Mick Hartley

What happened with Stonewall? Once a leading voice in the struggle for gay lib, they're now at the forefront of those pushing the trans agenda. So whereas they used to campaign against the whole business of gender stereotypes, they've now done a dramatic about turn and argue that gender stereotypes are the all-important key to whether we're really a man or a woman, and biology is for the birds.

For Jonny Best, Stonewall were crucial in the early years after its foundation in 1989 for gay men like him, who were struggling to find acceptance in the hard times after the infamous Section 28 became law in May 1988, prohibiting the ‘promotion’ of homosexuality by local authorities. Gradually, thanks to groups like Stonewall, Britain became a more tolerant place, and life became gradually easier and happier for lesbians, bisexuals and gay men. 

Now though – Why I can’t trust Stonewall any more:

Its new policy platform has…led Stonewall to look both ways on the issue of gender stereotypes. On the one hand, Stonewall produces excellent materials encouraging young people to explore their lives beyond the boundaries of gendered expectations. On the other, its promotion of gender identity reinforces those same gender stereotypes; a biological male who reports having the gender identity ‘woman’ cannot explain the claim without gender stereotypes. This is not a problem within the specific domain of trans politics, but Stonewall now claims that everyone has a gender identity, and therefore everyone identifies, in some way, with gender stereotypes. While Stonewall continues to make this claim it will continue to be on the wrong side of the government’s new schools guidance.

Having adopted such radical, far-reaching new policies, rather than seek to persuade wider society of their value, Stonewall has sought to silence opposition and enforce submission by labelling heretics — such as women who want to retain the sex-based rights secured by the 2010 Equality Act, and lesbians who reject the concept of the ‘female penis’ — as ‘transphobic’, placing them on the same moral level as racists.

A substantial, and increasing, number of lesbian, gay, bisexual and trans people have had enough of Stonewall’s dogmatism. The founding in 2019 of the LGB Alliance, a grassroots, lesbian-led lobbying group which rejects gender identity, is responding to the demand for alternative thinking.

Stonewall’s brand is powerful — but brands are illusory, and Stonewall’s masks the socially divisive and damaging effects of its current policies. Politicians, schools, NGOs and major corporations routinely subcontract their judgment on LGBT issues to Stonewall, persuaded that whatever Stonewall says is ‘best practice’ must be right. But they should learn to be more cautious, because the new Stonewall is a vastly different organisation from the one which gradually earned their trust.

I suppose this could be seen as an object lesson in what happens to a campaigning group when they succeed in their original aims. To survive, they adopt new aims….