Britain's state-broadcaster BBC hired “trans and nonbinary inclusion” consultants to tell its staff that there are more than 150 genders and instruct them to police each other’s use of gender pronouns, the Telegraph reported on Saturday.
According to the report, the BBC emailed its radio producers and program editors urging them to attend several training sessions last year organized by Global Butterflies, a group that describes itself on LinkedIn as offering “Trans & Non-binary Corporate Inclusion Training and Consultation.”
During the sessions, staff were reportedly told that “people can self-identify themselves in over 150 ways, and increasing!” They were shown examples of newly-invented gender pronouns such as “xe, xem, xyrs,” and told to include their own pronouns in their email signatures to be more “inclusive and welcoming” and to further their “trans brand.”
Those opting to go by traditional “he/she” pronouns were told that these descriptors “can create discomfort, stress and anxiety” for trans and non-binary colleagues, and that “using correct pronouns and names reduces depression and suicide risks.”
“If you overhear a colleague using the incorrect pronouns for someone, take them aside and remind them of the correct pronouns,” attendees were told.
The training sessions were held less than a year after Tim Davie took over as the BBC’s director. Upon taking the reins, Davie instructed employees at the taxpayer-funded broadcaster to stop “virtue-signaling” online and urged journalists to remain impartial and even to watch their body language and tone of voice when on camera, to avoid revealing “a personal opinion or prejudice.”
Amid this apparent crackdown on woke ideology, employees within the BBC’s ‘Pride Network’ claimed that they were told by higher-ups to “get used to” covering stories and hearing opinions that hurt their feelings, such as a story on lesbians being coerced into sex with transgender women, who are biologically male.
However, the Telegraph’s source, who recently quit the corporation, said that “the BBC simply doesn’t understand what’s going on with gender identity ideology,” and has “been pandering to a social contagion amongst young people rather than being the adult in the room.”
The whistleblower said that there is a “tight-knit cabal at the top of BBC News who give tacit approval to gender ideology.” This group allegedly shoots down stories critical of transgender ideology, while stories that “affirm gender ideology…go straight to output.”
The BBC did not tell the Telegraph how much taxpayer money it paid Global Butterflies for the training sessions but said that it has since cut ties with the group. The training sessions were described by a BBC spokesman as “voluntary” and allegedly had “no link to, or influence on, any editorial decision making.”
Global Butterflies did not respond to the Telegraph, and its website was down for maintenance when checked by RT. An archived version of the site from last year lists the London Stock Exchange, Shell, the National Health Service, the British Transport Police and the United Kingdom Strategic Command as some of its clients. Also mentioned as a client is OFCOM, Britain’s media regulator responsible for policing the content of broadcasters, including the BBC.