The Royal Navy has issued guidelines urging its personnel to use inclusive pronouns and address issues like white privilege. The Telegraph has the story.
Royal Navy personnel are being told to introduce themselves with their pronouns before meetings in official guidance seen by the Telegraph.
A guide on trans and non-binary awareness tells staff: “Introducing yourself with your pronouns at the start of meetings and interactions is a good way to be inclusive.”
The guidance, available on the Royal Navy intranet, says: “Some people do not associate with gender binary and may use different pronouns like they/them or neo-pronouns like ze/hir/hirs. You should use the pronoun that a person shares with you.”
Navy staff are urged to “avoid micro-aggressions like backhanded compliments and unhelpful tips” and to “keep constantly educating and researching about trans matters”.
The Royal Navy advertised Ministry of Defence (MoD) diversity events for staff to attend on its intranet page for National Inclusion Week, which took place from Monday to Friday this week. The MoD encouraged staff “to actively participate in as many events as possible”.
The Navy trans guide also displays a “trans umbrella” that features different gender identities including gender neutral and pangender, defined by the Oxford English Dictionary as “a gender identity [that] encompasses multiple genders, which may be experienced simultaneously or in a fluid, fluctuating manner”.
Elsewhere, Royal Navy officers are told to brief sailors on white privilege and intersectionality, the idea that “different societal aspects (race, class, gender etc) of a person’s identity combine to create a unique experience of disadvantage or discrimination”.
A briefing note aimed at Navy personnel claims that “if you are ‘white’, whatever situation you are in, it is almost always the case that the outcome has not been affected by your skin colour”.
Worth reading in full.
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