Post Office drops gendered titles from enquiry forms following campaign by LGBTQ group
The Post Office joins a growing list of UK retailers who are considering their non-binary customers in their online forms. (Getty Images/PinkNews)
The Post Office has become the latest UK retailer to remove the titling option from their consumer forms.
After a petition was set up by the LGBTQ+ campaigning group Include Mx, via change.org, just last month, the Post Office will remove titles from their general enquiry forms. The petition has received almost 300 signatures.
Include Mx had asked the Post Office to stop excluding non-binary people by only offering the binary, gendered titles Mr, Miss and Mrs, or academic titles, such as Dr, on its general enquiry form.
A Post Office spokesperson said: “We want to thank [Include Mx founder] Tom Pashby for the passion and dedication they have given this important cause. Mx titling is currently available for our travel, home and gadget insurance journeys.
“We regularly discuss this topic, and recently came to the decision to remove titling altogether from our forms to ensure inclusivity for all of our customers.”
Journalist Pashby responded by saying: “This is good news for non-binary people and anyone who doesn’t want to share their gender, marital status, or other identities implied by titles.”
Post Office joins other retailers in non-binary inclusion
Include Mx was launched in 2020 to encourage major brands to add the gender-neutral title Mx to forms.
Since its inception, Include MX’s campaigning has led to other large UK retailers, including Argos, Wickes, Debenhams and Next, to include the Mx title on online customer forms.
Pashby told PinkNews: “In an ideal world, we would get rid of title fields altogether. It would mean people don’t feel pressured into defining and revealing their identities to companies that often don’t need the information anyway.”
“Many forward-thinking organisations have already deleted the title sections from their forms. Where organisations do still have a title section, Include Mx calls on them to make sure they are inclusive towards their non-binary customers by including Mx.”
Mx is a gender-neutral title that is increasingly being used by non-binary people. The Gender Census project revealed that it is the most popular title being used by the non-binary community.
