Whitehall ‘rips up’ ideological trans policy after £117k payout

A civil servant has accepted over £110,000 after she was forced to resign for raising concern over Whitehall policies steeped in trans ideology.

In 2022, Eleanor Frances warned that the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) had introduced gender self-ID in government buildings and was compelling employees to “recognise male people as women”, which reportedly led to “unfair treatment”.

As part of Frances’s £116,749 settlement, both the DCMS and the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology, where she later worked, agreed to develop a new ‘Gender Reassignment’ policy, which ensures staff can discuss issues “without fear or favour”.

‘Poorly written’

Posting on X, Frances said: “While I am disappointed that it took legal action to achieve this result, I am extremely happy with the outcome.”

Toby Young, Director of the Free Speech Union, commented: “The fact that the Civil Service has agreed to rip up its trans policy and start again shows just how poorly written it was in the first place. It’s another example of equality law being interpreted as woke activists would like it to be rather than as it is.”

Maya Forstater, Executive Director of Sex Matters, added: “It’s way past time for the Cabinet Office and permanent secretaries to find their courage and tear up policies that require adherence to gender ideology.”

‘Sex is binary’

Last year, two civil servants were sued by their colleague for defending the reality of biological sex.

Andreas Mueller and Elspeth Duemmer Wrigley are co-chairs of the Sex Equality and Equity Network (SEEN), a cross-government network for public sector staff. They believe “biological sex is binary and immutable” and that it “matters for both women and men in our everyday lives”.

An anonymous colleague is seeking to shut the network down, in addition to taking Mueller and Duemmer Wrigley to court for saying “only women menstruate” and that sex is binary.