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We ended here (link to Part One)

‘2016 Diversity strategy for the first time includes an ‘LGBT’ target representation of 8%. ‘Unconscious bias’ training made mandatory. Inclusion objectives issued to managers’

Several things are happening by 2015

Firstly, Stonewall has largely taken over from All About Trans (an offshoot of Trans Media Watch) to work at bedding in the gender identity capture of the BBC. By 2015 Stonewall has ‘adopted the T’ (a consequence as much as a cause of the rise of gender activism’s soft power) and a BBC Diversity and Inclusion lead (Andrew Young) ‘manages the Stonewall relationship’.

Secondly, the influence of All About Trans was already having a massive impact on commissioning BBC content including for and about children. Louis Theroux’s ‘Transgender Kids’ marked a mainstream shift. There are too many examples to post but by 2015 the BBC was even publishing glossaries approved by Stonewall.

Newsbeat: What transgender people want you to know about pronouns

Transgender terminology: ten phrases you need to know

A guide to transgender terms

An A-Z of LGBTQ+ language for speaking to your child

The Equality Act is only five years old but gender language is also already installed in BBC safeguarding and recruitment policies and staff surveys.

In 2015 - the Women and Equalities Committee is conducting an investigation into trans rights. The stage is being set for self-identification to be introduced, the media (not just the BBC) is captured, MPs are captured, and by 2016 the EHRC is captured with David Isaac as chair.

David Isaac was previously chair of Stonewall and also a partner at the law firm Pinsent Masons, which has a professional legal relationship with the BBC. Pinsent Masons is famed as a ‘top LGBT employer’, routinely being recognised by Stonewall for its efforts. The capture was from top to bottom and side to side.

So the 2016 Diversity Strategy we ended on in the last blog was this report. It launched the BBC’s involvement with Diamond, an affirmative diversity measuring tool. From the start of the BBC’s involvement ‘gender’ is embedded in - there’s no mention of sex in its equality metric.

At the same time it’s ramping up its involvement with the Creative Diversity Network (which also replaced ‘sex’ with ‘gender’ in its diversity characteristics).

Preferred pronouns, in the style guide since 2013, are now being actively enforced in broadcast and online copy. Until now the infiltration of every aspect of language and commissioning had gone under the radar. By 2016 it was obvious, and already deeply entrenched.

Some daily programmes, such as Victoria Derbyshire, devoted unusual resources to trans issues and specifically to child ‘transition’, Mermaids and the rights of trans-identified males. BBC Actionline and Radio One support pages sent audiences directly to Mermaids and Gendered Intelligence via hyperlinks. Some of those links are still available.

Here’s a good list of the kind of content being produced for and about children. It was around this time that referrals to the Tavistock Gender Identity Service rocketed.

2016-17 a pushback begins, staff started querying the editorial policy of affirmation. But Jenni Murray of Woman’s Hour is reprimanded for an article on women’s rights in the Sunday Times and then taken off coverage of trans issues. This means there is no one to press for decent coverage in the run up to the ‘gender recognition’ (otherwise known as self-ID) consultation the next year. Internal activism is strong. Trans-identified men and their supporters have free reign on content and dominate BBC Pride’s forums.

2017 - BBC starts a second Women’s Staff Network that is ‘open to all genders’

2017-18 Two important developments - a BBC Equality Report brought the infamous ‘417 trans employees’ number based on staff surveys. It made the news.

Diversity and inclusion teams begin collaborating with Stonewall on the 2018 LGBT Culture and Progression report.

June 2018 - BBC Head of Diversity Tunde Ogungbesan is a speaker at a ‘Next Steps in Transgender Equality’ forum alongside transactivists Bex Stinson, Megan Key, Helen Belcher and Steph Calvert along with Polly Carmichael of the Tavistock. He reveals that the 2017 LGBT survey (conducted with Stonewall) of BBC staff actually found that lesbians felt even more invisible and unheard than trans people.

Note: This survey informed the Culture and Progression report even though only 400 people took part. The C and P report was later used to justify an intervention which affected all staff - pronoun encouragement - by James Purnell (who was the BBC sponsor of the report). He claimed the all-staff intervention was justified because the survey had in fact been open to ‘all staff’ at the time. It had of course been labelled an LGBT survey so all staff were not considered to be engaged with it.

No Debate - While the Culture report was in preparation, the July-Oct 2018 Gender Recognition consultation came and went, barely reported on by the BBC (Politics Live was the exception). Affirmative ‘lived experience’ content was still allowed, encouraged, however. Transactivists on BBC Pride threatened to report to HR any members who posted against the GRA on its Facebook forum. Woman’s Hour avoided it until a few days before the consultation deadline - then covered it with a controversial series of debates which Jenni Murray wasn’t allowed to host.

Sept 2018 Megha Mohan was appointed as the first Global Gender and Identity Correspondent (she’s still in the job). She became affirmative after about eight weeks in the job and tried to warn other staff from talking to Women’s Place UK.

October 2018 The Culture and Progression report is published and makes a series of affirmative recommendations but nothing for lesbians: despite the fact the BBC’s own survey showed that lesbians had the worst visibility and voice of all groups.

Direct outcomes were Ally programmes, with badges and lanyards, a new correspondent role, mandatory inclusion training and an abortive ‘language review’.

Dec 2018 Ben Hunte, a transgender advocate, became LGBT Correspondent

Impact of his appointment: all UK ‘trans v women’s rights’ stories were shifted away from the various hubs that had an interest - education, health, politics etc - and sent to Ben Hunte. His pieces were always biased in favour of affirmation and often generated floods of complaints. He and Megha Mohan had an agreement: he would do domestic ‘gender’ news, she would do international.

2018 Language Review: Kamal Ahmed for News and Andrew Young for Diversity and Inclusion came together with the Women’s and Pride staff networks to push for more revisions to BBC style. It was led by D and I (though Ahmed said he would want cut-outs for news) who were in turn led by the nose by Stonewall. Affirmative as the BBC style guide already was, they wanted more. The review was ultimately buried, because BBC staff concerned with identity overreach started pushing back against trans activism.

2018 Buzzfeed publishes expose of women trying to raise the issue of gender identity activism in internal WhatsApp groups. In response, the biggest WhatsApp women’s group (with dozens of senior reporters, correspondents and producers) shut down one of its WhatsApp groups completely, and banned private ‘gender’ conversation on the other at a critical time for content production on the issue of sex and gender. See Stuart Millar below.

There was one last gasp from the 2018 report - in 2020 James Purnell sent a staff-wide email urging the adoption of email pronouns despite growing controversy. He’s now left. But the pronouns remain in email signatures and social media bios.

July 2020 - but unrelated to the LGBT Progression report- Stuart Millar became Digital News Editor. Millar came straight from Head of News from Buzzfeed - it was under his watch that Buzzfeed produced vast quantities of affirmative and content. It was also him who oversaw the WhatsApp expose.

Summer 2020 - Gender critical feminists were removed from the Women’s Staff Network steering committee by the new chair. Reason given - more than two years in role. (‘New’) chair is currently five years in role and counting. Women’s network has not raised the issue of sex-based rights since.

Upsum: this is a truly barebones account - after 2020 there were still plenty of problems - Global Butterflies, the appointment of another activist LGBT producer reporter, the production of incoherent guidelines in 2023 for example, and the general direction of travel in wider content is still very TQ-focussed.

But around 2019 the turnaround begins. Senior executives begin to be concerned.

2019 - a turning point for gender identity campaigners at the BBC with the resumption of serious journalism - the investigations (starting here) of Deb Cohen and Hannah Barnes for Newsnight and the obvious ‘loss’ of the self-ID consultation

2020 - the end of recommendations to Mermaids and the removal of most links

Oct 2021 - The Nolan/Thompson podcasts on Stonewall

Nov 2021 - BBC cuts links with Stonewall and announces relationship with INvolve

The direction of travel in news and sport at the BBC is generally now in one direction away from the extreme affirmation of the mid to late 20-teens. But the toxicity of self-identification and preferred pronouns remain, and BBC Regions is still a wild west of transgender affirmation.