Mick Hartley

The LGBT charity Stonewall is at the forefront of the gender identity campaign, notably with its Diversity Champions programme, which decrees that trans people are the gender they say they are, and to deny this is to be guilty of transphobia. There's been some push back – a letter in the Sunday Times back in June from a number of female academics, for instance:

The membership requirements of this programme are in tension with academic freedom. For instance, university members must instigate specialist trans policies, in addition to general equality policies, which outlaw “transphobic” teaching and research material but offer no clear definition of what would count as such.

Alongside Stonewall’s definition of transphobia as including any “denial/refusal to accept . . . gender identity”, this leaves academics unable to question the contested notion of “gender identity” without fear of sanction.

Equally, Stonewall’s guidance advises against inviting any speaker to a university who would deny “that trans people are the gender they say they are”. This is a further unacceptable restriction upon free academic debate.

The programme requires staff to undergo “trans awareness training”, during which tendentious and anti-scientific claims are presented to academics as objective fact, without the opportunity for scrutiny: for instance, that “gender is how people interpret and view themselves” and that “1 in 100 are born with an intersex trait”. In our teaching, we’re exhorted to “ask the pronouns” of students. Yet many of us would deny that pronouns refer to an inner feeling of gender identity, and wish to say so.

There are other areas that some of us wish to explore and question, such as the ramifications of Stonewall’s new doctrine that female-attracted trans women, with penises, are “lesbians”; an “affirmation model” for gender-questioning children; and the social changes caused by opening up women-only spaces to self-identified women. It is imperative to interrogate the radical shifts in thinking that all this implies, but we feel inhibited from doing so in the intimidating atmosphere produced by Stonewall’s influence.

The concern that the whole gender identity campaign was fundamentally a regressive throwback to old gender stereotypes, dressed up in progressive trans-friendly clothing, prompted a number of leading gay rights activists to consider forming a breakaway group:

Last October a group of LGB rights supporters asked Stonewall to “commit to fostering an atmosphere of respectful debate rather than demonising as transphobic those who wish to discuss, or dissent from, Stonewall’s transgender policies”. Since then, Stonewall has refused repeated requests to enter into any such dialogue.

The government continues to treat Stonewall as if it represented the views of progressive thinking in general, and specifically LGB opinion. It does not.

We believe it has made mistakes in its approach that undermine women’s sex-based rights and protections. The most worrying aspect of this is that all primary-school children are now challenged to review their “gender identity” and decide that they may be the opposite sex if they do not embrace outdated gender stereotypes.

The architect of this policy, Ruth Hunt, who recently resigned as Stonewall’s chief executive, has — surprisingly — been made a life peer. Her exclusion of any alternative views has divided supporters of gay and lesbian rights in a way that may be irreparable.

If Stonewall remains intransigent, there must surely now be an opening for a new organisation committed both to freedom of speech and to fact instead of fantasy.

And now they've gone ahead and done it:

Europe’s biggest LGBT rights organisation has split after being accused of promoting a "trans agenda" at the expense of gay and lesbian rights.

Stonewall is known for campaigning for the equality of lesbian, gay, bisexual and trans people across Britain. The charity’s mission statement says that it aims “to create inclusive and accepting cultures”. 

However, following a meeting on Tuesday night – and amid an ongoing row about trans inclusion – the charity has divided and forged a splinter group.

Announcing themselves as the LGB Alliance, the group, formed of “influential lesbians, gay men and bisexuals” met in central London last night and forged the new organisation in a bid to “counteract the confusion between sex and gender which is now widespread in the public sector and elsewhere”….

In a press release announcing the new group, which will be formally launched in January, the LGB Alliance said that its participants included former employees and supporters of the lobby group Stonewall, as well as doctors, psychiatrists, academics and lawyers with expertise in child safeguarding. 

It added that all members had agreed a foundation statement which prioritised biological sex over gender theories which they regard as “pseudo-scientific and dangerous”.

Bev Jackson, a co-founder of the Gay Liberation Front, said: “LGB people like us have been writing to Stonewall for over a year – trying to set up a dialogue with them. It’s about the fact that they have chosen to prioritise trans people and have almost abandoned their original mission: protecting people who are same-sex attracted.

“Sadly, we do still need protection. Young lesbians in particular are suffering; experiencing huge social pressure to transition to male if they do not conform to traditional gender stereotypes. 

“Almost 10,000 people have signed our petition – asking for calm, respectful discussion. Stonewall has stonewalled us every time. So it’s time to set up an alternative organisation.”…

The members of the new Alliance agreed, as part of a 20-point position statement, that:homosexuality is same-sex (not same-gender) attraction; lesbians are biological women who are attracted to other biological women; sex is not "assigned" at birth but observed and it is not transphobic for lesbians to have their own spaces and institutions which exclude male-bodied people.

Kate Harris, a former volunteer fundraiser for Stonewall, told The Telegraph: “The main difference is that lesbians, gays and bisexuals have something in common because of our sexual orientation, that has nothing to do with being trans. 

“We welcome the support of anyone – gay, straight or trans – as long as they support our commitment to freedom of speech and biological definitions of sex. So we are a very broad and accepting group. We will be called transphobic, but we’re not.”

The new group aims to be an umbrella organisation that supports freedom of speech, accurate biological definitions of sex and fact-based education. It said that it will maintain links to all groups “who fight for the rights of lesbians, bisexuals and gay men at a time when Stonewall brands same-sex attraction as transphobic”.