Sex just a label, says training guide for firefighters

FIREFIGHTERS have been taught that sex is “just a label” and may run along a spectrum.

Training material for emergency service staff at West Sussex Fire and Rescue shows that they have received instruction in “transgender & non-binary” inclusion.

A bitesize guide for staff at the service makes a series of claims, including a section asking “what is the gender binary?” in which firefighters are informed that “in white Western cultures, gender is seen as being an either/ or choice, also known as a binary”.

The training material informs emergency service staff that gender is a set of behaviours, while “sex is the label we’re assigned by a doctor when we’re born”.

This label does not cover the “range of innate gender identities a person might have”, it claims, adding that biological sex may also run along a spectrum.

It states: “In truth, our understanding of the amount of difference between bodies is only just emerging, and current research indicates that there is probably more of a physical spectrum of biological sex rather than the simple binary of male and female.”

The guide goes on to claim that scientific research “increasingly shows everyone’s biology is complex and doesn’t fit a simple binary”, adding that factors such as hormonal make-up, reproductive systems and sex chromosomes are “irrelevant to the gender they are”.

Along with these claims, the guide warns that people should respect the pronouns of trans people and apologise ‘It’s infuriating to see public funds wasted on “training” provided by ignorant people’ if they use them incorrectly, and concludes saying “celebrate trans identity, community, and creativity”.

Helen Joyce, of the campaign group Sex Matters, criticised the guide for what she said were “evidence-free” scientific claims. “It’s infuriating to see public funds wasted on ‘training’ provided by obviously ignorant people,” she said. “Anyone who believes that ‘sex is the label we’re assigned by a doctor’ or that it ‘doesn’t fit a simple binary’ needs some basic training in biology themselves.

“It’s forcing an evidence-free ideological position on people who would be better off focusing on their jobs. That this nonsense is being peddled in a service like firefighting makes the story all the more depressing.”

The fire service has been approached for comment.