Civil servants from Rayner’s ministry creating ‘hostile’ environment by ‘pressuring’ female colleagues to sign petition against single sex provision of toilets

[IwantToRetire]

Civil servants in <a class="break-all" href="https://archive.is/o/YdM6A/www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2026/09/07/labour-red-queen-angela-rayner-housing-secretary/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Angela Rayner’s department are protesting against new rules banning trans staff from using women’s lavatories.

The Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) wants to ensure only biological women can use <a class="break-all" href="https://archive.is/o/YdM6A/www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2026/08/20/unions-fight-ehrc-trans-women-single-sex-space-unison-n/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">female toilets and changing rooms to comply with last year’s landmark <a class="break-all" href="https://archive.is/o/YdM6A/www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2025/04/16/what-does-the-transgender-rights-ruling-mean/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Supreme Court ruling.

But officials in the department have launched a petition to demand the changes be dropped because they put trans and non-binary people at “risk of humiliation and harassment”.

One civil servant told The Telegraph she was “ambushed” by campaigners on her way into work on Tuesday morning, asking her to sign the petition, which made her feel “very uncomfortable”.

Full article at https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2026/09/15/civil-servants-revolt-trans-lavatory-ban/ and at https://archive.is/YdM6A

Burnham must face down the pro-trans fanatics, even if he suffers for it. The PM cannot afford to allow his desire for personal popularity to compromise the hard-won rights of women

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2026/09/15/burnham-must-face-down-the-pro-trans-fanatics/ And also https://archive.is/TLMq3

Thanks for the link.
The people who are being pressured to sign need to say NO, how fucking hard is it to say NO, N O spells NO, we used to say it all the time when we were kids, how come adults can't say it now.

I'd say it doesn't matter how many petitions they raise, the laws the law and they're not above it. Top management should be coming down hard on these troublemakers, but I might as well save my breath to cool my porridge, it's probably top management who are organising the damn things. 😡

Andy Pandy's isn't going to do anything, he's spineless and he couldn't careless about women's right's, if they have to be sacrificed in order for Labour to stay in power, it's a sacrificed he'll be willing to make.

FGS why can't these civil servants just DO THEIR JOBS. They are required to be independent, not lobby their employer to BREAK THE LAW. I despair.

As civil servants, shouldn't they be aware that a petition can't change the law?

When i think of what Maya Forstater went through for doing essentially nothing bad and these people will suffer no consequences for being far, far worse. Definitely, at the very least, creating a hostile working environment for people who don't believe in gender ideological fantasies.

Let alone that the Government seems to be ignoring work place bullying.

Or maybe the women who are being bullied are only too aware that the HR department has been transed and they will be told it is up to them to be supportive of trans issues, and accept that TRAs have a right to be angry at having their "rights taken away".

I think that would make me feel quite uncomfortable. It’s the public / work interface, I think: colleagues around & one might not be happy in saying no in front of them. In fact it looks like quite a good scheme for identifying wrong-thinkers.

Plus we know how consequences have been visited upon women who stuck their necks out.

I don't understand. Why isn't it gross misconduct for a civil servant to petition at work against following the law?

Didn't civil servantsyused to have some kind of obligation to be politically impartial, to support the elected government and to follow the law as made by Parliament?

Did they never have such an obligation? Or what's changed?

I noticed this article by Baroness Faulkner which I think is pertinent to this thread

https://www.skipthepaywall.com/read?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.thetimes.com%2Fcomment%2Fcolumnists%2Farticle%2Fpublic-sector-inclusion-trans-rights-pride-jzl0snhgh

I hope the link works. I've not been able to archive Times articles for a while but this site seems to work for the most part, or the original article can be found here

https://www.thetimes.com/comment/columnists/article/public-sector-inclusion-trans-rights-pride-jzl0snhgh

“Wouid you like to sign this petition?”
”No, thank you.”

I mean, imagine being outed at work for having a protected characteristic - that must be awful!

Thanks no time to read now if full. But will come back and maybe see the reaction to the debate she is opening.

Definitely something needs to be done.

If the institutions that are meant to have the care of all of us are captured by a tiny group how is that appropriate.

Thanks, I'll read it later, she's always worth paying attention to. 👍

Different govt dept, PCS union held a meeting titled "PCS: resisting transphobic changes you our staff policies". Everyone can see the details. The "harmful changes" allegedly "prohibit staff from using facilities of their affirmed gender". Launching a petition to HR.

No one should ever be forced or pressurised into signing any petition. How you choose to lobby for change should be your choice.

I’m sure all pp’s are well aware of how uncomfortable (or downright unsustainable) it can be at work (or in a friend group) if you’re outed as GC in an environment which has been transed. It’s a weird topic on which, somehow, in some people’s eyes, alternative views are not available. I don’t understand how people can fail to recognise the impacts on women’s rights…..but in some places that’s how it is.

So, those saying ‘just say no’ might take a moment to consider the implications for individuals doing that. Worse, of course, having bullied some people who don’t agree into signing it leaves others feeling even more isolated.

So no LlynTegid, how anyone lobbies for change should not be entirely up to them

Activists are definitely aware of the power of isolating individuals who hold different views. This is why SEEN networks attract such vitriol

Activist nutjob in your face: 'are you a Good Girl who doesn't want privacy, dignity or to say no to men?'

(Are you now or have you ever been a communist?)

Yes, fuck that.

We just need projected on every building the counter message to the one projected some years back: Other People Have Rights Too. Deal With It.

Because this is not about wanting 'a' facility, or equality of provision, it's now solely and entirely about 'I don't want them to be permitted equality or provision at all, prove you love me more than them'.

Divisive, disturbed, disordered, and not anything a healthy workplace should be indulging.

Aren’t there any activist lawyers who support women’s rights? How easy would it be for a woman, let’s do one nearing the end if career with little to lose, to refuse to sign, notice everyone acts a little off with her, and then to sue?

You’d be surprised at how thick some CS are. Especially those in non-Whitehall policy roles but it also seems in this case, very much WH.

So the department is following the law. The story has nothing to do with Angela Rayner or Andy Burnham - and you’ve still made it about him / the Labour Party.

well done.

Sack these twats. That's absolutely unacceptable.

I agree. If you're a civil servant believing the law is optional and that gay people and women should be sacrificed to cross dressing men, you should not be a civil servant. Whose job requires both impartiality and a basic grip.

Thanks I can't take credit for it through, it's easy peesy, the civil service work for the government, if the government can't get it's own house in order, what chance do we have of it running the country effectively.

As a former civil servant and SEEN member, it is not just a case of refusing to sign the petition and that be the end of it. The response to the SEEN (network) shows that you would then be on the activist list for non compliance. This is demonstrated by the efforts to shut down SEEN but also various tactics used to find out who were/are members. That isn't a reason to refuse to sign it but just a further indication of the hostile environment to GC people within the civil service and the desire to isolate them.

Posters promoting SEEN in that building are regularly torn down by activist staff members. As SunnyViewer says, it would not be seen as neutral to refuse to sign the petition, and you may well find your job becomes at risk. It is an incredibly hostile environment for GC people.