On A live Diversity and inclusion webinar...

[AhhWoof]

They are only talking about gender. I've just asked whether they also collect data on sex as a protected characteristic under the Equality Act. Interested to see what they're going to say....

Any response yet?

Skirted the qu magnificently! Initially 'misunderstood' me and thought I meant sexual orientation. When pulled up they were awkward and said if I wanted to distinguish sex and gender that we should talk to lawyers...

Just so sad that capturing sex as opposed to just gender is so bloody contentious

Just had this argument with my boss about an equality survey collecting gender not sex, totally meaningless stats.

Why would they need to talk to lawyers?

Either they think sex & gender are different (in which case they should be collecting data on sex as per the equality act)
or they think they are the same (in which case the 'safer' thing to do would be to use the term sex as per the equality act).

if I wanted to distinguish sex and gender that we should talk to lawyers...

Eh? They can't identify people's sex without a lawyer?

I'm not popular. They've gone on to say you could just add a free text box under the gender qu so that 'people can write what they want' but there seems to be no comprehension that sex is not gender.

Interestingly though they've said you should allow self ID for all qus, inc ethnicity, immigration status etc. A total Walter Mitty world!

How can you self id immigration status???

@AhhWoof, you may not be popular with them but you are with me.

If they're allowing self identification for immigration status they definitely do need a lawyer.

Interestingly though they've said you should allow self ID for all qus, inc ethnicity, immigration status etc.

There are pretty clear criminal laws about what data companies must collect on immigration data. Self IDing that would attract big fines.

said if I wanted to distinguish sex and gender that we should talk to lawyers...

If they want to ignore the law and conflate them, then tbh I think it's them (whoever they are) to check with their lawyers.

said if I wanted to distinguish sex and gender that we should talk to lawyers...

If it takes a lawyer to determine how the Equality Act 2010 should be applied and organisations can't work it out by reading it themselves, then all the people it's supposed to help are rather fucked, aren't they?

If this is being paid for by your employer then I’d alert them as it seems rubbish training

[quote Rightsraptor]@AhhWoof, you may not be popular with them but you are with me.

If they're allowing self identification for immigration status they definitely do need a lawyer.[/quote]
So your employer is paying a lot of money to have a corporate training company tell you that you can self-identity into literally anything....?

@lanadelgrey

If this is being paid for by your employer then I’d alert them as it seems rubbish training

Money for old rope.

Many moons ago I used to work for a care provider and a large proportion of my work was checking the immigration status of staff, well all of the above actually. Now plenty of people do try to self ID their immigration status but it's not just them who get into trouble if they get away with it.

I would give proper feedback to your management or HR because they are giving very dangerous and illegal advice.

"if I wanted to distinguish sex and gender that we should talk to lawyers..."

That says it all. They are shit scared of this ideology.

I filled in feedback on a survey today and told them sex should be collected and not gender and why. I'm curious to see what happens because they normally give me feedback on my feedback. I'm even more curious to see if I stop getting work.

Are lawyers particularly good at determining people's sex?

I did not know that.

I know a few lawyers who spend a lot of time working on that.

If you wish to discuss biology, please contact your lawyer.

What the fuck.

@CheeseMmmm

Are lawyers particularly good at determining people's sex?

I did not know that.

Maybe thats what they mean by "You only have a 3rd grade knowledge of sex". Maybe you need an LLB to fully understand biological sex, which granted is a new one on me, but then I never studied law (apart from Law & Order SVU and LA Law)