Ministry of Defence employee

written by Anonymous

We have blogs on our internal websites and a man from the LGBTQ+ network wrote a blog on feminism but failed by conflating sex and gender in regards to sex discrimination and used Danielle Muscato as an example of a woman who has done good as a feminist. Anyone who is on Twitter will know this is a transwoman who says themselves they “can’t transition” has been publicly vocal about being violent towards women.

I have worked for this department for over 15 years and only seems that in the last few years there has been more and more pushing of Stonewall information (much of our department is fully signed up), but I really started to notice it in the last 12-18 months.

It does often seem that almost monthly there is an LGBTQ+ story to be told and being told we must be inclusive. There is the odd smattering of broader diversity with blogs that discuss race or disability, but not to the same degree as the LGBTQ+ gets.

That’s what is troubling, the focus is not balanced diversity and inclusion, it feels we are being told unless we focus on the ‘Stonewall inclusive” then it’s not the right sort of inclusive. Even videos from senior management convey this message which is quite chilling. But at least we haven’t been forced to use pronouns in emails yet, although many staff do.

We have blogs on our internal websites and a man from the LGBTQ+ network wrote a blog on feminism but failed by conflating sex and gender in regards to sex discrimination and used Danielle Muscato as an example of a woman who has done good as a feminist. Anyone who is on Twitter will know this is a transwoman who says themselves they “can’t transition” has been publicly vocal about being violent towards women. Thankfully, many women read this blog and corrected the author and even pointed out Danielle Muscato was a not positive figure at all mainly due to the violent and negative attitude they have towards women. Someone even commented discrimination against women was due to their sex and not their gender and it is by talking to women about their experiences of sex discrimination senior managers would understand what’s it’s like being a woman.

Recently an inclusion in the workplace information pack was released, which surprisingly was positive as it focussed on the diverse way in which people work, communicate, think and so forth. It really made the point of differences in people and how they work and how we need to consider this when working together. I found it refreshing as there was no ‘Stonewall agenda’ in it at all. What did not make sense though was the front page of the pack.

Among the non-descript cartoon-esque images of people, there were 2 flags. The rainbow and trans flags which are now seen as quite political by many. They had nothing to do with the pack’s content but it conveyed the message that diversity & inclusion only applies to the people who Stonewall support and that’s all that matters.

Why no logos or flags for the other protected characteristics? Are they not to be included as a diverse group of people? Again, the question needs to be asked, is it only the Stonewall inclusive that’s to be pushed and pushed?

There is also the farce of the “Gender Network” of which they attempt to appeal to women but totally turn me off as they use gender for the term sex. Oddly, the recent revision in civil service diversity training that talks about the protected characteristics has been corrected to say ‘Sex’ and in brackets it states ‘previously known as gender’. Someone clearly realised they are not the same and using it incorrectly means they aren’t aligning with the EA2010. So at least something is right, but we have a long way to go.

Few colleagues know my views as I fear it will impact my career. I know of one colleague who also agrees sex is what matters and you can’t change sex; and those brave women who comment on the Feminism blog I mentioned.

I can only hope the question raised at an all-staff audio call about ending the Stonewall Champion membership as the charity has shown it discriminates against women will be acted on. The response was that it will be reviewed as all schemes are when the time arises. I can only trust they see sense and leave.

NOTE from La Scapigliata: