My employer is no longer a Stonewall Champion!

[MagpiePi]

My employers are rolling out a new inclusion initiative and the literature and aims talks alot about minorities but specifically mentions groups such as prison leavers, ex-service people and refugees.

I attended an online presentation about D&I and there was a lot of talk about women and 'ethnic minorities' - nothing about specific about other alphabet groups.

I asked an annonymous question about how the presenters defined 'women' and 'female', and the woman that answered waffled a bit but basically said 'we will treat anyone that feels they are a woman as a woman' so I was a bit disappointed at that. (We do have a women's group, and they have activities but they always make a point of saying 'everyone is welcome'. Its all a bit 'lets not exclude the menz' 🙄)

I also asked annonymously about still being a Stonewall Champion and the answer was quite hesitant, but basically, no, because there were some 'issues' but there was no further explanations.

I am slightly optomistic, but we will see whether we get rainbow washed next year during pride month!

Oh well, a small win is still a win. We have to keep the GC momentum going and show them we won't capitulate.

(We do have a women's group, and they have activities but they always make a point of saying 'everyone is welcome'. Its all a bit 'lets not exclude the menz' 🙄) So not a women's group then. Perhaps ask them why they call a group for both sexes a "Women's" group. It's bloody ridiculous!

It's a positive step, well done them!

Great! Maybe let Sex Matters know so they can get out their permanent marker and score them off the list?

sex-matters.org/stonewall-champions-list/

This is good news. Credit where it's due: your company has clearly had a major rethink and has decided to row back from the T. Now your employer has indicated it has understood that Stonewall law was bad law, perhaps it's time to start a new women's group at work, one for biological women only. I'm sure most of the women in the other women's group will come and join you and then you'll be able to identify who the trans-allies are. Is there an LGB group? Try and find a GC lesbian to set one up.

I'm very jealous.
Mine is a Stonewall top 25 employer and joy.of joys, it's "Inclusion Week"! Whoo 🥳

I'm debating whether to start a thread on the absolute tripe I was asked to read & make sense of as part of "Everybody's Welcome" training. I'm still unsure what a female transwoman is 🤷‍♀️

Yep, mine (HEI) has been blowing the trumpet about inclusion week... One of the recent tweets from our people development twitter account has been about the benefits of declaring your pronouns and about where to pick up your 'pronoun badge' 🤮

Interesting how many HEIs are still Stonewall champions.

Though was on a zoom training course earlier with people from different HEIs and I was heartened to see that only two out of 17 had their pronouns declared next to their name. Small wins and all...

Mention that the few non inclusion weeks are feeling excluded

Mine too! We are reviewing all our d&I training so not sure what will come from that but it feels like a move in the right direction.

That sounds sensible. And congratulations, OP!

Did your organisation mention how they're going to promote LGB inclusion?

It's in the inclusion report that also discusses the inclusion of people with disabilities, older workers and young employees in the workplace, pregnant women and breastfeeding mothers, maternity / paternity leave, sex, racial and religious discrimination in the work place, provision of sex based facilities and other facilities for those who wish to share with the opposite sex, plus the implications of the glass ceiling, the sex pay gap and lots more. As most people belong to a number of protected groups, intelligent workplaces ensure that policies promoting inclusion take account of all potential needs.

My workplace is fully Stonewalled. It's quite depressing really. And when anyone tries to gently raise any entirely factual issues with Stonewall it gets met with a tirade about transphobia.

It's a local Coucil and so we're really short of cash, services are being shut down and yet we can throw money at this nonsense.

They've just asked us to fill in our diversity information based on protected characteristics which, unsurprisingly, they have got wrong. I've pointed out that gender reassignment is protected but gender identity is not.

They also ask for gender and gender identity. I pointed out it should be sex and stressed how important it is for the poor marginalised (delusional) folx to have both their sex and gender identity recorded correctly so services can be adequately provided.

Additionally I requested a None option for gender identity as there is for religion as not believing in gender identity is a protected belief as shown by the Maya Forstater case.

I got a ranting response about transphobia from a blue haired corporate diversity champion and I'm waiting for it to be escalated.

I'm so sick of this shit at work.

So sorry to hear that, CornedBeef - best wishes.

Given that Stonewall are incessant supporters of Mermaids, sharing their current paedophile scandal is worth considering.

Depressing indeed, but well done on continuing to escalate it. I think a lot of employers/organisations rely on people getting exhausted and giving up.

And the Maya judgement is essential to raise in terms of self protection. I think if some diversity person from my local authority was foolish enough to accuse me of transphobia in writing, I'd consider raising a grievance against them (if I had the energy).
Sympathies CornedBeef451

Thanks everyone. @MrsOvertonsWindow that is a good idea, I'll read the email again and see if it's worth doing.

I had conflated 2 things, the email was stonewalled but not accusatory, the ranting was on Yammer. I will respond to the Yammer rant though, she/they whatever clearly states anyone gender critical or who questions Stonewall is a transphobic bigot.

I have been attending online LGBTQ+ training things to try and find like minded women.

We all speak in guarded terms in the groups but one woman I contacted said she is now scared to say she is a lesbian to the LGBTQ+ group which is madness. That group is now more homophobic than the general workplace!

Gosh, I never really expected anyone to respond to my OP; it was more of a statement for my own satisfaction really.

I must say Ifound it impossible to find out indirectly whether my employer was still a SW champion - the list on the SW site is only for the top 100 or however many it is, and there was nothing obvious on the company intranet. I am hoping that they concluded that SW were toxic and quietly broke the bonds.

I have looked at the info my company have published about the 'new' inclusion initiative and am pleased to say it does ispecifically mentions some actual marginalised groups including ex-prisoners, ex-military, refugees etc.

I will contact sex-matters.org though.

@MagpiePi that is good news!

I have just publicly listed organisations that have left stonewall on our internal comms thing and wondered if it might be worth looking into. I feel a bit sick now, it shouldn't feel so dangerous just to ask questions.

My employers will likely be amongst the last people in the country to drop their affiliation with this insidious organisation, and even that will probably only happen after the house of cards has come tumbling down.

It's interesting that some of the most captured universities, most notably a large cluster of elite Scottish ones, were early additions to the list of institutions severing ties with Stonewall. Looking at the dire state of women's rights in Scotland right now it's a safe deduction that there are widescale concerns about this, albeit fear of becoming the next Kathleen Stock might well be preventing people from speaking openly.

Meantime I wear a black lanyard, decline to plaster my pronouns across my digital communications, boycott organisations with mixed changing areas and quietly crowd-fund and support challenges to the onslaught against women's rights. And wait ...

A little off topic, but why the opposition to Inclusion Week? My work do it and we have anti-racism talks, cultural-focused webinars, etc...?