Dear Editor:
CAS leadership is unnecessarily walking on divisive political public policy ground. Our beloved CAS should prohibit leaders from taking positions on divisive political-moral-social issues and enforce our constitution. The board of directors’ political public policy decisions need formal, meaningful membership interaction. The AR published a transgender pronouns article. The AR editor puts (she/her) after her name, indicating she and, by implication, the CAS endorses/promotes transgenderism. The CAS Board released a document “Diversity, Equity and Inclusion” (DEI) and responded to strong member objections to the board taking positions on political public policy issues. The board claims their DEI race goals are not taking positions forbidden by our constitution. Members strongly disagree. Moreover, these divisive issues have nothing to do with casualty actuarial science. “Woke” constructs like DEI, CRT, abortion, encouraging child gender dysphoria, etc., are “liberal/progressive” constructs and “conservatives” strongly oppose them. These “woke” constructs are fundamentally Democratic Party values, not Republican Party values. By taking woke liberal Democrat positions the CAS Board is obviously taking political public policy positions prohibited by our constitution. The transgender article was 1,250+ words and apparently not vetted by committee. My article was delayed, committee vetted and arbitrarily limited to 250 words. Why? Does this seem like censorship to you? The CAS is a professional society, not a political public policy forum for promoting woke ideology, conservative ideology or any political public policy ideology. To read my full article and posts, and interact with other concerned CAS members, please go to www.WeLoveTheCAS.com and actively participate. Let’s make our voices heard.
—Bob Daino, FCAS
AR Managing Editor Elizabeth Smith responds:
The article in question, “The Importance of Pronouns: A Nonbinary Actuarial Analyst’s Perspective” (AR March-April 2021), was submitted by a member of the organization Sexuality and Gender Alliance of Actuaries with the support of the CAS/SOA Joint Committee for Inclusion, Equity and Diversity as a featured story intended to educate others about a particular workplace scenario. It was not considered an opinion piece and therefore was not subject to examination by the Periodicals Editorial Board (PEB), which reviews all opinion pieces (e.g., President’s Message, In My Opinion, Random Sampler) for all CAS publications. The story was, however, reviewed and edited by members of the Actuarial Review Committee. Mr. Daino’s article submitted in response to “The Importance of Pronouns” was reviewed by the PEB, which determined that the piece was best suited as a letter to the editor, which we welcome from our readers. AR is a forum for members to discuss professional issues, and provocative opinion pieces are encouraged to fuel discussions and ensure that all sides of a professional issue can be expressed. The AR is also committed to sharing stories that enable CAS members to progress in their careers and to navigate the intricacies of changing workplace environments, be they technological or cultural. “The Importance of Pronouns” article was published in that spirit.
