In summer 2022, the Globe staged a controversial production, I, Joan, which ‘reimagined’ Joan of Arc as nonbinary. To prepare us as staff to tackle the thorny topic of gender identity, we received training from a trans lobby group called Gendered Intelligence. This organisation works closely with disgraced trans-youth charity Mermaids (currently under investigation by the Charity Commission) and had previously advised the now defunct Tavistock gender-identity clinic.

During these training sessions, Gendered Intelligence told us to ‘remove unnecessary gender divisions’ by making toilets gender neutral and to keep a child’s trans identity secret from their parents, which might come up during one of the workshops the Globe runs for schoolchildren. Obviously, this goes against basic safeguarding principles (and the new government guidance on trans issues for schools agrees). This was particularly concerning given that the theatre welcomes thousands of children every year.

Soon after these sessions, signs went up on the toilets, declaring them all to be ‘gender neutral’. Neither staff nor customers were consulted about this. To make matters worse, sanitary bins were not provided in what were previously the men’s toilets, rendering them effectively useless to women.