Question

To ask His Majesty's Government whether they consider self-identification of an individual as (1) greygender, (2) maverique, (3) two-spirit, (4) demiboy, (5) demigirl, (6) neutrois, (7) aporagender, (8) polygender, (9) intergender, (10) trigender, (11) omnigender, (12) multigender, (13) pangender, (14) bigender, (15) agender, (16) androgyne, (17) demigender, (18) genderfluid, (19) genderqueer, (20) genderflux, or (21) non-binary, to be a protected characteristic; and whether it is considered to be a protected characteristic by the Office for Equality and Opportunity.

The Equality Act 2010 provides protection against discrimination and harassment and related harassment due to any of the nine protected characteristics covered by the Act. It protects people from discrimination, in the workplace, when accessing services and in wider society.

The nine protected characteristics in the Act are:

• age;
• disability;
• gender reassignment;
• marriage and civil partnership;
• pregnancy and maternity;
• race;
• religion or belief;
• sex;
• sexual orientation.

The Government has no current plans to add to the list of protected characteristics.