RM introduces gay-marriage friendly titles to postage system

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Letters can now be addressed to 'Mr and Mr' or 'Mrs and Mrs' after pressure from customers and gay and lesbian rights group Stonewall

Royal Mail bosses have introduced gay marriage-friendly titles to its postage system following complaints letters could not be addressed to “Mr and Mr” or “Mrs and Mrs”.

Royal Mail came under fire when customers wishing to send letters and parcels to gay couples discovered there was no “Mr and Mr” or “Mrs and Mrs” options on the company’s online postal system.

Same-sex weddings became legal just over a year ago - and civil partnerships have been around for almost a decade - yet those wishing to purchase ‘gay-friendly’ labels from the traditional British postal company became unstuck.

A drop-down box of pre-determined titles includes “Mr and Mrs” - and “Dr”, “Sir”, “Reverend” and “Chaplain”, but none for couples of the same sex.

Ruth Tidmarsh was astonished when she tried to address a package to her married lesbian friends in the Midlands, but when she attempted to manually input “Mrs and Mrs” into the name line, the system suggested she had made an error.

Ms Tidmarsh contacted Royal Mail to flag up her concerns about discrimination and was told they would pass her idea to their development team, for future consideration when they ‘update their system’.

However, Royal Mail chiefs did a red-faced U-turn after being contacted by the gay and lesbian rights lobby group Stonewall to alert them to this situation.

They have now promised to change their system as soon as possible to include ‘Mrs and Mrs’ and ‘Mr and Mr’.

They also issued an infographic, showing their new ‘interim process’ - which customers wishing to address labels to same-sex marrieds can use in the meantime.

Mish Tullar, Director of Media Relations at Royal Mail, said that although he was not aware of any previous complaints as soon as the company was made aware of the issue it was changed.

“Once this oversight was brought to our attention, we made changes to our online systems to allow customers to choose the combination of titles for address labels that best describes their household - whether that’s Mr and Mrs, Mr and Mr, Ms and Ms and so on,” he added.

“We’re not aware of any previous complaints, but when we heard a customer was unable to place the order they wanted to, we were pleased to make the change.”

Ms Tidmarsh was delighted to have succeeding in getting gay-friendly titles on to Royal Mail’s system.

“After sending the parcel anyway, I Tweeted Royal Mail, requesting that they add single-sex options,” said the musician from Hertfordshire.

“I am so very pleased we have nudged Royal Mail into the 21st century.”

Same-sex marriage was officially legalised in March of last year, with gay and lesbian marriage becoming a more equal union than the civil partnership, which came in, in 2005.

Sarah Foster, group client manager at Stonewall, said it was vital that firms ensure they are inclusive to the LGBT community.

“Royal Mail is a Stonewall Diversity Champion and is determined to ensure its services and working environments are inclusive for its lesbian, gay, bisexual and trans (LGBT) customers and staff,” she added.

“This oversight demonstrates why it’s so important for employers and service providers to be proactive to ensure they are inclusive of the LGBT community, and we’re pleased to see Royal Mail demonstrating its commitment to equality by responding swiftly to resolve the issue.”

An online document produced by the lobby group in 2010, suggested that tailoring services and marketing to a gay audience can be lucrative for businesses, as well as ethical. Alongside other companies, it praises Royal Mail for using Sir Elton John in a television advertising campaign.

Greetings card giant Hallmark has a range of cards specifically for women marrying women and men who decide to tie the knot.

It describes part of its corporate strategy as valuing diversity, stating that they “make inclusion real for the marketplace” and understand the needs of a growing market.

Hallmark spokeswoman, Tamsyn-Johnston Hughes, said: “We have had same-sex wedding cards in our collection for about 10 years now.

“As a company we have consumer insights at the heart of our creativity and design to make sure we have great cards for everyone. After all, we are making cards for all occasions, and getting it right is really important to us.”

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For pity's sake!
They've missed out addressing for the zoophiles though.
No facility for Mr. Smith & Rover......