Bank of England Calls Mothers ‘Birthing Parents’, Urged to Use Even More Gender Neutral Terms

A person walks past the Bank of England, in London, on Oct. 31, 2021. (Tom Nicholson/Reuters)

Controversial charity Stonewall urged the Bank of England to use more gender neutral terms after praising it for referring to mothers as a “birthing parent.”

Documents seen by The Epoch Times show how the central bank received a 12-page “feedback” report from the LGBT lobby group after it introduced the controversial terminology—which suggests people of any gender can become pregnant—in to its official family leave policy.

The report shows how Stonewall awarded and deducted the financial giant points for a place on its 2022 Workplace Equality Index.

The Bank of England ranked number 57 in the UK on the group’s top 100 “lesbian, gay, bi, and trans” inclusive workplaces last year.

According to Stonewall’s awarding criteria, the bank received a total of 107 points out of a possible 200—with marks deducted for a lack of progress on “marginalised or underrepresented LGBTQ+ identities” and “bi inclusion and anti-biphobia.”

The bank was also rapped for referring to gay couples as “same sex spouse and partner” in its policies, the documents reveal.

The central bank was told that it should use the wording “couples regardless of gender” in its future family guidelines.

However, the bank—which employs over 4,000 staff across the UK—received praise for its “gender neutral” policies that are “explicit in protecting people on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity.”

Gender Terms Criticised

The report stated: “Your Family Leave and Pay document on the whole is great.

“As already mentioned we can see that care has been taken to make these policies gender neutral and also explicitly inclusive by using words/phrases such as ’spouse‘, ’partner‘ and ’birthing parent' etc.

“With regards to the former, there is clarification that this includes a ’same-sex spouse or partner‘ however, good practice wording is  ’couples regardless of gender’.”

The bank was also praised for its inclusion of gender neutral lavatories in a number of its offices, but was urged by the LGBT group to roll out the facilities in its other UK offices.

Stonewall also commended the bank for the use of pronouns in staff email signatures, but recommended changing the words “preferred pronouns” to just “pronouns” as it said “this is good practice.”

It also faced criticism over data collection from employees including the wording of questions on monitoring forms.

The feedback report stated: “Your sexual orientation question is not in line with current good practice, we would recommend to not define genders alongside sexual orientation (e.g. ‘gay man‘ and ’gay woman/lesbian') as this prevents non-binary people being able to self-identify as gay.

“Also, we would recommend to change ‘bisexual’ to ‘bi’ - this is an umbrella term that encompasses many bi identities including pan and ace people.”

Regarding questions on gender, the bank—which provides “an open question to those who prefer to use their own term”—was advised to change the wording of its gender option to “man, non-binary, woman, I used another term with an open text box and prefer not to say.”

Stonewall stated: “The specific non-binary section will ensure that you can understand the specific experiences of non-binary employees and demonstrate that you are committed to improving non-binary inclusion in the workplace.”

Stonewall also advised the bank to change the wording of its “trans status” question to: “Are you trans? Yes, no, unsure and prefer not to say.”

Gender neutral signs are posted in the 21C Museum Hotel public restrooms in Durham, North Carolina, on May 10, 2016. (Sara D. Davis/Getty Images)

Scheme’s Influence

The bank has paid almost £10,000 to the lobby group in four years for a range of LGBT training and membership fees for its “Diversity Champions” scheme.

In recent years, a number of high-profile organisations have pulled out of the scheme over criticism it wields undue influence over some public sector organisations.

In 2021, the BBC announced its withdrawal over concerns surrounding impartiality.

Police Scotland, the House of Commons, the Equalities and Human Rights Commission, the House of Lords, and Ofcom have also left.

The Bank of England, which failed to make Stonewall’s top 100 list in 2023, also offers to pay for its staff to undergo gender reassignment surgeries under its private health care policy.

In its “Trans Equality Policy,” launched in 2021 (pdf), the bank also lays out a “non-exhaustive list of behaviours which are considered transphobia.”

They include speculating about someone’s gender, disclosure of someone’s trans history without a legitimate reason and “dead-naming”—which it says is “use of the birth name or other former name of a transgender or non-binary person without their consent.”

It also said that “misgendering,” whether “purposefully, persistently and intentionally using an incorrect pronoun,” was also considered transphobic.

It urged employees to report any incidents of transphobia to senior managers for investigation.