We request a review and rewrite of two sections

5.4.27 and 5.4.40

which refer to gender identity.

Language 5.4.27

‘The use of any offensive language, whether written or spoken, and offensive gestures, must be editorially justified, and signposted if appropriate, to ensure it meets audience expectations, wherever it appears.

‘Language is most likely to cause offence when it is used gratuitously and without editorial purpose, and when it includes: terms of sexual and sexist abuse or abuse referring to sexuality or gender identity’

‘Portrayal 5.4.50

‘In some instances, references to disability, age, sex, sexual orientation, gender identification, faith, race, etc may be relevant to portrayal. However, careless or offensive stereotypical assumptions should be avoided and people should only be described in such terms when editorially justified’. Please note from the Draft Guidelines:

‘When content makers are determining whether subjects are controversial, in the UK or internationally, they should take account of the level of public and political contention and debate.’

By any measure, according to this, the term gender identity, and belief in it, is a highly contested issue. The BBC’s own news guidelines affirm this:

‘The distinction between sex and gender is at the core of many of the contested areas around trans. Indeed, the distinction itself is not universally accepted. We need to take care to use the appropriate term in the context of a particular story’

‘There is a lack of consensus about the nature of gender dysphoria’

The theory that everyone has a gender identity is not scientifically supported: in fact there is convincing evidence that they do not, and that it is in an indefinable concept. People suffer from dysphoria, but it does not change a person’s sex: and it is medically/scientifically impossible for any person to have an opposite sex brain. BBC news guidelines (linked above) affirm that gender is based on stereotypes.

Given this ambiguity, the use of vague terms like ‘abuse’ ‘offence’ and ‘assumption’ is dangerous. They could imply that accurately describing a person’s sex rather than complying with their belief in gender identity is abusive or offensive.

It is also important to note that the use of the term ‘gender identity’ in the Draft Editorial Guidelines contravenes almost every section of the Guidelines’ work on accuracy.

‘The BBC guidelines must hold themselves to a higher standard of accuracy and impartiality..it means not taking sides.

‘Views and facts must not be misrepresented.’

‘Views .. less supported by evidence do not need to be given similar prominence or weight to those with more support’

‘Where BBC content highlights issues on which others campaign, care must be taken to avoid endorsing those campaigns, or allowing the BBC to be seen as campaigning to change public policy’ ‘The BBC should not be seen to be promoting or revealing opinions of ts own. A key way to do this is in being fact and evidence based’

‘Serious factual errors should be acknowledged and mistakes corrected’

‘Achieving due impartiality requires awareness that unintended biases can result from the use of loaded language’

‘Reporting should not use language and tone which appear to accept consensus or received wisdom as fact or self evident.’

In section 5.4.43 you use the appropriate term ‘gender reassignment’:

5.4.43 Material may constitute hate speech if it is likely to encourage criminal activity or lead to disorder. It includes all forms of expression which spread, incite, promote or justify hatred based on intolerance on the grounds of disability, ethnicity, sex, gender reassignment, nationality, race, religion or sexual orientation.

Note that ‘gender reassignment’ under the Equality Act 2010 includes anyone who ‘proposes to undergo’ a process of reassignment and is fully inclusive.

Therefore we request and recommend that you use the EA protected characteristic term ‘gender reassignment’ and remove the unsubstantiated, scientifically unsupported and loaded term ‘gender identity’ from the Draft Editorial Guidelines.

This will prevent any ambiguity and restore precision, clarity and consistency with the draft guidelines on accuracy and impartiality.