21 genders sat on a wall
NHS bosses have been accused of ‘woke pandering’ after they brought out a banner featuring flags for 21 genders or sexualities. Different terms for those who consider themselves not belonging to any sex, or are a combination of both, are included on the banner at Royal Stoke Hospital.
The familiar Gay Pride flag, which features a rainbow, appears on the banner alongside a selection of lesser-known identities – such as Polysexual, Demiromantic and Genderqueer. The collection of flags is titled ‘Everyone is welcome here’.
Well duh. It’s the National Health Service, not a social club or a kindergarten or the House of Lords. Of course it lets everyone in; that’s its job. And if you are going to make a big fuss about the fact that you don’t throw people out of your hospitals, what’s the point of emphasizing that by burbling about “Demiromantic” and “Genderqueer”? Why not just shut up, instead?
University Hospitals of North Midlands NHS Trust – considered one of the country’s worst performing – said the flag enables patients to ‘be themselves’.
If people can’t “be themselves” without bizarre random flags flapped at them, they need to shut down and restart.
Jane Haire, UHNM Chief People Officer, said: ‘We understand that different individuals may have varying views on symbols and flags used to represent different identities but this banner symbolises our commitment to achieving a more inclusive organisation where both colleagues and the people we care for are encouraged to be themselves.’
But it doesn’t work like that. Surely even complete fools can see why. People aren’t “encouraged to be themselves” by the NHS shoving random niche sexual identities in their faces. That kind of absurd patronizing performance is far more likely to make nearly everyone feel repulsed and not welcome at all. Insidery jargon is not a “welcoming” thing; it’s the opposite.
You might compare it to an ecumenical banner with a bunch of different religions on it, except … No. This is more like having a bunch of different denominations of the same religion, except … No. This is more like having a bunch of different metaphysical constructs within the same denomination of the same religion. Look how inclusive it is of everyone who matters. Anyone else is subhuman scum. A basket of deplorable bigots, if you will.
Indeed, it creates a hostile environment for all the people who don’t buy into the cult, and also, no doubt, for people who consider themselves to have one of the eleventy-zillion identities omitted from the display.
Paradoxically – and I doubt anyone on whatever committee dreamt up the horror thought of this – the most inclusive thing that they could have done was to fail to put up any flags whatsoever, thereby ignoring everyone equally.
There are a myriad ways in which people might “identify” themselves (religion, nationality, language, fashion preference, musical taste….) or are identified professionally (doctor, pilot, bowler, spelunker, taxidermist…), along with all the possible combinations. Where’s the flag for near-sighted, left-handed, albino, Buddhist, lactose-intolerant, colour-blind dental hygienists? Me, I’m a bald white guy in retail sales; WHERE’S MY GODDAMN FLAG?! Why are you limiting your feeble little welcome banner to a narrow sliver of identifications drawn exclusively from sexual orientation and gender “identity”? Hardly inclusive at all when you consider the panoply of human preferences, proclivities, professions, loyalties, hobbies, etc. by which they label themselves. More to the point, most of the zillion “identities” to which people might claim to belong are completely invisible and totally irrelevant to their hospital visit. Is one’s status as “demiromantic” ever going to be a factor in diagnosis or treatment of anything? Unless some aspect of personal characteristics such as these is germane to the injury or disease you’re being seen about (like a workplace injury, or viral exposure from your knitting club), NOBODY CARES.
It’s not like the hospital is inviting adherents of particular sexual sub-demographics to “be themselves” by indulging in their preferences right there in the waiting room. So why all the fuss? Why all the flags? A banner that proudly proclaims the inability or unwillingness of a medical facility to admit the fact that there are only two sexes isn’t really a good advertisement for the quality of care one might expect to receive. It’s decidedly odd public relations. But it depends on what message it is you’re actually trying to convey, and “inclusion” isn’t it. It’s a combination mission statement, and virtue signal symbolizing a commitment to social engineering, forced teaming, and the deliberate intimidation of anyone at all critical of the concept of “gender identity”, all rolled into one. They’re on the “right side of history,” and while you’re there, you will be too, whether you want to be or not.
We are being warned up front that this hospital has made it part of its mission to recognize and enforce gender bollocks on anyone crossing its threshold. We are supposed to love, honour, and obey the demands of those whose flags triumphantly decorate this portal. These demands might in fact take precedence over the hospital’s ostensible mandate of public health care, with all regulations and policies shaped in order to “centre” the requirements of “gender identity” over everything else. We’re being told that “gender identity” is likely to replace “sex” in standards and practices. We should expect no single sex wards. The “misgendering” of staff or fellow patients, or refusal to accept intimate care from trans-identified staff of the opposite sex, will be punished. We’ve already seen this in action in instances noted here on B&W. Men admitted to women’s wards; female patients lectured, villified, and turned away for not accepting intimate care from men claiming to be women; surgery cancelled because “gender critical.” We’ve seen how all the tags and badges on staff lanyards, advertising identification, allyship, and capture despite the infection risk posed by superfluous paraphernalia and hardware, are permitted and encouraged. Their motto could be Inclusion uber alles.
Where’s my flag? Are subhuman scum unwelcome? :(
I guess we’re not special enough to have team logos and merch. :(
Britons used to gibe that Americans had passed from barbarism to decadence without an intervening period of civilisation, now Americans can retort that the English are establishing a new church before they’ve even completed the disestablishment of the old one.
Our complaints are being addressed. The NHS will be adding these flags:
https://www.tolandflags.com/collections/decorative-flags-zodiac
I want a flag for elderly OCD depressive biologists. If I don’t get such a flag, I won’t feel welcome. Trouble is, I haven’t designed the flag yet. I could do the biologist part well enough; I’m not sure how to represent OCD or being depressive on a flag. Open to suggestions.
For the depressive part, the flag is only ever flown at half staff; if displayed amongs other flags, it is always below them. If we weren’t dealing with having to combine it with the OCD concept, it would be dark and dingy.
As for the OCD part, that sounds more like a process thing than a depiction thing. The chosen motif (whatever it would end up being) might feature a lot of repetition, with perfect symmetry, and a specified number of stitches.
Treatment is very important. The flag must be very carefully taken down cleaned every thirty minutes; if it touches the ground or is handled or looked at by others not involved in the removal process (who themslves must wear surgical garb, with the same degree of sterilization as required for use in an operating theatre), it must be burned and replaced with another one made specifically for this venue. The flag is never mass produced or stockpiled.