In recent months, Stonewall – Europe’s leading LGBTQ Rights organsaition – have found themselves at the centre of some very public controversy regarding trans rights. It doesn’t look like it is going away anytime soon either.
In brief, Stonewall have been accused of shutting down gender-critical beliefs (and subsequent debate over trans rights) as transphobia, subsequently the Government equalities minister (Liz Truss) has urged government departments to withdraw from Stonewall’s flagship Diversity Champions programme.
According to the Guardian the debate centres on trans rights campaigners on one side and gender-critical feminists – who disagree with the view that gender identity should be prioritised over biological sex – on the other.
The debate is a complex one but in recent months critics believe Stonewalls stance on trans rights is over-aggressive and seeks to shut down debate but which the charity and its defenders believe is putting it on the right side of history.
In law, ‘Gender identity or trans status’ are not protected, only ‘gender reassignment’ is protected under the Equality Act 2010. However, Matthew Parris, one of Stonewall’s 14 founders, wrote in the Times that the charity had been “cornered into an extremist stance” on the subject of trans rights. He argued that Stonewall should stay out of the issue, sticking to LGB rights without the T. Whilst the right to change one’s legal gender was established in the UK in the 2004 Gender Recognition Act, it was only six years ago that Stonewall announced that it would work for trans equality and apologised for its past failure to do so.
In recent months, Liz Truss, the equalities minister, urged all government departments to quit the Diversity Champions programme. This was followed by a report that accused Stonewall of giving incorrect advice on equality law. This was further complicated when the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) quit the Diversity Champions programme in May 2021.
Yet, suggestions emerged that employers were leaving the Diversity Champions programme because of disquiet over its transgender inclusion training. The Telegraph reported that six public-sector organisations had left out of about 850 members listed on Stonewall’s website, although those exits were since 2019 and none had publicly cited the issue of trans rights as motivation for leaving.
Stonewall accused the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) of defending gender-critical beliefs and suggesting that they are “protected beliefs” under the Equality Act, a position the signatories said was a “kick in the teeth to trans people”.
Prof Kathleen Stock, a professor of philosophy at the University of Sussex who has written a book criticising theories of gender identity, said Stonewall had encouraged a definition of transphobia that was far too wide. “Through its Diversity Champions scheme it’s disseminated this very widespread idea that an attack on the theory – or an attack on the particular interpretation – of identity is an attack on trans people. And that has really made the whole discourse incredibly toxic, given its enormous reach within national institutions,” she said.
In a recent interview with the BBC, Nancy Kelley, head of Stonewall, attracted more criticism by comparing gender-critical beliefs to antisemitism. She said, “With all beliefs, including controversial beliefs, there is a right to express those beliefs publicly and where they’re harmful or damaging – whether it’s antisemitic beliefs, gender-critical beliefs, beliefs about disability – we have legal systems that are put in place for people who are harmed by that.”
Kelley, who said Stonewall believed in freedom of speech but “not without limit”, said the comparison was apt as people were protected on the basis of their gender identity in the same way as people are on the basis of their race.
On the antisemitism comparison made by Kelley, veteran gay rights campaigner Peter Tatchell said. “Those who deny trans people’s existence, misgender them and advocate anti-trans discrimination echo the prejudice of racists and homophobes.”
The question for UK based organisations is do they continue with their association with Stonewall and the Diversity Champions Programme? If your organsaition has a strong stance on supporting trans people will staying with stonewall support that, or does the organsaition risk being dragged into a debate regarding gender-critical beliefs?
JD
The Equality Blog 