Stonewall faces a corporate reckoning following Dame Hilary Cass’s report

Businesses which have felt uncomfortable about the charity will now feel emboldened to take action

It’s not often that an experienced executive admits to hiding in their own office, but that’s exactly what someone confessed she was doing last week when we spoke on the phone. Being out of earshot was the only way she felt able to discuss her thoughts on the charity Stonewall and its more recent hold on UK plc. “We’ve got a section of HR that’s gone completely off the rails, with views you must follow,” she said.

Her hushed tone is hardly a surprise. In recent years women have found themselves attacked or even sacked for debating transgender identity politics. Barrister Allison Bailey lost her job when she told colleagues that Stonewall was involved in “harassment, intimidation and threats” against those who opposed its view on transgender issues. Kathleen Stock, the Sussex University professor forced to quit over her gender identity views, has previously argued that the “once great” Stonewall was now a threat to freedom of speech and doesn’t belong in UK universities, government departments, schools or local authorities.

The big corporations which pay Stonewall to vet their internal policies and rank them in exchange for a fee have largely stayed out of all of this. But the tables could be about to turn. After a major review into gender identity was published by paediatrician Dr Hilary Cass earlier this month, Stonewall faces a corporate reckoning. HR teams which had already lost confidence in the group are starting to panic about some of the advice they’ve chosen to follow without question.

Whispering concerns from quiet corners of the office will likely become a thing of the past after the Cass Review, which warns that children who think they are transgender should not be rushed into treatment they may later regret. Vindicating some of those who have been silenced, it has shone an unflattering spotlight on Stonewall and served as an important reminder about the importance of free speech.

Since the review was published, over 10,000 people have signed a petition calling for the charity’s former chief executive, Baroness Hunt of Bethnal Green, to lose her peerage after she advised schools to “shred” a research pack highlighting the dangers of puberty blockers. Explaining how Stonewall branded the research pack “dangerous”, the petition adds: “We now know beyond doubt that the opposite was true: the packs contained sound advice, and removing them was dangerous.” A Labour MP admitted last week that she “may have misled” Parliament by citing an incorrect Stonewall briefing on the Cass Review, wrongly claiming that over 100 studies were excluded from it.

None of the many companies which have worked with Stonewall would have wanted it to lose its way like this. It would have been unthinkable 10 years ago to cast the charity as any sort of villain when it came to free speech or the spread of misinformation. Set up in 1989 to fight a ban preventing the “promotion” of homosexuality by local authorities, it has been pivotal in lobbying parliament and businesses on important LGBT matters and improving equal rights. Named after the Stonewall Inn in New York, the site of a gay bar which was constantly raided by police and led to the Stonewall riots of 1969, it has played a vital role holding employers to account.

Now the charity has lost its way, employers need to hold it to account so that it can earn back its credibility. Any decent business will want to make sure that their workplace is inclusive and free from discrimination and prejudice. Stonewall still champions for equal rights but its important efforts are being overshadowed as it takes itself on a tangent, campaigning for children to be allowed to change gender and ostracising anyone who holds a different view.

In recent years it has come under fire over some of the advice it has given to organisations eager for a spot on its equality leaderboard, such as to replace the word mother with “parent who has given birth”. The Welsh government, which appeared high on the list in 2020, deleted the term mother from its maternity policy in 2019. Lawyers also warned during the pandemic that the charity could be misrepresenting equality laws in advice to government departments, NHS trusts and councils – Stonewall said at the time that it was confident in its advice on the Equality Act.

With the Cass report raising further questions about Stonewall, some organisations have had enough. Sport England and NHS England have distanced themselves from the charity while Historic England is said to be reviewing its membership. A source close to the charity argued to the

The Times last week that Stonewall “demands” its members agree with it, which “doesn’t enable that bigger principle which is ‘what support should we be giving to some young people and vulnerable young adults so that they can make the best decisions for their life?’”.

A corporate reckoning will emerge in the coming months as businesses which have felt uncomfortable now feel emboldened to take action in light of the Cass review. Tanya de Grunwald, who advises companies on HR issues, tells me she expects to see “numerous big brands dropping off ” of Stonewall’s annual top 100 employers list, which is usually out by this time of year but is still yet to be published. “They will do this as quietly as possible – saying they have reviewed value for money and have found other ways to support their LGBTQ+ employees”.

A lot can be learnt from the Cass review, including for Stonewall. It has been a major force for good for most of its existence but in recent years has been viewed by many critics as an intolerant and intimidating organisation. It’s time for the businesses which use it to ask some questions.