A civil service staff network has been given at least £200,000 of taxpayer money after their training programme compared gender-critical activists with the Ku Klux Klan.
Last year, a:gender – a network for transgender civil servants – received £82,000 from the Cabinet Office.
The Home Office gave the same group more than £110,000.
According to gender-critical group, Sex Equality and Equity Network (Seen), a:gender’s training created a “culture of fear” in government which resulted in the bullying of staff who do not agree with the trans rights agenda entirely.
The training presentation said: “Racism won’t come into your workplace as hoods and burning crosses but as ‘nationalism’ or ‘patriotism’.
“Transphobia is the same: ‘I’m just protecting women and girls’, ‘This undermines women’s hard-fought-for sex-based rights.’
“What rights do women have that men don’t? None, because we have the Equality Act.
“There is no such thing as women’s sex-based rights and even if there was, how would a man transitioning and getting that right stop women from having that right? So switch your ears off.”
It comes after Kemi Badenoch, the Minister for Women and Equalities, said that the UK’s diversity drive had been “counterproductive” and the equality, diversity and inclusion (EDI) training.
Tory MP, Nick Fletcher who asked the Cabinet Office how much it spent on the a:gender network, has called for a “shut down” of funding for EDI networks in the Civil Service.
“Members of the public would imagine that Civil Service ‘EDI networks’ are purely there to provide connections for staff who might enjoy it. Monthly after-work drinks, for example,” he told The Telegraph.
“They would be appalled to hear that these networks now receive taxpayer funding – and paid staff positions.
“We need to shut down all funding for EDI networks within the Civil Service. Let’s get all of our civil servants back into the office to work, impartially. Then, if they so wish, they can network in our fabulous pubs and restaurants after work.”
Maya Forstater, from the women’s rights group Sex Matters, added: “Unfortunately the Civil Service is using our taxes to pay its own staff to deliver unlawful and inaccurate training under the guise of ‘inclusion workshops’ but what these workshops really do is encourage civil servants to bully and silence anyone who understands that sex is real and sometimes it matters.”
On Sunday night, a government source said: “The current funding arrangements for a:gender will cease with effect from April 1 2024.”
https://www.gbnews.com/news/gender-row-civil-service-staff-network-agender-taxpayers-money