The BBC is facing backlash after claims they are allowing its 50/50 male and female target quota to be filled by transgender guests.
The 50:50 project was founded by news presenter Ros Atkins in 2017 with the aim to increase the number of women on screen.
But Mr Atkins has been slammed for “going along with change” after the BBC said they “do not monitor whether a contributor's gender differs from their sex registered at birth” in a recent Equality Project report.
The BBC report said: "Content-makers monitor the gender identity of their contributors with the aim of featuring at least 50 percent women.
BBC studios
Ian West
“They do not monitor whether a contributor’s gender differs from their sex registered at birth.
“Where possible, teams also monitor the proportion of contributors who identify as non-binary or genderqueer in order to improve their representation of all genders.
“This data is not currently reported to 50:50 The Equality Project, but is used by these teams to improve their representation of all genders.'
And employees have since slammed the BBC’s stance, saying they are “following Stonewall law”.
One insider said: “The BBC has now ‘disappeared’ women as a sex class and instead monitors ‘gender identity’.
Ros Atkins
WikiCommons
"It's redefined a word which we all understand, without any public debate, and Ros Atkins has gone along with the change.
“In this 50:50 monitoring, the BBC is still following ‘Stonewall law’ in failing to respect sex as a protected characteristic,” they told The Telegraph.
A BBC spokesman said: “The BBC’s 50:50 Project is a ground-breaking initiative that has significantly increased women’s representation in BBC content and has inspired others to do the same so this is clearly an attempt to generate a story where none exists,” they told the MailOnline.
While in a recent report, BBC Director-General Tim Davie added: “There is of course still much work to do to achieve equity in disability, ethnicity and gender representation, but we are moving in the right direction – not just at the BBC, but across the wider media industry and beyond.
“The success of 50:50 has led to 145 organisations worldwide joining the 50:50 global partner network, with more than half joining us in the 50:50 Challenge. That 73 percent of those who weren’t achieving gender balance when they first joined the project have seen an improvement proves the impact of 50:50 well beyond the BBC.”
