Another busy week full of E&D news – introducing the choice for a third gender in Australian passports, report on disability-related harassment, apology from the LSE academic involved in racism row, an ex-LSE student alleging anti-men bias at the Gender Institute and much more.

Too much equality and diversity news on my hands this week, here’s a snapshot of some of the major stories that caught my attention:

Starting with LSE, Dr Satoshi Kanazawa, who was involved in racism row over his blog post on Psychology Today entitled ‘Why are black women less physically attractive than other women?’, has issued an apology following an internal review –

In retrosepct, I should have been more careful in selecting the title of the blog post and the language that I used to express my ideas. In the aftermath of its publication, and from all the criticisms that I have received, I have learned that some of my arguments may have been flawed…

Read the full apology and the statement issued by the School on the LSE website.

Meanwhile, an ex-student of LSE has claimed that the gender studies course he undertook was sexist against men. Tom Martin, who left the course after six weeks, said there was systemic anti-male discrimination at the LSE Gender Institute. Jonathan Dean, who was a researcher at the LSE Gender Institute, wrote a response to these allegations in the Guardian:

I am a male academic active in gender studies, and was a researcher at the very institution that Martin is suing. And yet for me, as with many other male gender studies scholars and students, my academic engagement with feminism and gender issues has been nothing short of life-affirming.

A rebuttal by Tom Martin was subsequently published by the Guardian.

Into the wider world now – the University of Nottingham student who was arrested after downloading the Al-Qaida manual for research into terrorism tactics has received £20,000 and an apology from the police. Rizwaan Sabir was arrested on the 14th of May, 2008 and detained for seven days under the Terrorism Act. Although he was released without charge, the Nottighamshire police held an intelligence file on him which wrongly claimed that he had been convicted of a terrorist offence. Sabir’s legal team consequently brought proceedings against the Nottinghamshire police leading to a settlement in the form of an apology and £20,000. Sabir is now a PhD student at the University of Strathclyde researching domestic UK counter-terrorism policy.

Some more good news – Australians will now be able to list their gender as ‘indeterminate’ should they wish to on their passports. The new guidelines, aimed at removing discrimination, provide a third choice to people undergoing gender reassignment. Previously, people were required to have had a gender reassignment surgery before being able to change their gender in their passports.

In Worcestershire, the mother of a boy who returned to school dressed as a girl after being diagnosed with gender dysphoria has said that the school has been very supportive. The school’s head teacher said:

Our school operates an inclusive policy and works hard to ensure all our pupils have the support they need…We have very low incidents of bullying and this is in part thanks to our policy of equality and diversity.

On a different note, EHRC has published the final report of its inquiry into disability-related harassment (read the summary of the report on the blog) which uncovers that harassment is a commonplace experience for disabled people and a ‘culture of disbelief’ and ‘systemic institutional failures’ are preventing it from being tackled effectively.

The Equality Act 2010 Specific Duties Regulations came into force last week. The Specific Duties provide a framework to public bodies to help them perform the Equality Duty better. Find out more on the Government Equalities Office website.

Finally, what many would call the biggest news story of the week – UK is all set to legislate same-sex marriage. The Equalities Minister, Lynne Featherstone, announced that the move would be made before the next general election. She said:

I am delighted to announce today that in March this Government will bring in a formal consultation on how to implement equal civil marriage for same-sex couples. And this would allow us to make any legislative changes necessary by the end of this Parliament.

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If you come across anything that can be included in the weekly round up, please email a.islam1@lse.ac.uk