EHRC cuts ties with Stonewall.

[Novina]

Has anyone else seen this? From Sex Matters:

sex-matters.org/posts/updates/press-release-equality-and-human-rights-commission-cuts-ties-with-stonewall

Thanks for posting this - the topic came up in the Harrington thread and you've found a link that confirms it.

Wow this is good news. Certainly at face value. Wonder if it will have a domino effect. Here's hoping.

Really hope it is true and no more champion scheme for them or other public bodies. And no backroom deals taking its public place.

This is why Stonewall hod their online list of Stonewall Diversity Champions, isn't it. Because they lost the EHRC.

So it is true, well, well, well.

Absolutely right that the EHRC should not be in the pocket of Stonewall an organisation that persistently and deliberately gives false information about the contents and purpose of the Equality Act. Other Government departments and publicly funded institutions need to distance themselves now as well, no-one voted for Stonewall to make up the Law of the land.

This feels really significant.

But, along with feeling optimistic, I am also a bit cynical.

It just seems that these institutions are actually finally taking the temperature of public opinion and reacting to that. If we hadn't worked so hard in getting the actual facts out there, supporting Keira Bell, Maya Forstster, Allison Bailey, it would still be creeping in through the back door just like in the US, in Ireland, in Australia.....

And some very brave women (and a few men, like Glinner and James Dreyfus) have paid a very high price.

I do feel this will come to an end, and soon. But most women will never really know just how close we all came to loosing so much. It will go out like it came in, by the back door, sneaking off quietly hoping no-one will notice and the main players will never be held to account.

The likes of Daniel Radcliffe and Emily Watson, Eddie redmayne, all those comedians and broadcasters and writers, they will never be called on to apologise or even examine what they said and why it was so harmful..... It will just fade away, because thankfully the worst will never happen.

I kind of hope there is some sort of reckoning. But I will settle for harm avoided....

I was really excited by the title of this thread, but ... a bit like a Pink News headline it makes a leap beyond what is none.

Stopping being a Diversity Champion is great / fantastic.

This doesn't mean they will refuse to ever talk with Stonewall again.

Which is a shame.

But the damage of the Diversity Champion Scheme by this move will be enourmous.

Assuming it ever gets widely reported.

Let's hope the DM etc., are doing their daily check of FWR threads to see if there might be a news story in it for them!

In case you cant see the link, it says;

''22nd May 2021
In a letter to the campaigning group “Sex Matters”, the Chair of the Equality and Human Rights Commission, Baroness Kishwer Falkner has disclosed that the equalities watchdog, has quit the Stonewall Diversity Champions Scheme. ''

There is also a link to the letter;
''Regarding our membership of the Stonewall Diversity Champions scheme, to suggest that this impacts on our impartiality is wholly inaccurate and unfounded.
The programme is for employers and our membership always related
exclusively to our internal affairs, it had no influence on any external work.
However, as a publicly funded organisation we have to ensure that we are making the best choices when it comes to our budget and have recently been reviewing all of our memberships.
We wrote to Stonewall in March to let them know that we would not be renewing our membership, and this has now expired.''
sex-matters.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/20210518-EHRC-Chair-to-Sex-Matters.pdf

March! This happened a couple of months ago.

I necver get this 'just about employees' thing? Who do they think draws up guidance etc if not employees who have been indoctrinated in Stonewall?

I really REALLY hope this is good news.

The letter from Bariness Falkner seemed to downplay it as just a budget issue. Hmmm.

''The programme is for employers and our membership always related
exclusively to our internal affairs, it had no influence on any external work.''

But looking at the way women have managed to successfully challenge some of the statements on their website, I don't have confidence in that.
It seems obvious to me that if you create a culture in the workplace, its going to affect the people you recruit and the way your staff do their job.

In the Mail .. www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-9608277/MARY-HARRINGTON-group-fighting-homophobia-clashes-gay-rights-champion-theres-issue.html

Regarding our membership of the Stonewall Diversity Champions scheme, to suggest that this impacts on our impartiality is wholly inaccurate and unfounded. The programme is for employers and our membership always related exclusively to our internal affairs, it had no influence on any external work.

However, as a publicly funded organisation we have to ensure that we are making the best choices when it comes to our budget and have recently been reviewing all of our memberships.

We wrote to Stonewall in March to let them know that we would not be renewing our membership, and this has now expired.

Hahaha whatever EHRC. Run away run away run away.

From the daily mail article

Few would dispute the hard-won freedom of gay, lesbian and bisexual people to live, love and marry without stigma or discrimination. But as the LGB Alliance’s rising membership shows, plenty of LGB people themselves don’t agree that this should mean having to pretend someone with a penis and testicles can ever be a ‘lesbian’.

Seriously Stonewall, what on earth were you thinking?

Well, they are hardly going to say "yes, this may have had an influence on our work" voluntarily, are they? The most you could reasonably expect is something about a public impression of lack of impartiality.

There are organisations, like Allison Bailey's chambers, that are clearly corrupted by the relationship. I don't think we have firm evidence for that with EHRC.

There are organisations, like Allison Bailey's chambers, that are clearly corrupted by the relationship
Add to that any organisation that immediately ran to Stonewall to be told how to respond to the FOI about their relationship and involvement with Stonewall.

This is good news, even if EHRC have tried to keep it quiet and downplay the significance.

This is good news, even if EHRC have tried to keep it quiet and downplay the significance.

Agreed. They have to present it that way, but it is a major shift. Stonewall can no longer points to the body that is supposed to monitor equalities legislation being a member.

Hopefully, equality law will start to be applied by reference to the law, not by what Stonewall says it is, and it with due reference to all protected characteristics, including the frequently-overlooked “sex”. It’s not much to ask, really.

I do feel this will come to an end, and soon. But most women will never really know just how close we all came to loosing so much. It will go out like it came in, by the back door, sneaking off quietly hoping no-one will notice and the main players will never be held to account.

The likes of Daniel Radcliffe and Emily Watson, Eddie redmayne, all those comedians and broadcasters and writers, they will never be called on to apologise or even examine what they said and why it was so harmful..... It will just fade away, because thankfully the worst will never happen.

I agree. But the annoying thing about fade away is people still won't understand!

I suppose I'm wanting a signed confession and admission of guilt and even that won't be enough if they don't believe it. I probably had a part in the Spanish Inquisition in a former life.

at FannyCann Isn't it tempting to want vengeance - especially looking back at the terrible cost to women and children that has happened via Stonewall.

Of course, if the EHRC did make reference to the illegality of advice, not just as represented in the Essex report but seen in the illegal removal of sex based rights across the country, the compensation floodgates will open.

Now to prise them (and the other biased groups) away from the judiciary and police. While we've got them gaslighting judges into believing self ID is the law and and that adult human female is hate speech, we're all still under threat.

I do think on the whole we have to make it easy for people to change their minds. But EHRC should be honest about the influence of Stonewall - including on the impact of their own employees of following illegal advice and promoting a scheme that promotes just one protected characteristic at the expense of others. EHRC should be doing more than just pulling out - they should be highlighting the dangers amd illegality of whay Stonewall promote.

@PearPickingPorky

This is why Stonewall hod their online list of Stonewall Diversity Champions, isn't it. Because they lost the EHRC.

Oooooohhhh

EHRC, University of Essex. Please, please let this be the tide finally turning.

Good. Now the rest. The card house is staring to wobble...