Mick Hartley

Just when you thought it was safe to go back in the water:

Citizens Advice is facing a backlash from staff for an “ideological instruction” to wear gender pronoun badges.

The national charity, which has had £290 million of taxpayer cash in the last two years, is being relied upon for debt, energy bills and mortgage help during the cost of living crisis.

But it is facing a revolt over skewed priorities, after The Telegraph obtained five transgender policy documents – running to 23 pages – that it has rolled out.

Dame Clare Moriarty, its £170,000-a-year chief executive, told all staff last month that pronouns are “an important way of affirming their gender identity” and “we shouldn’t assume someone’s gender based on their appearance”.

 "Affirming their gender identity"?? Their little secret inner gender soul? – which only they can know? Dame Clare would appear to have swallowed the whole shebang.

Her internal memo on Citizens Advice’s intranet, seen by The Telegraph, added: “You can help to normalise sharing pronouns by sharing yours. We’ve created some button badges with different pronouns that can be fastened to a lanyard or your clothing.”

The charity has introduced the badges in national offices and via suppliers for regional teams, while its IT team has drawn up instructions on adding pronouns to email signatures.

Ms Moriarty directed all staff nationally to a “pronouns resource” by Citizens Advice Liverpool, which includes “Ze/Zir/Zirs” or “Ey/Em/Eirs” as gender-neutral examples.

The four-page guide says that “the pronouns used to refer to you are an extension of your name” and getting someone’s pronouns wrong is “misgendering”, meaning staff must “thank them for correcting you and let them know it won’t happen again”.

“If you realise you’ve misgendered someone, but haven’t been corrected, you should still correct yourself – they may not have felt comfortable correcting you themselves,” the Citizens Advice guide continues.

 Staff are directed to contentious charities including Mermaids and Gendered Intelligence if they are worried about slipping up, and given extensive guidance on transitioning at work.

Mermaids? Really?

See also, How The Samaritans fell to gender ideology – an update on the 2021 original.