Ministry of Justice (MoJ) officials in Britain have been warned that phrases such as “protecting women and girls” are “transphobic coded” and should be avoided ahead of Transgender Awareness Week.
In a document compiled by the HM Prison and Probation Service (HMPPS) diversity and inclusion team — which is a thing that exists even in a time of harsh cutbacks and tax rises and despite over 12 years of nominally Conservative government, apparently — thousands of MoJ staffers were warned against phrases ranging from “adult human female” to “same-sex attracted”, according to The Telegraph.
The former term, the wokescolds insisted, “manipulates people into supporting bigotry”, while the latter is a “coded term refusing to recognise trans women as women and trans men as men” which causes “division among the LGBT+ community, by claiming attraction is solely based on genitalia” — appearing to push sentiments which have previously resulted in lesbians complaining of being pressured into sex with biological males.
The document also took aim at “protect women’s spaces/protecting women and girls” type language, which they alleged “relies on equating trans women with being predatory men, to play on unfounded fears and convince people that supporting trans inclusion threatens their safety” — heedless of the fact that women and girls have indeed been attacked by trans predators in settings such as public toilets.
The HMPPS diversity and inclusion team also tried its hand at rewriting science, informing MoJ staff that gender-critical feminists and campaigners should not suggest that “sex is real/immutable” as sex “isn’t rigidly binary as there are many variations”.
Naturally the term “gender critical” was also lambasted, with staffers told that it is a “self-selected label to denote holding anti-trans views, it’s a term used to make anti-trans discrimination sound palatable or a respectable opinion”.
“Whilst passing uses of these phrases might not be considered misconduct, the importance of challenging their use cannot be overstated,” the document warned, adding that following its woke speech code would “[reduce] hostility, intimidation and degradation within the workplace, and encourages all whom we work with such as colleagues and service users, to treat others with decency and respect.”
One of the thousands of MoJ workers who received the document attached to an email marked ‘official sensitive’ — perhaps in hopes this would stop it getting out to the public at large — told The Telegraph they felt “upset and powerless” at being subjected to the “intimidating” lecture, and made to feel they could not speak up on behalf of “biological reality” for fear of being branded a “transphobe”.
“This guidebook was published by a staff network, its content was not approved prior to being communicated and it is a network rather than a corporate HMPPS view,” a Prison Service spokesman wheedled in comments to the newspaper, trying to disassociate from it.
The Conservative Party politicians who serve as the government ministers with overall responsibility for the Ministry of Justice offered no comment at all, however, in line with the party’s long tradition of allowing the leftist ideologues free rein to push the apparatus of state in whatever direction they please.