Is this massively inappropriate or should I just accept that this is where I work...?

[RoadSidePicnic]

This morning I have opened up my company Teams platform to a message wishing all staff a happy Trans Visibility Day. And a photo of three beer cans from a trans owned business.

There will be some sort of social tonight for people to enjoy a trans beer.

They always do this. We already have a progress flag flying in the office and one of my colleagues with a "non binary" partner (who is constantly pushing this nonsense I should add) wears his Protect the Dolls t-shirt constantly. It's tiresome.

Does anyone else have to put up with this shit at work?

Maybe I shouldn't get too specific but we are a company that serves the technology sector (tech sector is expansive, so shouldn't be too outing). We're private sector.

Oh, and the other week they posted a thing about supporting Gendered Intelligence, a sister charity to Mermaids! I looked them up, they are dodgy as fuck (and you should see the group photo of the team, my god....).

Anyone else?

Exactly.

Snd them Simon Fanshawe's stuff. He's got an impeccable activist & diversity pedigree as a founder of Stonewall, and now runs a company advising on real diversity.

Thanks for all your replies. Many have helped me find the humour in this.

Forgot to say, my line manager is massively on board the gender ideology train too, so I can't go to him. He's almost a decade older, married and has no kids. He's lovely in every regard, but here he's captured.

Unfortunately I'm in the minority at this company, I know because a lot of people put their pro nouns in their signatures....

The PTD t-shirt does annoy me though. Dolls are inanimate objects with no agency that little girls (and some boys) play with in childhood. OR they are inanimate sex toys that have no agency for perverts. That's it. Actual women - AHFs - are NOT dolls: We're rational, free thinking, autonomous individuals.

If the workplace generally and the hours and flexibility fit with your requirements then I would stick with it and blank out all the woke shit. Nothng is ever perfect.

I know. You always have to compromise somewhere along the way. My grandparents generation had to deal with worse working conditions and than I face. It's probably just one of those things....

😂

You think this is hate? My son's great grandparents had to outrun Mussolini's goons in 1930s / 40s Rome to avoid being put in concentration camps. That was hate. You don't live in the real world, you just want to be a victim. Badly.

Also, the view that biological sex is immutable, binary, and should take precedence over gender identity in law and society is generally commonplace in the UK, in 2026. Sorry to break it to you.

Yep, that's why you have to hide it at work, while trans people live loud and proud, because it's that transphobic view that's common place.

And hey, I escaped from a country that wanted to kill me for being trans and gay but sure, please keep telling me about what I know 😘. Happy sitting in the closet, I am off to celebrate in my trans flag top 🤘

Ok dear.

You keep playing the victim if it makes you happy.

Men aren't women, though.

Interestingly, I've checked my work intranet thing today and there's nothing about trans visibility unless you click into the specific LGBTQ+ section where it, understandably, has centre stage.

Historically this would be front page news with a webinar, some intimate personal account (some of them have been so inappropriate for work!) and maybe a cake sale for some highly dubious org.
Today the front page just contains stuff about, well... work.

I'd be interested to know what's changed 🤔

Oh dear, for some reason, I just thought of Aimee Challenor.

I escaped from a country that wanted to kill me for being trans and gay

And yet another prolific poster recently told us that literally all the rest of the world is just cool AF with people being trans and it's just nasty ol' terf island that has a problem with sex n gender n all that stuff

You can't believe anyone nowadays...

oh stop the hyperbole. In fact it is the transactivists constant screeching and caterwauling about how marginalised they are that is putting people off supporting trans people.

That is what should be concerning trans people and their allies. Not the fact that many people are waking up to the grift.

Any news on the Beer, OP? i would definitely want to be asking about that since i am definitely 100% against organisations (especially employers) promoting the consumption of alcohol.

Yes I was thinking about this. Using the right toilet for your sex at work is apparently so outing as a trans person but making workplaces take part in trans day of visibility where presumably trans employees are highlighted and, er, visible is very important. As ever it makes total sense.

I'm really sorry you're being put through this, just to stay in a job that you need. And sadly , that you used to like.

I agree with posters who say you probably have to keep your head down and ignore all the nonsense about Trans Visibility - can you think of another 'marginalised minority' that has so much visibility? 🙄

If you feel you can and should say something, I'd go down the route of 'maintaining a professional workplace'. It's not professional to wear t-shirts with contentious slogans/promote alcohol/force attention on disputed issues.
For every 'Protect The Dolls' t-shirt, there could be any number of alternative t-shirts in the workplace, from 'Adult Human Female' to a whole range of political views from both extremes. Where does it all end? Best to maintain a neutral space for everybody of all beliefs to work in.

A professional workplace should not encourage people to bring their 'whole selves' into work, they should only bring their professional selves, and leave their niche opinions, and related clothing items, at home.

That's a neutral way to complain - it's not criticising the content, it's criticising the very fact that any campaigning, including but not solely for the transgender movement, does not belong in the workplace.

But I understand that even that might be too much for you, and that's OK, you don't have to speak up if it would put you in a difficult position.

As PPs have said, your employer has responsibilities under Workplace regs etc around provision of single-sex toilets.

And if company DEI policy is ignoring disability, that's unacceptable not because it's a 'gotcha' about their genderwoo obsession, that's a stark injustice to disabled people and shows up the poor quality of DEI policy and training.

@SockPlant

Any news on the Beer, OP? i would definitely want to be asking about that since i am definitely 100% against organisations (especially employers) promoting the consumption of alcohol.

Our industry is sort of known for socialising and networking. One boss always goes on about how much he has to drink at work events and tech conferences (and how bad the hang over is), the other one is now tee total because he realised he had a problem with alcohol (and over eating at some point). So it's all part and parcel of where we sit within the industry ecosystem.

The beer company in question is called Closet Brewing, and based on Scotland. Sure they're not 0.0%.

I drink rarely but it's not something I wouldn't raise as an issue, it would be a bit out of character for me. I'm not bothered either way by the drink aspect so seems a bit churlish to use it as a Trojan Horse to get my point across. Last time supporting trans orgs (the gendered intelligence thing) was about buying coffee beans for the communal coffee machine So it's this now, something else next time. Any old excuse basically.

Happy to report it's only had about five likes in terms of engagement (I don't think there are a lots of people on AL) so maybe the tide really has turned (perhaps the pro nouns people are the minority and I just find that noticeable).

Posts like this make me so glad I wfh freelance and have nothing to do with office politics 😬

Is it a Teams channel this is on or a general page?

but for now head down, don’t engage & if asked say you feel it is such a shame everyone feels they need to be labelled & categorised. As a free spirit you are not able to relate.

maybe say how much you are looking forward to the next Olympic Games & fair competition!

I thought the whole point of being trans was so that they weren’t ‘visible’ and that they just blended in? They just want to live their lives quietly in the gender that they identify with, or so we’ve been told!

A positive change may be to set up / suggest some ‘communities’ to bring focus to other events. If there is budget for a trans event, there may also be budget for a neurodiversity / cultural / special day event.

My org was really hot on Pride and trans stuff (we still have some cans of beer at the back of the fridge from Queer Brewing from a past social) but in the last year they have really stepped up to highlight other topics.
We just had a big Neurodiversity Week celebration with quizzes, lots of content and posts, plus we have various internal networks for different groups (LGBT, Asian, Spanish-speaking, Parenting, Environment, Volunteering, Pets, etc)

You might find your colleagues are interested in this kind of thing. If not, I can strongly recommend giving an internal eye roll, avoiding the performative posts and hoopla as much as possible, and just getting on with doing your job day to day.

Does your company do anything for Ada Lovelace Day? Maybe it would be worth raising the idea of celebrating closer to October? Just to even things up in your mind, if nothing else.

i think that DEI can be a good thing for a company. But what i would like to see is all of the protected characteristics represented in a "day" company wide. So i can be on board with a trans day of visibility, if there are days for the others too.

Age
Disability
Gender reassignment
Marriage and civil partnership
Pregnancy and maternity
Race
Religion or belief
Sex
Sexual orientation

As far as i know this is an alphabetical list of the characteristics, so for eg a day for Disability, or pregnancy/maternity might be good. Definitely one for age, race and religion. Picking one out for special treatment is a bit - meh. (especially as it is always that one that gets highlighted - very easy to hand out progress pride lanyards, much more difficult to tackle accessibility in the workplace)

Excellent!

Closet Brewing, this one? Raising money for the Good Law Project?! What a sensible investment of any funds raised.

And a business founded by a heterosexual couple, with a giant sized man larping as a woman. One hell of an adam's apple on him. And how do they know the pronouns of Bernie the dog?

Oh, and the larping man has got himself included as a "female" mentee for the Women in Beer community. 🙄

Argh. These fucking people.

In a revelation that will surprise no one, it’s the male half of this couple that is the self-taught brewer and his wife does the marketing. There was me hoping there might be a smidge of beer-based feminism involved. There are female beer-brewers out there, but this ain’t one of them. But according to them, they are ‘two queer women, in an industry dominated by straight men’ 🙄

I’d be willing to bet they ascertained their dog’s pronouns by looking at his winkie, like every dog owner in history.