Are you gay, lesbian, bisexual or ‘other’, the BBC asks the baffled staff: Diversity survey ridiculed – as one recipient asks ‘Can anyone see the missing option?
- Confused BBC-funded Local Democracy Reporters shared the question online
- Latest gaffe in row due to BBC’s fixation on promoting diversity
The BBC has sparked ridicule among its own staff after distributing a diversity survey that did not include the ‘heterosexual’ option in the sexual orientation section.
Confused employees of the Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS), BBC-funded journalists who work in regional news organisations, posted footage of the question online.
Under the question ‘What is your sexual orientation?’ were the options ‘bi/bisexual’, ‘lesbian/gay woman’, ‘gay man’, ‘other sexual orientation’ and ‘prefer not to say’.
“Who can see the missing option?” Jamie Shapiro, LDRS reporter for Southampton, wrote on social media. It is clear that the question was part of a survey sent only to LDRS employees.
But despite admitting the error, the service instead asked those who didn’t complete the survey to check the “other sexual orientation” box instead of issuing a custom survey.
Confused employees of the Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS), BBC-funded journalists who work in regional news organisations, posted images of the question online
Gareth Johnson, Tory MP for Dartford, said: ‘This is quite a mistake. All that money is spent on diversity officers who overlook the fact that some people are straight. Really remarkable!’
The LDRS eventually released an update with “sincere apologies” for “an error on our part.” The message continued, “By the time it came to our attention, we had over half the responses and felt it was too late to resubmit the survey.”
Respondents were then asked to tick ‘other sexual orientation’ if they were heterosexual.
The blunder is just the latest in a series of squabbles sparked by the BBC’s fixation on promoting diversity.
In 2021, the Corporation was forced to shut down a diversity program run by LGBT charity Stonewall after its CEO compared gender-critical beliefs to anti-Semitism.
The embarrassing climb down came after details of a BBC course set up with the lobby group were revealed, including an image of a ‘gender bread person’, who claimed gender was determined in the brain. Critics called it “unscientific nonsense.”
Last year, The Mail on Sunday revealed details of equality and diversity training at the BBC following a protracted battle over freedom of information.
It showed that employees had to watch out for ‘170 different forms of unconscious bias’, including discrimination against a colleague based on their hobbies.