'Challenge it' | Staff given list of transphobic terms to avoid - will it promote real change?

Thousands of employees in the probation service have been issued a list of words and phrases to avoid using in the workplace, in a bid to promote inclusion for transgender people.

As reported by the Sunday Telegraph, a glossary titled “recognising transphobic coded language” was circulated among thousands of HMP Probation Service (HMPPS) works, via the HMPPS pride in prisons and probation LGBT+ staff support network.

The document reportedly explains that certain phrases were “turning what would be considered overt discrimination into covert behaviour”.

The list of words and phrases staff are being encouraged to avoid include the term “gender-critical” and “protect women’s spaces/protecting women and girls”, which the document says “relies on equating trans women with being predatory men, to play on unfounded fears and convince people that supporting trans inclusion threatens their safety”.