The Department of the Interior says its plans «go beyond compliance»; Photo: Jeff Overs
New Home Office diversity guidelines suggest that public servants who regularly change their gender identity should be protected from discrimination.
The Department's Official Gender Reassignment and Gender Identity Guidelines define «gender identity» as «an internal, deeply rooted sense of one's gender» that «may change regularly.»
The term is used by activists to describe people. who want to identify as a gender other than their biological sex, which can be female, male, or other «identities» such as agender and bigender.
The Home Office describes its diversity plans as going «out of compliance framework” with the Equality Act 2010 to include “gender identity and expression”.
The Equality Act protects people from discrimination based on age, disability, gender reassignment, marriage and civil partnership, pregnancy and motherhood, race, religion or belief, gender, and sexual orientation.
Inclusion Roadmap
Roadmap The Department of the Interior on Inclusion, which was launched in September 2021 and updated earlier in 2023, boasts «over 150 initiatives across the department» to increase diversity and inclusion.
The plan outlines a strategy to increase diversity in the Home Office and will run from 2021 to 2025.
The document calls one of the “Five Key Principles” “going beyond compliance” and describes it as follows: “Going beyond framework of the nine protected characteristics set out in the Equality Act 2010, we will look at broader aspects of identity such as gender.”
The Roadmap outlines the «strategic shifts» that need to be made to achieve its goals, which are described as «Fundamentals of Inclusion and Diversity», which «relate to priority groups, including protected characteristics, as outlined in the Roadmap». Equality Act.”
After listing the legally protected characteristics, the document states: “We also recognize groups with broader characteristics, including gender identity and expression, caregivers, reservists and veterans, and socioeconomic status '.
The Roadmap also details various «actions» to achieve its goals before its completion in 2025.
These include the continuation and development of «listening circles that allow all employees to share life experiences with others in a safe place», the introduction of a «revised Diversity and Inclusion Education for All system at the Department of the Interior», and ensuring that all junior and middle level employees there is a «leadership goal that includes inclusive behavior.»
«Omnisexual Visibility Day»
Another action, which began in January 2022 and ended in September of that year, was to “create diversity on boards through the voluntary completion of diversity questionnaires.” The paper then goes on to say that senior government officials “should share their life experiences through blogs or at events organized by staff support networks to showcase diverse career paths.”
The roadmap also promises to “develop new content.” , including videos and images, with a focus on diversity» to «enhance communication in an inclusive and accessible way.»
Interior Ministry Intranet targeted at officials featuring publications from 2022-2023 discussing «International Day of Asexuality», which celebrates people with little or no sexual attraction, «Omnisexual Visibility Day», referring to people who are attracted to everything gender identities, and «non-sexuality». Binary Awareness Week, which was held in the department from July 10 to 16, 2023.
According to the blog, a non-binary person is defined as a person with a «gender identity that does not fit into the binary combination of male and female.»< /p>Ask people for pronouns
The message encourages civil servants to ask people for pronouns, explaining that “different non-binary people may use different pronouns,” including “they/them” and “neo pronouns like Ze/Zir.”
“Roadmap Inclusion” is one of several plans to promote diversity in the Ministry of the Interior.
In May 2023, the Ministry launched its “Racial Discrimination Action Plan”, which aims to bring “ethnic diversity to the Ministry of the Interior”, and in May 2021, the Ministry of the Interior presented its Action Plan for Gender Equality.
Conservative MP Tim Lawton, who sits on the Home Affairs Select Committee, said: «Public officials should not include their own policies in official plans and communications.< /p>
Tim Lawton thinks civil servants should focus more on their «core role»;
“I wonder how many men/women/other hours the Home Office staff spent creating a whole new vocabulary on how not to hurt people's feelings about what words are used to describe them.
“If only The Home Office spent the same amount of time on an exclusion program that would be closer to their core role of keeping out people who are not eligible to be in the UK and excluding criminals from society by putting them behind bars.
< p>Dr. Anna Lutfi, equality and human rights lawyer for the Bad Law Project, criticized the policy, telling The Telegraph: «This is completely irresponsible on the part of the Home Office.»
«Civil servants seem creating law under the guise of diversity and inclusiveness through its own internal policies and leadership.
“Under our constitution, elected members of parliament determine the law, in this case, the characteristics of which are protected by the Equality Act.”
“Public servants do not have the right to go beyond compliance and arbitrarily make decisions” to recognize groups, including gender identity.
“Equality law either means something or not, you cannot create new characteristics and demand protection on a whim.»
«This can lead to widespread abuse and even anarchy.»
Richard Theis, leader of the Reform Party, said: law, or frankly, she should start firing people until the penny drops.
«Society is fed up with gender ideology being promoted in publicly funded bodies, and despite endless promises from ministers, nothing ever changes.»
A spokesman for the Department of the Interior stated: The Inclusion Roadmap is an internal policy document for the Department of the Interior that focuses on a diverse and inclusive workforce. It does not govern any departmental operational policies or procedures.»
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