Anger as elite Bird College in London – once attended by Spice Girl Mel C – asks staff to declare their pronouns on email in solidarity with trans people
- The college is asking employees to display the rainbow and BLM flag on emails
- The historic institution has trained many stars including Melanie Chisholm
- The email caused disquiet among some staff, who said they were uncomfortable
An elite performing arts college which trained Spice Girl Mel C has asked staff to declare their pronouns on email in solidarity with trans people.
Bird College in south London is also asking employees to display the transgender rainbow flag and Black Lives Matter (BLM) logo in written correspondence.
The historic institution, founded in 1946, has trained many stars including Melanie Chisholm, who later formed the Spice Girls.
In an email to staff this month, college principal Luis De Abreu provided a signature template for them to use, writing: ‘Please can we all have the same version as attached.’
The template included his pronouns, ‘he/him’; the slogan ‘I’m #MadeByDyslexia’; and the logos of the trans ‘Pride’ lobby and BLM.
The email caused disquiet among some staff, who said they were uncomfortable displaying political messaging when conducting college business.
It is understood tutors were previously also asked verbally to use pronouns.
The historic institution, founded in 1946, has trained many stars including Melanie Chisholm (Pictured), who later formed the Spice Girls.
One employee, who asked not to be identified, said: ‘Some staff members feel compelled and bullied and that they are being forced to misrepresent themselves and lie about their beliefs…
‘Now this email telling us all to insert pronouns into our signatures and support the various organisations shown in the template he has sent out… It is not optional. It is definitely compelled.’
Staff also said there was a ‘climate of fear’ in the college community, whereby students are being told they ‘can’t say that’ and being harassed by peers if they object to gender ideology.
The Free Speech Union (FSU) last week wrote to the college, saying declaring one’s pronouns in the workplace ‘is not a politically neutral ac
It added: ‘[It is] a way of expressing your support for the agenda of trans rights activists, including their insistence that a person’s sex is not an immutable biological fact about them, but something that can be changed at will.’
Bird College (pictured) in south London is also asking employees to display the transgender rainbow flag and Black Lives Matter (BLM) logo in written correspondence.
The FSU also pointed out that BLM has connections with Marxism, and has previously campaigned to defund the police.
When contacted by the Daily Mail, the college claimed the signature had never been compulsory.
Mr De Abreu said: ‘We appreciate that this may have been interpreted as an instruction to include pronouns and certain logos.
It is not, and has never been, the intention of Bird College to require any staff member to declare pronouns, or to appear to support any political group in their email signature.’
FSU founder Toby Young said: ‘It sounds as if Mr De Abreu has had second thoughts about making this mandatory following receipt of our letter. He’s made the right decision.’
Yesterday a Daily Mail investigation revealed how some universities are ‘decolonising’ even science courses in an effort to mollify woke activists.
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