Stonewall ‘accused of dictating’ LGBT event
A ROW has broken out over the Government’s first global LGBT conference as Stonewall is accused of having a “whip hand” in “dictating” how it is run, The Sunday Telegraph has learnt.
The Safe To Be Me conference is taking place in London in June, the largest event of its kind, with worldwide policy makers gathering to tackle discrimination and promote legislative reform for equal rights.
Eighteen officials across three government departments are planning the event, headed by Liz Truss, the Foreign Secretary, who has called for Whitehall to cut ties with Stonewall’s contentious diversity training.
Despite ministers and the Civil Service signalling a move away from the charity, officials directed gender-critical campaigners to go through Stonewall or the Kaleidoscope Trust, another LGBT group, if they wished to join the event.
Stonewall has been appointed to cochair the event organised by the Equal Rights Coalition on behalf of the Government.
A key organiser – Iain Anderson, the Government’s LGBT business champion – is a Stonewall ambassador.
The event threatens to become the latest clash between lesbians and feminists on the one hand who say biological sex is immutable, and trans activists who argue a person’s gender identity overrides their sex.
Sir John Hayes, a former Cabinet Office minister, told
“Stonewall, given their extreme views on the trans debate, should have less – not more – influence in Whitehall.
“It seems very odd that the Government has given them a whip hand in organising a conference that, notwithstanding its understandable purpose, is being dictated by the very people that much of the homosexual community no longer believes is working in their interests.
“Somebody in Government better get a grip of this, as it’s costing immense amounts of taxpayers’ money.”
Kate Harris, co-founder of LGB Alli
‘It seems odd that the Government has given them a whip hand in organising a conference’
ance launched in protest at Stonewall’s alleged “no-debate” agenda, said it appeared that “only those who promote gender identity ideology are involved in conference planning”.
A government spokesman said: “To ensure that the conference achieves its aims and advances the rights of LGBT+ people around the world we will continue to engage civil society representatives and members of the Equal Rights Coalition. Invites to the conference are yet to be issued and the Government will decide who receives them.”
A Stonewall spokesman said: “It is completely appropriate for the UK Government to work with civil society organisations like Stonewall in support of their domestic and global LGBTQ+ initiatives.”