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The editorial style guide was published on a local Government website, and explains how to use “terms related to equality and inclusion” as well as which words “should be favoured or avoided”.
Transport for London staff members has been asked in the guidelines to use “gender-neutral language where possible, only including gender necessary”, it has been reported.
The guide says to use “they” instead of “she/he” and say “staffed” instead of “manned”.
Another example is that the guide asks staff members not to use the terms “homosexual” or “transsexual” and also notes that the words “gay”, “bisexual” and “transgender” should only be used as adjectives, not nouns.
It says the word “lesbian” is an exception as “it can be used as a noun or adjective”.
The guide also says certain phases, such as “road traffic accident” should not be used, and instead suggests “road traffic incident” as a replacement.
Likewise, the word “accident” is another word that should be avoided, and staff members should instead use “collision”.
The guide tells staff to “avoid referring to conflicts by name if possible” under the “wars” section and also uses the example of saying the “late 1940s” instead of “post World War II”.
It also asks staff to consider using the terms “youngsters” and “elderly” and instead replace the words with “young people” and “older”.
READ MORE: Ex-Labour MP slams Sturgeon over conference comments on IndyRef2
Transport for London was also criticised last year after publishing a guide which said using words such as “invasive” and “native” to describe plants was offensive.
In October 2021, Art on the Underground published a pamphlet to tell visitors about green areas in Brixton, in south London, and said: “Many of London’s plants were imported as seeds by naturalists who were engaged in colonial activity of all kinds, from plantation and slave-ownership to East India Company business.”
The leaflet also highlighted the “colonial roots of plants in our parks, gardens and squares today”.
It said saying plants are “exotic” should be treated cautiously as the word had “colonial connotations” as the term symbolised the “mysteriously foreign”.
A historian of British colonialism, Dr Zareer Masani said last year: “The fact that the current craze to blame colonialism or slavery for almost everything has now reached our plants is a measure of how absurd things have become.
“Organisations like TfL need to get a grip and focus on the services they’re meant to provide.”
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