Crown Estate staff get guide to LGBTQIAPK*
* That’s lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer/ questioning, intersex, asexual, pansexual & kink
IT HAS been a cornerstone of the Establishment for more than 250 years, but the Crown Estate has now put itself at the centre of a very modern debate.
Bosses trying to foster an ‘inclusive environment’ for staff have compiled a nine-page guide on gender and sexual identity that includes the acronym ‘LGBTQIAPK’ – standing for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer/questioning, intersex, asexual, pansexual and kink.
The organisation’s ‘LGBT+ Glossary of Terms’, obtained by The Mail on Sunday under Freedom of Information legislation, lists more than 70 different words and phrases, including many in common use such as gay, homophobia, trans and even drag queen.
But others are less known and more controversial. They include ‘down low’, referring to men of colour who identify as heterosexual but who engage in homosexual acts, and ‘gender outlaw’, described as a ‘person who refuses to be defined by the conventional definitions of male and female’.
‘Masculine of centre’ refers to ‘folks’ leaning towards ‘the masculine side of the gender spectrum’, while ‘heteronormativity’ is defined as the ‘incorrect assumption’ that gender is binary, and ‘cissexism’ as the ‘pervasive system of discrimination and exclusion founded on the belief that there are and should only be two genders’.
The Crown Estate, which was established in 1760 and manages a portfolio of state-owned properties worth more than £14 billion, is among a growing number of organisations giving LGBT guides and glossaries to employees.
It has produced a separate guide that lists terms relating to race and ethnicity, defining ‘white fragility’ as ‘the defensiveness, the argumentation, the hurt feelings, the withdrawal that often erupts whenever white people are challenged on their racial world views’.
Helen Joyce, director of advocacy for the campaign group Sex Matters, questioned the inclusion of some of the gender descriptions. ‘Terms like heteronormativity and misgendering [referring to someone in a way that does not reflect the gender with which they identify] are nonsense,’ she said.
‘Most people are straight, but not all are, and it’s good to acknowledge that gay people exist.
‘Hardly anyone except a few people who have graduated from gender studies degrees ever attributes a gender to anyone. We use our eyes and ears to work out what sex other people are, then we use he and him for men, and she and her for women. Everyone is welcome to identify however they like, but it doesn’t change their sex.’
Jeremy Black, emeritus professor of history at the University of Exeter, described the race document as ‘ridiculous and sinister’.
He said: ‘It is profoundly racist in dividing society between white and black and using divisive terms and concepts to demean whites.
‘All racism is disgusting, whoever it is directed against. Possibly the Crown Estate could drop its rents rather than devoting expenditure to such nonsense.’
The Crown Estate said it was committed to creating a ‘more diverse, inclusive’ business, adding: ‘These documents were produced by our colleagues on our employee-led race, ethnicity and culture network and LGBT+ network to support greater understanding among colleagues across the organisation.’