This week it goes to Brighton and Hove Council for wasting scarce time, effort and money on procrastinating over scrapping the titles "Mr, Mrs and Ms".
For why is the council considering this idea?
The proposal to scrap all titles from official council forms and paperwork comes after transgender activists complained that the names forced people to choose between genders.
The proposal has the backing of Brighton and Hove City Council’s deputy leader Phelim MacCafferty.
Seemingly a scrutiny panel (which looked into the lives of the transgender community in Brighton) is to put forward a number of recommendations, including the scrapping of Mr and Mrs, to the council for approval in December.
According to the Argus Coun MacCafferty, who chairs the panel, suggested calling people by their titles on official forms was “completely useless”.
“Trans people aren’t necessarily male or female and sometimes they don’t want to be defined by their gender.The use of a "title" in communications (oral or written), as far as I was brought up to understand it, is done out of courtesy/manners.
Putting Mr and Mrs on a form is completely useless. This is an issue that concerns most institutions from banks to mobile phone companies.
Why is Mr on my debit card, for instance? I don’t understand why it’s there.
We should at least examine the issue and we will have the recommendations early next month.”
However, as is the case with so many things in life, you cannot please all of the people all of the time.
Steph Scott, an LGBT activist who defines herself/himself as ‘genderqueer’ – neither male nor female – described the titles Mr and Mrs as “extremely outdated”.
“Being called Mr or Mrs forces me to choose between genders.Seemingly Brighton and Hove City Council has already started addressing people by the gender-neutral title 'Mx' on their tax forms.
It’s assuming people live in a binary world where you’re either one thing or another and it pigeonholes people.
I think it’s a good idea to expand across the city because it’s about getting people to be aware that gender isn’t just male or female.”
We face many years of austerity and cuts, yet the issue that vexes the mind of Brighton councillors is this one!
Has the council lost all sense of proportionality/reality as to what is really important at the moment?
Personally speaking I would prefer to be called "Excellency", but the council haven't yet set up scrutiny panel to look into that.
Brighton and Hove council, well deserving Prats of The Week!
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I saw this in the paper, and thought this was your own local authority, Ken. I don't know about you, but I am sick and tired of this politically correct nonsense, and the way society panders to minorities in this manner. I am sure, Ken, as a council tax payer in this area, you are most happy to learn that the money the council takes from you is being spent so wisely. Would I be correct in believing that there are no real problems troubling the residents of Brighton and Hove, and that the budget is managed so well that there has been no necessity to cut spending on front line public services as has happened elsewhere?
ReplyDeleteMy Lord,
DeleteMy own local MP Mr Redwood has a piece on his blog about the way society should treat minorities....It is the third story down....
http://johnredwoodsdiary.com/
Regards
Mr Tonk.
Brighton is Green Party "perfection" my Lord, absolutely no issues here at all;)
ReplyDeleteWhen you think about it there are lots of out-dated titles knocking around; like Sir, Dame, Lord and Baroness for instance; but I bet that none of the Brighton & Hove councillors would turn down the opportunity to add one of those titles to their own names, and they would soon forget the ‘gender’ implications of doing so too.
ReplyDeleteDear Mr Frost,
ReplyDeleteIt is a well deserved award.
This is another example of the cultural Marxism that infests so many of our public bodies.
What is amusing however, is that when one of these people that wish to be titleless or genderless commit an offence or are sectioned, they will be placed in an institution that is gender specific: ie a male prison, if they're male or a female prison, if they're female and this classification is as per their birth certificate. They will be put on gender specific wards in a psychiatric hospital if they're sectioned.
I am glad that Brighton and Hove is a true green utopia for you Ken.
Regards
Mr Tonk.
Thank you Mr Tonk:)
DeleteWhen I first read this I thought the councillors name was "Phlem in my Cavity"...
ReplyDelete"‘genderqueer’ – neither male nor female" - So that means [it?] has neither bollocks OR tits?
I don’t understand why it’s there - No brain either...
"It’s assuming people live in a binary world where you’re either one thing or another" Sorry old chum, everything is now controlled by computers, and that's how they work...
"Why is Mr on my debit card, for instance? I don’t understand why it’s there."
ReplyDeleteSo presumably, Coun McCafferty won't jump up and down and complain to his bank when his debit card is nicked and presented in a shop by a female, and said shop doesn't bother asking why said female has a debit card in the name of Mr. McCafferty.
Oh dear. This would be a fun story if it were true. Only it isn't.
ReplyDeleteHow do i know? Well, as a journo, i spoke with Brighton Council last week, who confirmed that there was neither plan nor proposal on the table to ban anything.
There was a recent survey which asked the local trans community about significant issues and this came up with issues like violence on the streets, discrimination at work and in housing, as well as this rather more minor point: which is that if you don't adhere to the "gender binary" you're going to have difficulty with online forms that make using a gendered title compulsory.
Now sensible peeps, like myself, might imagine that the council's next step would be to consider possible solutions and the simplest solution would be to make that field optional.
But for some reason, a lot of daft people, including most national tabloids, just jumped on the bandwagon assumption that the only possible response the council might come up with would be to BAN some titles.
Why? I mean why would people be so daft as to only be able to imagine that solution?
Tis beyond me...
jane
Darn it janefae!
DeleteI was looking forward to my next council tax bill being prefixed with "Mx" & scribbling "not known at this address" before gleefully popping it back into the postbox.
Call me Dave
ReplyDeleteI see the Cultural Marxists are still at it with renewed vigour!
ReplyDelete"Destroy the family and you destroy society" I.V. Lenin I think.
What always irritates and/or amuses me is WHY do homosexuals of all varieties (and even those not invented yet) define themselves only in terms of their sexuality? Do they do nothing else? Do they work?
I would feel silly defining myself when asked "What do you do?", to respond with " Well I'm a hetrosexual female who has had a couple of lesbian relationships in the past" So what? LOL.
‘Now sensible peeps, like myself, might imagine that the council's next step would be to consider possible solutions and the simplest solution would be to make that field optional’.
ReplyDeleteI would imagine that most truly sensible people would wonder why the council asked the question in the first place.
Brighton might have a tiny minority of transgender people, but the massive majority would see no problem with being addressed as Mr, Mrs or Miss. This would be the majority that voted for the council in the first place, and the majority who can see their elected councillors wasting time, money and effort on this type of nonsense.
Sensible people realise and accept that we live in a world of two genders. People are addressed by their titles and in most cases insist on being so addressed.
I would also imagine that the small number of individuals that have ‘changed’ their sex would be delighted to be recognised as, and be called Sir, Miss or Madam if that title is specific to their newly acquired gender.
At school, teachers are either Sir or Miss. The police and other officials would be addressed similarly. If you were in court you would be expected to address a magistrate or judge by his or her gender specific title.
If a few oddballs in Brighton feel uncomfortable with having to specify what gender they are on forms, so what?
one wonders how these non gender types cope when faced with issues such as using a public lav do you choose male or female? this subject allways amuses me as i cant see how chopping bits off or glueing on bits of the oppsite gender changes ones own sex ? do what you like but your chromosomes arnt going to change any change is purely cosmetic
ReplyDelete