Just left the Chartered Institute of Fundraising’s Annual Convention. Ok admit I didn’t expect it to be a bundle of joy, but did expect to learn something and even maybe a bit of networking.
The Plenary Session was billed “Dr Julia Shaw is a German-Canadian psychologist, a memory hacker, an artificial intelligence scientist and champion of better workplace environments, working actively to solve problems relating to harassment and discrimination.”
To be fair she started off ok, discussed being bisexual in the workplace then listed some of the protected characteristics age, pregnancy, sex AND gender. Not gender reassignment.
However, thought I’d give her a it of leeway, she’s Canadian (or German-Canadian, whatever the hell that is), so obviously didn't understand the UK protected characteristics.
She proceeded to do a half hour sales pitch, on something she sells, which I completely switched off to, then discussed how being bisexual was rarely mentioned in work settings.
Near the end of the session as I was beginning to relax (fall asleep), the kool aid kicked in. The “interviewer” mentioned using pronouns in her emails to be inclusive. Blah blah normal crap.
Dr Shaw then advised reporting anyone talking negatively about pronouns!!!
Let me say that again, at a IoF Conference it was advised to report anyone (just) talking negatively about pronouns!!!
Reporting to who I’m not sure, the police? HR? Your mum?
She then spent 10 minutes discussing the whole alphabet of genders. Apparently you can wake up homosexual one day, heterosexual the next and then wake up bisexual.
The audience of IofF was (approx) 98% white, 75% woman and 65% middle aged.
They’re going to go back a spout this shit to their organisations. These people are on the whole good, kind, caring people, working on a lower than average wage as they are passionate about their charity.
I despair, I really do. It’s never going to end is it?