The term “mother” was removed from Scottish government maternity policies after they were lobbied by a leading LGBT+ charity, it has emerged.
Stonewall urged ministers to remove gendered terms from policy documents and replace them with “gender neutral equivalents”.
Documents released under freedom of information (FoI) legislation confirm that the charity wrote to the Scottish government last year encouraging them to adopt terms featured in their inclusive policy toolkit. The word mother now no longer appears on documents outlining maternity leave.
The FOI requests were made by the broadcaster and journalist Stephen Nolan for his BBC podcast Nolan Investigates.
Since 2013 the Scottish government has been part of Stonewall’s Diversity Champions scheme. In return for an annual payment, members receive advice on issues such as
