Mick Hartley

Meanwhile, at the Department of Works and Pensions:

A civil servant was told by a Whitehall investigator that it was inappropriate to say there are two sides to the trans debate.

An official in the Department for Work and Pensions was reprimanded over a series of comments made during a discussion around transgender issues, including for saying “I think it’s useful to hear both sides of a subject”.

On March 11 2021, civil servants in the DWP met online for an International Women’s Day event entitled “What trans is and some of the issues faced”.

Um, sorry, but….International Women’s Day? A good day to talk about women's issues, perhaps? But of course….trans are the new women.

The call, in which officials were encouraged to submit written questions in an online chat, featured a transgender woman civil servant discussing issues faced by trans people in the UK.

One civil servant was subsequently investigated and found guilty of breaching the department’s behaviour policy and rules on harassment for their comments on the call.

Among the remarks made by the civil servant, and branded as “inappropriate comments relating to trans women” by a DWP investigator, were the comments: “One of the things I struggle to understand as a lesbian myself is, how can trans women be lesbian as lesbian is same sex attracted, not gender?”, “I find the term cis very offensive”, “Sport is segregated because there is a difference” and “What if you don’t believe in gender? I don’t”.

Discussing the comment, “It’s useful to hear both sides of a subject,” a DWP investigator claimed that the “event did not appear to be a forum designed to generate debate on both sides of the subject” and therefore it was “inappropriate” and made in the wrong context.

The department’s investigation led to an official warning against the civil servant….

The civil servant’s comment that “I think IWD should centre [on] women really” was found “to exclude trans women from the relevance of International Women’s Day” and was therefore inappropriate.

When the civil servant was accused on the call by fellow officials of displaying “Terf [Trans exclusionary radical feminists] behaviour”, the civil servant responded by saying: “STOP BEING INSULTING”.

The investigation found the latter comment to be “not the appropriate manner in which to raise concerns about others behaviour/language as writing in all Caps letters is interpreted as aggressive and shouting when read out”.