EDI audit report redacted by green party executive

Under the heading “ Challenges and areas for development “, Stonewall trans inclusive employer  Diverse Matters  made it clear in their report commissioned by the Green Party Executive in 2021 that it was ‘absolutely imperative that individuals were allowed freedom of thought and expression in the context of upholding human rights and responsibilities’.

The team of consultants also reported that ‘harassment, bullying and other unacceptable behaviours were not being managed effectively’.

Their findings confirmed that a negative ‘virus’ was damaging the Party’s culture and mistrust in the complaints system raised ‘questions about its objectivity and effectiveness’. (Executive Summary page 6, 1.3)

Since this audit was commissioned and conducted ‘with a current backdrop of conflict regarding sex and gender’ what did it reveal about the causes and nature of this conflict?

It reports on evidence of numerous complaints ‘from both targets and bystanders about harassment, bullying, antisemitism, homophobia, racism and ‘general bias’ (page 6 .1.3).

Scanning through the full report ( 69 pages) there oddly seems to be no reference of complaints about ‘sex’ as biological and/or a belief that sex is biological as Protected Characteristics under the Equality Act.

Trans-gender abuse appears once as an example of incidence of discrimination on Twitter feeds ( page 6) . Misogyny,  which can also be interpreted as discrimination against transwomen, is mentioned once. There is no mention of discrimination relating to someone holding the view or beliefs that sex is biological.

And yet, it is widely acknowledged that the majority of 50 complaints submitted between 2021 and 2022 requesting that a No Fault Suspension be considered by the Green Party Regional Council were triggered by allegations of transphobia towards members who hold the view, precisely, that sex is biological, immutable and should not be confused with gender.

The most notorious example has to be the ruthless suspension, followed by the expulsion of elected co-chair of Green Party Women Emma Bateman in February 2022 only two months into her democratic mandate because of an alleged transphobic speech.

Since the publication of the report in May 2022, members of the Green Party Women Committee have conducted their own survey about bullying, harassment and complaints due to allegations of transphobia. A single email with a brief survey sent to members of GPW resulted in 30 testimonies of specific gross misconduct and unacceptable behaviour towards members who believe that sex is biological.

Nothwithsanding the fact that Diverse Matters is a proud Stonewall’s Trans Inclusive employer, it is hard to believe that their team of auditors would have had such a blind spot as to miss evidence of so many formal complaints submitted with allegations of transphobia clearly aiming to sanction members who believe that sex is biological.

They may possibly have found the conflict around sex and gender so toxic and explosive that they quietly opted to bury such complaints under ‘general bias’.

A sadly all too predictable explanation has now been revealed to The Green Light: the original report was crudely redacted by LGBTIQA+ Greens and elected transactivist members serving on the Green Party Executive before going to print.

Newly elected members of the Executive may well be advised therefore to familiarise themselves with Diverse Matters’s credentials and take the time to read the unredacted copy of the report before considering to allocate further resources towards the implementation of the list of recommendations.

Fourteen months since the publication of our Equality, Diversity and Inclusion audit report, the Green Party is now facing a number of legal challenges for allegations of discrimination under the Equality Act because of an ‘ ongoing backdrop of conflict regarding sex and gender’.