notes from here and elsewhere and will update afterwards.

You could

1. request in writing that they cancel the training
2. it's a philosophical/religious/political belief - not neutral
3. Maya's case shows that disagreeing with this belief is protected in law and employees should not be compelled to be trained in it
4. request neutral training that respects all human rights
5. attach a document of the abuse and impacts of this 'training' to your request to cancel the meeting
6. and keep a record of all conversations
7. if they persist and go ahead with the 'training', contact women's groups to get advice on what to do in the meeting and afterwards
8. go to the meeting and document /record everything
9. share what is said with women's groups and write a response
10. follow-up in writing with your response and document all conversations

[quote severnboring]Good luck OP - director of Diversity Trust has a long history of misogynist abuse and trying to shut down women meeting to discuss their rights:

www.thetimes.co.uk/article/police-used-violent-transgender-activist-for-equality-training-x0mktgclw

medium.com/@elsaegret/abusive-misogynist-activist-writes-nhs-policy-in-bristol-21dd02cc4c9c

medium.com/@elsaegret/stitch-up-bristol-fashion-f1eb298e28da[/quote]
This is evidence to attach to your request to your employer to cancel the training. Things have gone way past 'be nice' and 'let's discuss it' stage. request that they cancel the training, give the reasons why, and ask why would they NOT cancel it after learning this?

11. A Barrister ( such as Naomi Cunningham of @legalfeminist) can give a view on whether the training is lawful. Related case: University gender course offered by Advance HE is unlawful, barrister says

12. Campaign and crowdfund to stop employer “totalitarian and unlawful” training, that “promotes a controversial view of sex and gender” and constitutes “direct discrimination on grounds of philosophical belief,” and therefore would breach equality legislation.

www.thetimes.co.uk/article/ca314b74-6918-11e9-b5dd-262daa867e56?shareToken

Here's a share token for the Times article in case it's useful.

Good luck challenging it.

My challenge will have to be retrospective, as the training's taking place on Tuesday and the department that organised it aren't in on Mondays. Plus side, it gives me more time to prepare. I'm making a note of everyone's suggestions.

Good luck OP! Let us know how it goes.

If they start on toilets, discuss the clash between disabled/ill people needing a gap under the door to alert someone they have collapsed. My close family member can end up on the floor with no warning - so the gender free closed cubicles and disabled loos are no good because they have doors down to the floor. Also health and safety in a fire - if the gender-free door is locked, what do you do if you are trying to clear the area quickly?

So here are my thoughts after the training. It didn't come across dogmatic as I had feared it might. They talked abut LGB as much as T. Of course toilets came up, and they said they recognise that some people due to 'cultural or religious' reasons need 'single gender' spaces and so they recommended the creation of a neutral space that's not just the disabled loos.

I must admit I was surprised at this acknowledgement, which means there'd be no excuse for our company or any other to start converting women's loos into mixed sex spaces.

They recommended companies encourage the use of pronouns in their emails but that it shouldn't be enforced, and they provided links to other organisations including Mermaids but didn't go into a lot of detail about it.

I think it's a breakthrough if organisations like the Diversity Trust can accept that a third space is the way forward. Maybe others are starting to see reason too ... or am I just very naive?

they recognise that some people due to 'cultural or religious' reasons need 'single gender' spaces

Well at least it means that they don’t encourage sticking an “all genders” sign on the door of the ladies’! But are TW to use the neutral space or the “single gender” space?

If the neutral space is also for “binary trans people” then that’s a huge step forward.