Ruth Hunt: Stonewall CEO

[TimeLady]

uk.linkedin.com/in/ruth-hunt-54a4456

Student politics at Oxford

Eighteen months with
www.ecu.ac.uk/about-us/

then straight into Stonewall in 2005

She's as much a career politician as those in the HoC, who have never experienced work on the outside. Hardly surprising that she embraced the T when the LGB 'fight' was effectively over. What would she be doing now otherwise?

Continuing the 'fight' for diversity could well be viewed as another job creation scheme. Why would those involved ever want it to be over?

I imagine that going to an all-girl's school and a women's college, Ruth possibly didn't get a chance to see male manipulation in action.

Eh? That's actually a new one on me. I thought it was really important that the distinction between sexual orientation and gender identity was maintained. Nobody seemed to have told the GIC psychiatrist I heard speak about a year ago? I guess a year is a long time?

How stupid do you have to be to not understand that “gender identity” - whatever the fuck that it is, it seems to be a concept which cannot be defined without reference to discredited stereotypes - and sexual orientation are entirely different things.
God help us all when even the apparently educated have such poor ability to analyse and reason

This is such shite. All united as we face prejudice and discrimination?
You better include straight women under the "umbrella" as we face violence and oppression from straight men as well.

This is a very timely thread. Ruth Hunt is hugely influential in this debate. It's her leadership of Stonewall that has taken it down this path and Stonewall is the answer to loads of our objections (as in 'but Stonewall say...')

Ruth Hunt - far more than any of the TRAs we spend threads dissecting - is actually the one to watch.

Why hasn't she responded to all the Challenor stuff? Why has she doubled down on the whole Get the L Out thing?

From 2016

So far, my proudest achievement is that Stonewall became trans-inclusive in 2015, after a six-month consultation with more than 700 trans people. Being able to call Stonewall an LGBT organisation for the first time was a milestone moment for me.

www.churchtimes.co.uk/articles/2016/15-april/features/interviews/interview-ruth-hunt-chief-executive-stonewall

She nailed her colours to the wall with the inclusion of T. She has no way of backing off now, even if she wanted too. This is her baby.

Another interview

As the current custodian of Stonewall, I’m immensely proud of the fact that we continue to be such an effective movement. When I took over as Chief Executive in 2014, same-sex marriage had just been introduced and everyone said that Stonewall should just shut down as there was no more work to be done. However, we are proving time and time again that our work is more important than ever and Stonewall is the right organisation to be doing it.

www.canterbury.ac.uk/inspire/articles/spring2018/ruth-hunt-chief-executive-of-stonewall.aspx#0GF8lRxl2zlzMQHg.99

What does a typical week look like for the Chief Executive of Stonewall?

It’s usually a six-day week for me. I try to have one day in the office; a jeans-and-trainers day when I can actually talk to staff and find out what’s happening on the gound. Each week, I meet with around five politicians and three FTSE 100 chief executives about the work they are doing. I also do a lot of media work as well as deliver talks outside London to a new audience. Fundraising is a fundamental part of my role as Chief Executive so I attend three evening events with different donors. For me, the challenge is keeping up to speed with, and having the headspace for, all the different topics when I’m jumping around from one meeting to the next, be it with the Secretary of State for Health or the Association of Chief Police Officers.

What are your ambitions for the future?

I’m not sure what’s next. I think Chief Executives get too comfortable and tend to outstay their welcome, and that’s not good. Stonewall is campaigning for communities that are constantly in a state of flux and the ways in which we campaign are changing. I would never want to do harm to the movement by staying too long. Saying that, we are at a pivotal moment now for trans rights and I’m not about to walk away and jeopardise it. It’s about getting the balance right. I’ve been at Stonewall for 12 years and I’ve had eight different roles here, so we’ll have to see. However, I should imagine it will be something to do with communications, campaigning, lobbying and influencing. I might even go off and run a sweet shop for a while. I’ll probably move into politics eventually,

Yep, politics.

I may be asking a stupid question here, but as someone who attended a girls school and a women's college, why is she lobbying change to this set-up?

When I took over as Chief Executive in 2014, same-sex marriage had just been introduced and everyone said that Stonewall should just shut down as there was no more work to be done. However, we are proving time and time again that our work is more important than ever and Stonewall is the right organisation to be doing it

We were irrelevant. But then we found a way to make ourselves relevant again. And that was necessary to keep the lovely money and influence.

It's often said that most campaigning groups should regard it as a deep matter of shame that they celebrate their 20 year anniversary, 30 year etc.

That's such a good point.

One of the things I love about Abortion Support Network is that they openly look forward to being put out of business.

I may be asking a stupid question here, but as someone who attended a girls school and a women's college, why is she lobbying change to this set-up?

I believe the phrase is 'pulling up the ladder behind you'.

These interviews are really revealing, aren't they?

As a seemingly devout Catholic, who presumably believes in transubstantiation, the Virgin birth and the resurrection, perhaps it explains why she's prepared to buy in to the 'transwomen are women' argument.

Give me strength

I believe the phrase is 'pulling up the ladder behind you'.

Indeed it is Ova. Also RH once again proves that the only women who really succeed to the top, are the ones who will further the male agenda. Hunt's appointment was a golden opportunity to promote the often overlooked 'L' in that alphabet - but no, a hearty round of under-the-bussing happened instead.

Erm, as a devout Catholic, I'd like to point out that each of those doctrines is a miracle, and any thinking believer understands that for something to be a supernatural miracle, there must be a clearly understood natural order.

The virgin birth is miraculous because we understand how babies are made. It's a supernatural event that is based in a correct understanding of biology. There's no reason to suppose that someone who believes in such doctrines would more easily believe that Transwomen are women, because that's clearly demonstrable nonsense.

I don't believe in miracles and supernatural events for the woo-feelings. It's an intellectual assent to an extremely rare event with a specific message - not a wacky new understanding of basic biology as elastic and feelz based.

No offence intended, Floral. However, as an atheist, a belief in any supernatural event is hard to understand.

2017 accounts lodged with Companies House on 23 March 2018 give details of monies received

beta.companieshouse.gov.uk/company/02412299/filing-history

Also

1 person paid between £90,000 -£99.999

Total income from government sources (2017) was £655,573

Yep, taxpayers' money used to dismantle women's rights..

Timelady, no worries, I'm not offended - I'm just pointing out that believing in certain doctrines doesn't make you more susceptible to believing TWAW. Personally I think it makes it less likely in my case.

Although I didn't know she was Catholic, and I'm as about that as I am about that Trans health bod that R0wan often links to the video of and whose name escapes me being Catholic also. But then I guess the Catholic church is a big thing.

I'd like to posit that the influence of Catholicism in this case is more likely to be in the area of 'kindness', female socialization and 'inclusivity' ideas.

In 1996 my family moved to Birmingham. With a number three haircut, a new leather jacket and scant regard for my A-levels, I discovered the Birmingham scene and a new community of lesbians, bisexual people, gay men, drag queens, trans men, trans women and, for me, a strong sense of belonging.

Could Hunt have been groomed? It would be interesting to know who was pushing trans rights in the early 2000s when she was a young woman (compare Madigan, Challoner etc). If she's been there since 2006 - starting at the age of 26 - it's not a great leap to want to explore early influences.

Total income for 2017 was £7,245,714

Expenditure on "Campaigns, policy and research" was £3,112,101

Such a level playing field.

God she has access to the rich and the powerful if you read through a 'typical week'.

Imagine being a fly on the wall at one of those lunches with Bercow and the union bosses, wealthy funders.

The corruption and influence has far reaching tentacles.

I love these circles. Government granting money to be used to lobby government. It's a good job they know what's best for us right?

This is an interesting interview from 2014

www.theguardian.com/theguardian/2014/nov/21/ruth-hunt-stonewall-interview-not-interested-in-being-thought-police

Reading between the lines it sounds like she got a lot of pushback from gay men when she first became CEO following a couple of blunders around gay footballers and the Dorchester Hotel. I wonder if the focus on trans issues is in part because it's easier (for her) than trying to speak for gay men who appeared to react with some hostility.

She's probably received much more manipulation adulation from the trans lobby.

How many women under 35yo are made CEOs of multi million dollar organisations? How many open lesbians? Seems an exceptionally short climb, no?