UKRI latest: Flying the flag for gender ideology

Why is it so hard for taxpayer-funded institutions to stay neutral?

Whose flag is this?

I won’t keep you in suspense; it’s the profile image on X for The Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC), another UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) subsidiary:

It is a trans-inclusive flag; one that tries to embody the numerous intersecting gender identities we are all supposed to keep up with (for more info on the colours, please find the Victoria and Albert Museum’s helpful guide here *another institution that has definitely not been ideologically captured).

Putting it simply, it’s a flag that not every taxpayer is on board with. Many will see it as representing a movement that tells boys and girls they may be in the wrong body and, in the most extreme cases, that they need to remove/ alter healthy tissue to correct this.

And yet, our money - £1,651 million for 2022-25 - is being put towards this woke wing of the UKRI.

The STFC says it’s “Pioneering science for a better future”, and has plans such as creating the “world’s largest telescope” and “discover[ing] the secrets of the Universe.”