The insurance firm Aviva plc has come under criticism for its relationship with the charity The Proud Trust, which promotes gender ideology resources in UK schools, including materials designed for primary-school children. Aviva has committed to match-fund The Proud Trust’s fundraising goal of £10,000. For example, a £20 donation allows a supporter to select a “reward” that includes sending a resource to a primary school explaining that a child may have been “assigned the wrong gender at birth”.
The Proud Trust is known for creating a variety of teaching resources aimed at primary and secondary schools, including an “explicit sex-education toolkit” and a “Trans Inclusion Toolkit”. On its social-media channels, the organisation stated that “trans women are a category of women, just like tall women or French women” and asserted that they “belong in women’s spaces”.
One particularly controversial element is a resource described as a “dice game”, in which children around age 13 roll two dice marked with body parts including penis, hands, fingers, vulva, and anus, and then discuss how the combinations might work in practice. The teacher’s guide reportedly describes most combinations as “fun”, “enjoyable”, or “pleasurable”, while acknowledging that “Not all combinations will be easy to discuss and some might seem impossible.”
Numerous critics have voiced alarm over Aviva’s support for this kind of education resource. One commenter on social media wrote: “Aviva – The insurer that doesn’t understand risk… is fundraising for The Proud Trust – an organisation teaching children that being straight or comfortable in their bodies is boring.” Another asked why “anyone [is] giving The Proud Trust funding to lie to kids like this?”
John Denning, Head of Education at The Christian Institute, said: “When companies fail to exercise due diligence when deciding on charitable causes to support, they risk trashing, not enhancing, their reputation. It is deeply concerning that the vast resources of a financial institution are being subverted to promote this deeply damaging agenda in schools, directly opposed to medical evidence and the legal position established by the Supreme Court.”