BBC staff have been told there are more than 150 genders, and they must develop their “trans brand” by declaring their pronouns on email sign-offs. Ewan Somerville in the Telegraph has more.
The Telegraph has obtained material provided to radio staff by Global Butterflies, a transgender group that the BBC drafted in for training sessions last summer and autumn.
Emails were sent to radio producers and programme editors, some from heads of departments, urging them to attend the training.
During the sessions, leaked to the Telegraph, staff were shown an array of gender-neutral pronouns they should use including “xe, xem, xyrs”, and were told: “People can self-identify themselves in over 150 ways, and increasing!”
Staff were told they should include their pronouns in email signature boxes to be “part of your trans brand” as an “inclusive and welcoming… brilliant show of ally support”.
The Global Butterflies trainer told staff that “he/she” pronouns “can create “discomfort, stress and anxiety” for gender non-conforming people and “it has been shown that in young trans people, using correct pronouns and names reduces depression and suicide risks”.
The diversity training said: “If you overhear a colleague using the incorrect pronouns for someone, take them aside and remind them of the correct pronouns.”
Staff were shown a diagram of pronoun badges that they could wear around offices, and shown how to use gender pronouns on air. They were also urged to avoid the terms transsexual and transvestite, and told that “nudging” or “staring” are transphobic.
A whistleblower told the Telegraph the BBC was “suppressing stories” that challenge trans activism and claimed there is a “tight-knit cabal at the top of BBC News who give tacit approval to gender ideology”.
The whistleblower urged the BBC’s Director General Tim Davie to “get a grip” and remind the corporation’s human resources and diversity departments that “licence fee payers pay their salaries and expect staff to be trained by impartial trainers”.
“The BBC simply doesn’t understand what’s going on with gender identity ideology,” the source, a senior staff member who recently quit the corporation, said.
“They’ve been pandering to a social contagion amongst young people rather than being the adult in the room. ‘Inform and educate’ from the BBC Charter has left the BBC when it covers trans issues.”
Worth reading in full.
Incidentally, any BBC staff under pressure to declare their preferred gender pronouns should check out the Free Speech Union’s FAQs on how you can push back against this.
Stop Press: If you can’t get past the Telegraph’s paywall, MailOnline also has the story.
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