Tumultuous change of wind in UK, cradle of the Lgbtq+ rainbow. After the harsh attack on Stonewall by one of its founders, Matthew Parris, another strongly critical voice, that of the gay journalist and essayist Douglas Murray. He denounced the historical association's persecutory campaign against gays and lesbians, for the protection of whose rights it was founded in 1989. Today, says Murray, Stonewall is a business committee serving the trans lobby to intercept rivers of money and justify its existence. Stonewall, according to Murray, should no longer receive public funding.
There is a law of nature that applies to campaigning groups and charities, according to which aAn organisation set up to tackle a particular problem will always find a way to exist even after the problem has been solved.
The reason is simple: when a problem has been solved, or almost solved, the business is at its peak. Employees' salaries and pensions are at stake, reputations have been built and influence secured. And this is how the great intuition of Eric Hoffer is realised: every great cause starts as a movement, becomes a business and eventually degenerates into a racket.
Very few causes have degenerated into an absolute racket like the former gay rights group known as Stonewall. When it was founded in 1989 gay rights in Britain, as in the whole of Europe, had a long way to go to achieve equality. At that time there was a different age of consent for homosexuals and heterosexuals, homosexuals did not have the right to marry or have their unions legally recognised and, most importantly, the Conservative government prevented young gays from being informed in schools about their sexuality.
The road ahead was certainly long and Ian McKellen, Matthew Parris, Simon Fanshawe and the rest of the founders of the group faced a tough battle for many years. But the battle has been won.
Once the most of his goals had been achieved, however, what was Stonewall to do? There were several options. The most obvious would have been downsize and remain in office to tackle the problems that remained, such as homophobia in schools and other areas of society.
Instead Stonewall took another route decided to cash in on its victory. This, of course, is not surprising. Because it is when you win that you are most popular, and those who were once not on your side quickly become your allies.
So it was with the corporate world and the government machine. Both the private and public sectors suddenly provided Stonewall with large reserves of money. to keep the organisation's coffers full. Both were interested in inviting Stonewall for advice.
For example, Stonewall produced a list of the best employers for gay people in the UK for a number of years. Even though the battle for equality was almost over in the Blair and Cameron years, big companies decided they desperately wanted to be on the list; having Stonewall's gay stamp of approval became essential. Over time, it became standard procedure for a company to invite Stonewall to evaluate its business operations. Thus was born a relationship that was compromising from the outset and full of vested interests.
Meanwhile, the government has been increasingly obsessed with getting the gold star from Stonewall, asking the group to instruct departments on what to do in their workplaces, as well as on their policies in the rest of the world.
In particular, one of Stonewall's most influential money-making programmes in recent years was its "Diversity Champions scheme", in which members are invited to pay a fee to Stonewall to allow the group to control their internal policies. Among the 850 groups who have registered there are GCHQ, MI5, Ministry of Defence, Cabinet, Department of Education and Ministry of Justice.
Yet Stonewall's degeneration has been evident for years; indeed, you can see it in the calibre of the people involved at the top. When Stonewall began, its leaders were prominent in the British media and in public life. They were known to heterosexual people, and certainly known to gay people.
Can the same be said today? I doubt it. In fact, I suspect that if you were to visit all gay clubs, you would find that less than one in a hundred people would be able to name Nancy Kelley as the current leader of Stonewall. They wouldn't know who she is or what she does. This is because Stonewall is neither in the front line nor in any barricade. Rather, it is a company that functions largely for the comfort of its employees.
It would be wrong, however, to assume that Stonewall is simply rich. Because it is right now, when the coffers are full and the beneficiaries are happy, that an organisation can take a wrong turn. And that's what Stonewall has done in recent years. It argues that its job is to defend LGBTQ+ rights, but in fact the first three letters of that acronym slipped Stonewall's radar at least six years ago. It was then that Stonewall decided to push for a new campaign. No gay person will be free until all T and Q + -trans, queer and +- have the same rights as everyone else.
Many problems arise here. Firstly, it is not clear whether transgender rights have any intersection (to borrow a popular term) with gay rights. In fact, it is quite the opposite. For example, it is perfectly possible for boys and girls who do not conform to gender stereotypes to grow up happily heterosexual or gay.
Shouldn't a group that protects gay people recognise the need for nuance? Surely it wouldn't jump on the increasingly dogmatic bandwagon that claims - against all the progress made by the gay rights movement - that those children are most likely of the opposite sex.
What's worse, Instead of opening up to discussion with gays who see it differently, Stonewall decided to undermine them, and in some cases even persecute them.
The recent case by Allison Bailey is instructive. Bailey is a criminal lawyer, a feminist and a lesbian who, in response to the " trans programme "of Stonewall, contributed to the creation of theLGB Alliance. Stonewall, accordingly, tried to cause Bailey serious problems at work, contributing to her being put under investigation because of her views on sex and gender. This and much more reveals the despicable bullying tactics used by Stonewall. To put it simply, it has become aorganisation that persecutes gays and lesbians who dare to disagree.
This week the association celebrates its 32° anniversarywhich no one except its employees would have any reason to celebrate. Yet they themselves will probably do so with a sense of deep unease; in recent days one of its founders, Matthew Parris, has publicly urged Stonewall to stay out of trans wars -see here- while the Equality and Human Rights Commission has announced that it will not renew the convention.
That's right. No taxpayer-funded entity should financially support Stonewall. And the private companies that continue to do so should be informed that are supporting a group that stopped caring about homosexuals and started persecuting them instead in their workplaces.
Happy 32 ° birthday, Stonewall. And no offense, I hope you don't make it to 33.
Douglas Murray, journalist, essayist, gay.
translation by Marina Terragni, original article here
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