Work neurodiversity network and equality training

[DreamingBe]

My public sector work neurodiversity network has sent around a directory to employees which includes all the usual charities including Mermaids. No LBG Alliance or similar, although they've asked for suggestions for anything they may have missed to be included on a future bulletin. I'd like to send them a list and question the wisdom of promoting mermaids, but I'm worried about outing myself!

They're heavily promoting this workshop: http://autismahandsonapproach.co.uk/giworkshop/

The last workshop I went to promoted by the staff ND network was supposed to be about neurodiversity in women but about 9/10s of it was navel gazing about the speakers' gender identities and nothing to do with the promoted topics. I kept waiting for the actual discussion to start, and it never did!

We've just been asked for our views on what subjects should be included for workplace equality / diversity training, and I'd like to give some suggestions as I'm concerned that the ND network are clearly heavily captured and may make it all about trans issues and leave out the rest of the protected characteristics. We already have issues at work with data collection being muddied by unclear gender/sex questions, which could have a significant impact on the public, and I'm worried about the stuff that could impact on staff like single sex toilets, gender pay gap reporting etc. Are there any good threads or webpages to look at that will help me to make suggestions without coming across as a bigot?

Thank you for sharing. I’m autistic/ADHD (both diagnosed in adulthood after years of poor MH) and the queering of neurodiversity is making me so sad and angry.

I was at a meeting last year about self harm awareness training for schools and lots was mentioned about a specific session for LGBTQ… (can’t remember which extra letters were in vogue at the time) because that community is higher risk etc. Ok fair enough. But when I asked about a session about neurodivergence and self harm (as there is a huge link) I was told, oh but they’re included in the LGBTetc because lots of autistic people are trans…

I saw lots of nodding heads when I replied that neurodivergence and self harm needed to be its own session because not everyone identifies into that community, but otherwise, tumbleweed and I’ve not heard about any follow up.

But oh well, I’m developing my own training now. 😁

Sorry, no actual advice from me there I just ranted!

My suggestion would be:
If you are doing training on one element of potential diversity then you need to do them all. And perhaps they all need vetting so that they don't link to charities that are being investigated by the Charities Commission!

And I'd suggest that they should really concentrate on disability as it is the main one that had the most impact on people.

My inclination would be asking for the evidence base that any of this training is effective.

My dh recently had training on “allyship in the professional workplace “ which was surprisingly broad in its content, and not “captured” tomorrow I’ll ask him what it covered as he was really impressed

The last workshop I went to promoted by the staff ND network was supposed to be about neurodiversity in women but about 9/10s of it was navel gazing about the speakers' gender identities and nothing to do with the promoted topics. I kept waiting for the actual discussion to start, and it never did!

I would be inclined to raise the suggestion that this is potentially indirect discrimination of autistic people with gender critical beliefs under the Equality Act 2010, the relevant protected characteristic here being philosophical belief (see the Forstater case for details of how GC beliefs fall under the EA).

Autistic people who believe in gender identity ideology are receiving support with their autism, especially as it relates to their belief in gender identity ideology, whereas gender critical autistic people aren't receiving the same level of support and are left to feel excluded and potentially discriminated against by the very experience of attending training that was meant to benefit them.

Autistic people who don't believe in gender ideology were denied valuable training on autism that their colleagues who believe in gender identity ideology received. It's tantamount to running a training for everyone on autism and then speaking exclusively about how autism affects Christians in the context of their faith.

The way the company has framed this training with no caveat that the content is specific to people who subscribe to gender identity ideology could also potentially lead to instances of direct discrimination under the category of disability or philosophical belief, because if employees have been taught that autism necessarily incorporates beliefs on gender identity, well-meaning colleagues might assume that someone with autism necessarily subscribes to gender identity ideology, which could lead to a gender critical autistic employee experiencing direct discrimination in respect of their disability (through lack of appropriate understanding of autism), their gender critical beliefs (by being othered or bullied), or both.

Furthermore, the workplace is actively cultivating an environment whereby employees are being trained to associate autism with gender identity ideology and to recognise their autistic colleagues needs and behaviour arising from their autism as being inextricably linked to gender identity ideology. This potentially discriminates against gender critical autistic people.

If an employee who's not autistic and doesn't know much about gender identity ideology attends the training in order to learn and better support their autistic colleagues, how would they recognise which parts of the training are relevant to autistic women generally and which are specific to autistic women who believe in gender identity ideology, for example?

I think the main point is that either they are running this training to educate people, in which case they need to be much clearer about differentiating autism from gender identity ideology when discussing these issues in training settings, or they assume that everyone already understands where autism ends and where gender identity ideology begins, in which case why are they even bothering to train anyone if it's already obvious to everyone?