The NHS has been blasted as "in thrall to gender ideology" after a "nonsense" LGBTQIA network survey asking staff whether they identified with certain niche romantic orientations was leaked to the public.
The survey - which did not receive official NHS sign-off - contained questions about staff's "current sex" and asked them what "umbrella would your romantic orientation fall under".
Possible answers to the "umbrella" question included "abroromantic", "aromantic", "alloromantic", "greyromantic", "demiromantic", "queer" and "questioning".
"Greyromantic" or "greysexual", is a term meaning romantic or sexual attraction is rare or only happens under certain conditions, while "demi" means it only happens after "an emotional bond" is formed, and "abro" means attraction "changes over time".
The NHS didn't sign off on the staff survey - but it has been slated by critics
NHSWhile more questions asked staff to share their pronouns, giving "fae/faer/faers" and "xe/xer/xears" as options, alongside asking "are you endosex or intersex".
One question asked respondents about their "current sex" was, with staff able to choose from answers including "in between male and female", "both male and female" or "leaning" towards male or female.
Kathleen Stock, co-director of the Lesbian Project and former academic, slammed the survey - which she discovered - as "batsh**t".
While Kate Barker, chief executive of LGB Alliance - an organisation labelled "transphobic" in the past - said the survey was "infantile, meaningless, and insulting to gay and lesbian people".
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Milli Hill (left) and Kathleen Stock were scathing in their criticism of the survey
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Barker continued: "Sex and sexuality are protected characteristics - these made-up identities and non-existent sexualities are not... They are a poor substitute for what we used to call 'personalities'.
"Grouping LGB people - who may well experience genuine discrimination - with self-declared 'male-leaning' or 'greysexual' people makes a mockery of our sexuality.
"This kind of nonsense is a perfect example of why LGB people want to organise on the basis of sexuality, not identity."
Milli Hill, author of "Give Birth Like a Feminist" and women's rights campaigner, said the survey "conflates the meaning of sex and gender, which is typical for any organisation in thrall to gender ideology".
Hill continued: "There are only two sexes, so it is nonsensical to suggest you can be 'between' the two, be 'neither', or be 'leaning' towards one or the other.
"If the survey is to 'contribute towards actions and strategy', then the respondents' sex is clearly relevant.
"You would hope for something less ideologically captured and more rooted in biological reality from a public health body such as NHS England."
An NHS England spokesperson told GB News: "This is not an NHS England approved survey."