Mick Hartley

Kathleen Stock on the new Stonewall boss. The old “no debate” stance has been dropped, in favour of a more compromising position. :

In the history of gay rights, there have always been fearless souls willing to face down mobs of pitchfork-wielding fanatics, but perhaps none so brave as Kezia Dugdale, incoming chair of trustees at Stonewall. In an interview with The Guardian this weekend, the former Scottish Labour leader did the unthinkable and praised JK Rowling.

She also asserted that polarised “culture wars” around gender should be dropped, and apologised for her own part in them. The new version of Stonewall, she says, is “not dogmatic” but aspires to be in the “messy, grey bit … because that’s where progress and consensus is found”.

This is all a far cry from the charity’s hardline stance on trans identity, taken only a few years ago. It’s also a stretch from Dugdale circa 2022, when the Gender Recognition Reform Bill was going through the Scottish parliament. Writing in this paper, the former politician felt moved to “call out the populist tactics” of those who opposed gender self-ID. She claimed “facts had been absent” from their objections, and accused them of having “fed on division” and being “riven with fear”.….

Online, the volte-face has gone down as well as you might expect. The trans-activist side believes everyone at Stonewall is a Nazi, and the gender-critical side thinks Dugdale is a hypocrite. Presumably she will use both reactions to her benefit, depicting Stonewall as holding the sensible centre ground, while surrounding crazies foam at the mouth.

Whatever Dugdae may now think – and it’s most likely that her views on gender haven’t changed – at least it looks like she now appreciates what a mess Stonewall got itself into with its aggressive approach. It worked at first, but the organisation just ended up disgracing itself.

So whatever Dugdale claims to have learnt from the past ten years, the lesson for the rest of us is to be wary of any lobbying group — on any issue — that tries simultaneously to cajole and terrify the public into a uniform ethical position on what should really be a matter of private conscience.

Meaningful change in grassroots attitudes doesn’t work that way. On the contrary: it requires you to take your opponents seriously as intelligent, responsible thinkers. Ultimately, you must be prepared to share a stage with them while they disagree with you; to defend their right to say their piece, against illiberal lunatics; and perhaps even go for a friendly drink with them afterwards, in full view of others. Whether the new incarnation of Stonewall is ready for that kind of unprecedented courage remains to be seen.

They won some battles, but lost the war. Time for a regroup and a rethink. Though I think – I hope – that it’s too late for them now.