Gender-fluid employees should be given multiple identity cards with different names at their place of work for inclusivity, the UK’s leading human resources (HR) body has said.
The Chartered Institute of Personnel Development (CIPD) also suggests “installing curtain rails in communal changing rooms” as an alternative to single-sex facilities.
The guidance (pdf), made available to CIPD’s 160,000 members this week, has been described as “highly concerning” and “bending over backwards to accommodate an ideology.”
James Esses, co-founder of Thoughtful Therapists, also criticised the report for “misrepresenting” the law after the guide stated it was unlawful to “deliberately misgender” someone.
CIPD—the main professional body that governs HR professionals in the UK—said the guidance is based on several stages of research and included “the views and input from a broad range of stakeholders.”
Those included trans activists and groups, including Gendered Intelligence and the Rainbow Trust.
The 32-page document goes on to state that there is a “broad consensus within literature reviewed” that gender “is a person’s sense of self as a man, woman or non-binary person.”
It also refers to the term “cisgender” as being “used by cisgender allies who recognise that trans and non-binary people exist and matter.”
The “evidence-based guide” also includes a list of “key terminology” including “deadnaming,” which it states is “calling someone by their birth name after they have changed their name.”
It also refers to “sex” as a “biological or legal category” used to describe those “assigned either male or female.”
Gender Signals
In one piece of evidence referenced in the book, an unnamed line manager described how it was an agreed workplace practice that a gender-fluid employee could present as male to the public, and female to work colleagues.
“We also agreed she would have two different email addresses … and certain people [with her agreement] were told about certain signals that would help them navigate which presentation she would use in different contexts,” it said.
“There is a need to tailor the approach to each individual and also understand that some people don’t want to undergo a ‘full’ binary transition either at all or in one go.”
CIPD says workplaces should have at least one gender-neutral toilet, though if resources weren’t available employers could install “curtain rails in communal changing rooms to offer users privacy”.
In its “action plan prompts”, the HR organisation suggests “flexibility” surrounding gender-fluid employees “such as providing multiple ID cards with different names.”
It also states workplaces should have at least one gender-neutral toilet or changing area,
In terms of employees who hold gender-critical beliefs, the guide states they may have the right to hold protected beliefs but “this does not give anyone the right to manifest these beliefs in a discriminatory fashion at work”.
Stating that this could apply to “a wide range of protected religious and philosophical beliefs” it adds: ‘However, it would be unlawful to deliberately misgender someone, refuse to use the correct name/pronouns or reveal personal information, regardless of their beliefs.”

Detrimental
Speaking to The Epoch Times, Mr. Esses said CIPD’s guidance misrepresents the law.
“It says categorically, if you deliberately
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