The headlines about bias at the BBC have culminated in the resignations of both the Director‑General and the CEO of BBC News, and the Chair issuing a public response. But the picture goes deeper than a bad edit or a single programme. Institutional preferences that undermine man‑woman marriage have been baked-in for years, and that shape how sex, gender and family are framed.
If you follow our emails, you will know we have flagged this drift before, from our interview with former BBC journalist Robin Aitken on marriage, family and BBC bias, to “The Barmy BBC’s non‑binary raccoon”, and our article on Stonewall’s influence.
A leaked memo by former BBC Editorial Guidelines adviser Michael Prescott alleges institutional bias across multiple areas, with examples and internal emails.
One strand concerns a centralised LGBT desk alleged to have discouraged or blocked trans‑critical coverage corporation-wide, while green‑lighting celebratory lines.
Who is in the room matters. The BBC’s equality reports show LGBT identification in staff and leaders at about 10-12 per cent for much of the last decade. This is far above the national LGB identifying population in the 2021 Census – 2.8 per cent LGB, or 3.2 per cent including “other”.
None of this decides any story in advance, but it does help explain editorial defaults unless leadership insists on plurality at commissioning and review.
Although the BBC left Stonewall’s Diversity Champions scheme in 2021, the corporation assured staff that leaving did not diminish its LGBTQ+ inclusion. In practice, guidance, policy templates and habits do not vanish on exit.
A recent example shows how sexed language is treated as contested inside the corporation. The BBC’s Executive Complaints Unit upheld 20 complaints against presenter Martine Croxall after she changed “pregnant people” to “women” on air, and made a facial expression interpreted as communicating a view, ruling this a breach of impartiality.
Language and commissioning choices around sex and relationships set norms for families and society. The BBC has even presented polyamory in explanatory, normalising terms, such as in The Social’s “The Truth About Polyamory”.
Placing non‑monogamy in the ordinary lane while treating basic sexed terms as suspect is not neutral for a public service broadcaster serving families who hold that marriage between a man and a woman is the best context for commitment and child‑raising.
C4M calls on the BBC Board to implement the following as a minimum to begin addressing systemic bias:
- Apply the BBC’s own rules on controversial subjects, with visible range on sex and family questions. Publish simple ‘who‑was‑commissioned’ and ‘who‑was‑cited’ audits for these strands.
- Review internal guidance and staff‑network influence left over from prior memberships to ensure alignment with law and due‑impartiality duties.
- Fix governance where it has failed. Where standards were breached, apply the same board‑level seriousness shown in other recent reviews, and report progress publicly.
Impartiality is not sentimental. It is a duty owed to every licence‑payer.
At C4M, we know real marriage brings about the best results for adults, children and society. We will continue to call out our national broadcaster, who should know better, until it also promotes and celebrates what the evidence shows is the gold standard for relationships: real marriage.