Stonewall is being true to itself

Stonewall seems to be sliding ever deeper into absurdity. Its embrace of transgender ideology has led to the promotion of patently bizarre and disturbing policies: rebranding mothers as “birthing parents”, the right of rapists who self-identify as women to be kept in women’s prisons, even the decriminalisation of “sex by deception”. In response there has been first a trickle, and now a rush, of organisations deciding to withdraw from Stonewall membership. How one particular political campaigning group came to exercise such a level of influence in both public and private sectors is something which will no doubt need to be looked into; but that its grip is loosening is surely a very good thing.

It has been suggested that when Stonewall adopted a focus on transgenderism, from 2016 onwards, it performed something of a handbrake turn. Simon Fanshawe, one of Stonewall’s founders, argued last week in the Daily Mail : “gathering all of us under one big “LGBT” umbrella failed to recognise that sexual orientation and gender identity are two entirely different things.” Transgenderism and all the absurdities it brings in its wake was, Fanshawe argued, a departure from what Stonewall had always stood for. And as a result, an organisation that had been all about tolerance has become monstrously intolerant. He speaks of the “doctrinaire guardians of Stonewall”, who “see disagreement as about prejudice or even hate”. The charge is clear: Stonewall, once noble and good, has turned bad.

But has Stonewall really been captured by an ideology alien to its original vision? It is not so obvious that it has. First, the idea that Stonewall, pre-2016, was a bastion of tolerance and inclusivity will bring a wry smile to the lips of Christians of all denominations who hold to the historic Christian understanding of what it means to be human. Fanshaw and others who are “gender critical” may have only recently found themselves compared to anti-Semites, but Christians have been slandered by Stonewall as motivated by “prejudice and hate” for years. Let us not forget that this is the organisation that used to name a “Bigot of the Year” at its annual awards ceremony. Stonewall has always been highly intolerant of those who question its views; Fanshawe and others have simply discovered what it is like to be on the receiving end.

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Read also: Workforce ‘Working with Stonewall is no longer compatible with NHS values’ by Kate Grimes, HSJ

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