In June of final 12 months, I began work at Transport Scotland. It wasn’t the perfect job I’ve ever had. It was just about an entry-level submit and it was solely a temp gig by means of an company, however after spending virtually six years out of the workforce following a bout with most cancers, two frozen shoulders, and continual knee and hip ache, it was an enormous reduction simply to be incomes my maintain once more.
In fact, June is Delight Month, and Saltire (the Scottish Authorities’s intranet) was full of reports and blogs about “LGBTI+” points.
Additionally on the Saltire entrance web page was a outstanding invitation to 2 coaching classes to know the problems going through these teams: “LGBT+ Consciousness 101” and “Trans 101”.
These had been each run by the LGBTI+ Community, one among a number of “affinity networks” for civil servants belonging to completely different teams. With the GRR Invoice on the horizon, and having heard tales about how tough it had been for gender important teams to get a listening to from the Authorities in relation to it, I used to be very curious to listen to what this coaching concerned, and I signed as much as attend through Groups.
The primary session was “LGBT+ Consciousness 101”. This session was pretty inoffensive. The content material relating to homosexual folks was about what you’d count on, and the T+ stuff was clearly biased, however not horrible.
Nevertheless, the tone of the occasion recommended fairly strongly that you just weren’t meant to disagree with something that was stated. In direction of the top, when questions had been invited, I typed my query into the chat:
“How does the Scottish Authorities deal with conflicts between TERFs and trans folks?”
And there my troubles started.
I’d chosen my phrases consciously. I didn’t simply wish to hear a solution to the query, but additionally to see how the host would reply to my informal use of a slur. The response was startling. I used to be instructed that as a result of the Scottish Authorities wished everybody to have the ability to deliver their complete selves to work, it might be higher if “folks like that” had been to “depart these beliefs at house”. I started to surprise if the Scottish Authorities knew what irony was.
Just a few days later was the second session, “Trans 101”. I used to be truly within the workplace that day, however my headphones had been damaged and so I made a decision to not be part of the session in order to not have the sound disturb my colleagues. I received again to work, however simply over an hour later I obtained an e mail from the host containing hyperlinks to a number of further studying supplies.
Certainly one of these, alert Wings readers might recall, was the Trans Language Primer.
This was a shock to me. I had anticipated that the Scottish Authorities can be fairly strongly “pro-trans”, as so lots of our establishments are, however I by no means imagined one thing fairly so offensive and excessive would truly be advisable to civil servants.
I raised this problem informally with my line supervisor who then handed it to HR, however HR stated that as I used to be technically an worker of the temp company, I must make any grievance by means of the company. So I did.
The company then put my issues to the Scottish Authorities, who did settle for that the TLP was not applicable materials. They assured me that the content material of the coaching itself was “in keeping with [their] company place” and that the session had beforehand been run with none issues.
I used to be instructed the hyperlink had been “eliminated” and the LGBTI+ Community had been recruited to develop new instruments to make sure that the identical sort of factor wouldn’t occur once more.
So far as the Scottish Authorities was involved, that was the top of the matter. I didn’t agree. It appeared to me that the actual fact that this materials had been despatched out to others beforehand, and that I used to be the one one that had ever raised a priority about it, recommended a wider drawback within the Scottish Civil Service.
Furthermore, it appeared extraordinary that even after accepting that the TLP was extremely offensive, there was no effort to inform individuals who had obtained the identical e mail I did that the TLP ought to be strictly disregarded.
On high of all that, I believed it was weird that the very individuals who had delivered that offensive materials had been then recruited to make sure that such offensive materials wouldn’t slip by means of the online once more. To me, it appeared like asking the Orange Lodge to make sure no anti-Catholic sentiments sneaked into the Union Bears’ songbook at Ibrox.
The Scottish Authorities disagreed although, and refused to take any additional motion. At that time, it was almost the top of September, and I felt that elevating a proper grievance was my solely choice.
I despatched a fairly complete grievance to the company, mentioning not solely the incidents on the two coaching classes, but additionally the company urgings so as to add pronouns to our e mail signatures and different gadgets on Saltire that appeared to demand “inclusion” in any respect prices, even when that meant excluding gender important folks.
I touched on the open hostility of each Nicola Sturgeon and Lorna Slater, since I felt statements like theirs may solely have a damaging influence on gender important civil servants. For good measure, I additionally talked about a deeply insulting e mail I had obtained from Patrick Harvie after I wrote to him as a constituent concerning the GRR Invoice, since he has transport duties and subsequently held some energy over me.
The next week, I attended two extra coaching classes. These had been each run by Stonewall and as you may think, they weren’t good.
Two points particularly actually bothered me. The primary was that Stonewall’s definition of “gender” was nonsensical. They declare that gender is “usually expressed by way of masculinity and femininity”, and that it’s “largely culturally decided and is assumed from the intercourse assigned at start”.
(“Intercourse assigned at start” was itself outlined in a really ambiguous method, claiming that “generally” it meant the identical as “gender” – though it was not clarified at which instances this was the case – and elsewhere within the presentation intercourse and gender identification had been depicted as completely separate issues, with the phrases “man” and “girl” impartial of the phrases “male” and “feminine” in such a means that one may logically have a feminine man and a male girl.)
On the second session, one of many trainers made point out of the “gender important narrative”, and I posed a query about how the Maya Forstater ruling would possibly have an effect on these points. I used to be then subjected to a diatribe concerning the “barrage of hate” confronted by trans folks, however assured that “we’ll create these inclusive areas” irrespective of how lengthy it took, and that “we’re on the precise facet of historical past”.
My precise query was by no means answered.
In a relatively disturbing coda, on the finish of each Stonewall classes we had been signposted to varied different organisations for additional info, one among which was Mermaids. On the time, Mermaids had simply been uncovered for having employed a paedophilia apologist as a secret trustee. I may scarcely consider that.
Subsequent, the company knowledgeable me that as a result of my grievance was “circuitously associated to my employment” that it shouldn’t undergo them however ought to as an alternative be despatched to the Scottish Authorities’s Central Enquiries Unit. I objected strongly to this, since I felt my grievance was very a lot about my employment, however I used to be given no different selection. So, beneath protest, I despatched an expanded grievance (now together with the Stonewall coaching issues) to the CEU as I used to be instructed.
Firstly of November, I lastly obtained a response to my grievance. A member of the Individuals Recommendation and Wellbeing workforce instructed me that each one my employment-related complaints had already been addressed and resolved, with apologies already given. This was clearly not true.
The opposite facets of the grievance, relating to widespread Civil Service Code violations and the overall hostility of the Scottish Authorities to my legally protected beliefs, had been then handed on to the Complaints Dealing with Staff, one other public-facing division which offers with all method of complaints from the general public. On the finish of the month, they replied that each one my complaints had already been addressed and subsequently they might add nothing.
Within the meantime, I attended one other occasion of the Trans 101 coaching. This included a prolonged dialogue of “intersex” utilizing the notorious Scientific American infographic to declare that intercourse is a spectrum. (Click on to enlarge.)
This picture is wildly inaccurate and deeply offensive to folks with DSDs (Issues of Sexual Improvement, generally unhelpfully known as “intersex” circumstances), and I instructed this to the supervisor answerable for arranging the session.
The supervisor in query barely appeared to know my drawback and refused to take any motion about it. I additionally raised a victimisation grievance over the way in which my preliminary grievance had been dealt with, in addition to a grievance concerning the Complaints Dealing with Staff’s failure to observe the official Complaints Dealing with Process.
It’s value noting at this level that at each stage of the method, I had requested folks on the company, in Transport Scotland HR and varied folks within the Scottish Authorities to inform me beneath what coverage we had been working, in order that I may have some understanding of the method and a few concept of what to anticipate. I by no means received solutions from any of them.
Then, within the first week of December, I made a submit on Yammer, a social community on Saltire. I’d simply heard that on the time, the brand new gender-critical affinity community for civil servants, SEEN (Intercourse Equality and Fairness Community), was not open to staff within the devolved administrations. In my submit, I pointed this out and requested if anybody knew of one thing comparable in Scotland.
Over the following two days, a sequence of extraordinarily hostile replies appeared. This included claims that merely discussing SEEN may make trans colleagues really feel “pressured and threatened”, that I used to be “ignoring the trauma” of trans colleagues, and even that it was the obligation of civil servants to problem such anti-trans attitudes always. I regarded a number of of those feedback as harassment primarily based on my gender important beliefs, and I raised a grievance about these.
I additionally despatched emails to a few of those that had replied, asking them to make clear their positions. Later that afternoon, I received a name from the company to say that my project had been terminated attributable to my “harassing” emails to varied colleagues. I requested what was meant by “harassing” and was instructed that the issue was not the content material of my emails, however solely the variety of them I had despatched.
Imagine it or not, what you’ve simply learn is simply the barest bones of my story. Even the shortest full timeline is nearly 5 instances so long as what you’re studying now. There’s much more element to many of the incidents I’ve described, and a few points I haven’t even talked about in any respect. I hope what I’ve written makes it clear sufficient that there’s something rotten within the state of Scotland.
I plan to take the Scottish Authorities, Transport Scotland, and the temp company to an employment tribunal. I’m not simply searching for compensation for the lack of my job, however extra importantly, to drive the Scottish Authorities to vary its methods and supply a extra sincere, respectful and tolerant atmosphere for these of us who consider within the actuality of intercourse and who consider that intercourse issues.
Due to the fantastic Maya Forstater, it’s settled regulation that my beliefs warrant the safety of the Equality Act. I consider I’ve a powerful case.
Preventing the Scottish Authorities in addition to two different organisations shall be costly. The Scottish Authorities has far higher assets than I do, provided that they’re a nationwide authorities and I’ve solely had six months of employment up to now seven-and-a-half years. We already know that reasoning with them doesn’t work, however authorized motion will get outcomes. That’s why I would like your assist.
If you happen to really feel capable of contribute to assist my case, you are able to do so right here. If you happen to can’t afford to assist, you possibly can nonetheless make a giant distinction by sharing this text and/or the CrowdJustice web page along with your family and friends.
I consider publicity could also be virtually as highly effective a weapon on this battle as cash. It’s not a battle I wished to have, however it’s one I believe I’ve to battle.
If I win, I ought to obtain some small compensation for all of the stress and frustration I’ve been by means of, however extra importantly, I could drive the Scottish Authorities to rethink its “company place” on the rights of intercourse realists like me (and two thirds of the remainder of Scotland). That’s undoubtedly a prize value combating for.
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EDITOR’S NOTE: Kenny has been retaining Wings up to date on this story because it first started to unfold, and I can verify that this text solely barely scratches the floor of the astonishing Kafka-esque nightmare of hostility and intolerance he’s been put by means of for making an attempt to make the Scottish Authorities uphold its most elementary duties of equality, human rights and freedom of perception.
At each flip he tried to do issues correctly by means of the official channels, with superhuman endurance, civility and endurance, and was handled with contempt. Please assist him for those who can, as a result of for those who don’t, it’ll be coming to your office too.
