Just heard on BBC Radio 4 re Stonewall

[WhereYouLeftIt]

"Stonewall has today launched it's new four year strategy amid ongoing scrutiny for its stance on transgender rights. Over the weekend one of its founders described the LGBT campaign group's views as "extreme" and said it put them at odds with feminists, while the Equalities watchdog withdrew from the charity's diversity scheme. Stonewall described the attacks on the scheme as "threadbare" and has promised to call out transphobia more actively in the future."

This was at about 07.34 on the Today programme.

I sat there shocked at the lack of spin.

^Inclusive legal recognition which respects and protects who we are,
and our relationships. For example, identity documents – whether birth
certificates, passports or driving licences – should be easily changed to reflect trans people’s identities, including nonbinary identities. And LGBTQ+ couples and parents should have their relationships recognised on all official documents^

So they're still going for self ID and also the right to be named 'mother' or 'father' according to chosen gender on their children's birth certs.

I notice the new branding is all in muted versions of the trans flag colours. Very subtle.

We will work to understand and address the particularly stark inequities experienced by our community elders, LBTQ+ women, trans people, bi people, those of us who are people of colour, have a faith, are asexual and aromantic, are disabled, living in poverty, or from a working-class background.

Tell us more about these particularly stark inequities experienced by those who are asexual and aromantic

They mention 'elders' a few times but apparently couldn't find any pictures of them.

@ItsAllGoingToBeFine

Equity: trans healthcare, people of colour, people of faith, create evidence base, support across lives - children and elder care.

Wow!!

Create evidence base!

Awesome. At last!!! Pity though that their past behaviour actively impeded this and could have helped so many in the past few years.

However, I take it with a grain of salt having seen ‘evidence’ other groups have produced. Just survey data and skewed and biased questioning at that. Or skewed studies. Not ones actually answering the questions of what is the best treatment paths and what are the issues with affirming only care.

Thanks for sharing this! As Stonewall now influence so many schools and employers it is important to understand what they are going to do, so I can think about how to react when our schools and employers start rolling out Stonewall resources. The work with religiously informed homophobia, and better guidelines for LGBTQ asylum claims sound useful and like real work. I am sort of intrigued to see what the work is like with ace people, I just don’t understand how that is a campaigning issue but willing to be educated. For the work on schools, well, I won’t let my children be taught that everyone has a gender identity, because all the resources I have seen reinforce stereotypes (even if inadvertently) and my opinion now is that it is an unproductive way of thinking that leads to brooding and limiting thoughts. Happy for my children to participate in lessons with Stonewall resources about reducing discrimination and building a tolerant society. I will probably educate them about homophobia myself having personal experiences of it, and more confident that I will do so in a way that does not encourage victim thinking.

They have a big hill to climb if they are going for evidence based. They are way behind.

The animated arrow on that logo is appropriately phallic

They mention 'elders' a few times but apparently couldn't find any pictures of them.

I always think the mention of 'elders' is cult like and a huge red flag. It would appear that these elders need to be revered by all and they have an important role in mentoring and guiding the young. Do other charities or lobby groups e.g. those supporting autism, eating disorders, learning disabilities etc etc have 'elders'?

“Free to be”
Well I guess it’s wistful, it’s youthful and “What’s the worst that could happen?” was already taken by Dr Pepper.

If they suddenly care about evidence, I take it they will be dropping the fight to have males in female rugby because transphobia? No. Ah, focus on 'inclusion in sport'? Oh. Surprising.

What is ace?

Asexual.

@ItsAllGoingToBeFine

Hmm, they've added queer, questioning and ace to the LGBT.

Have they dropped the I for intersex?

They are still interested in schools, but hopefully Safe Schools Alliance and Our Duty will keep up their good work along with all the grassroots people checking out their own school policies particularly for where sex as a protected characteristic has been swapped for gender .

The rebrand shows their true colours, quite literally.

What are 'restorative approaches' with regard to hate crime and hate speech legislation, do you think?

A few things come to mind—

Re the new colours being muted rainbow colours—through my work (we have just rebranded) I get the impression this is a marketing and branding trend, and these softer colours are actually referred to as...non-colours. So it’s possible Stonewall’s brand experts were simply bringing them up to date.

As for “Free To Be”—immediately I remembered a book published by the American actress Marlo Thomas of “That Girl” fame, who later married daytime talk show host and impressively liberally credentialed Phil Donahue, who was basically the male Oprah before Oprah got her show.

The book was published in 1972. It was called Free to Be You and Me, and was very post 1960s sexual revolution, aimed at children, and rejecting sex-based stereotypes. In other words, it was feminism.

Free to Be...You and Me by Marlo Thomas and Friends

I’ve no idea if Marlo Thomas “invented” that phrase, but it’s interesting to me that I remember it in a feminist/rejection of stereotypes kind of way, yet Stonewall is now using it to soften-yet-still-pursue a TWAW agenda.

Gah—just clicked on link to link to have a read of Stonewall plan and the first bit is

“Stonewall Trans Advisory Group (STAG)”

Like a male deer? Like a stag do? Does no one read the fucking room? Did no one in that room think, hmmm, that word is very male-centric. Transwomen and transmen, if we’re hoping to be inclusive.

@SapphosRock ''Free to be' is much better.

Not really - I'm reading it as their pushback slogan against the Keira Bell judgement and the safeguards being put in place around children, puberty blockers and the 'affirmation' approach.

Another sign of a turning tide - just looking at the ratios on UKpolitics reddit.

Got a link?

has promised to call out transphobia more actively in the future."
They think this was the problem??!

@ShagMeRiggins

Gah—just clicked on link to link to have a read of Stonewall plan and the first bit is

“Stonewall Trans Advisory Group (STAG)”

Like a male deer? Like a stag do? Does no one read the fucking room? Did no one in that room think, hmmm, that word is very male-centric. Transwomen and transmen, if we’re hoping to be inclusive.

Stags, arrows, baseball bats, bit of a theme here...

The thing about Stonewall UK is they could be doing so much work abroad, should they choose to, for the rights of lesbians and gay males internationally. That’s where they should have gone—sexual orientation, the rights of same-sex acceptance, equality, and most importantly, legalising those rights abroad.

I don’t know, maybe they didn’t want to ‘colonise’ like the Empire, or didn’t want to spread the word like Christian missionaries.

Maybe they thought, actually we’re generally better/okay here in the UK (we’re not, by the way, not entirely), or maybe they thought it was too difficult a task.

What I see with the feminists I know is they want and are working toward the eradication of women’s sex-based oppression world wide, not just in their little corner of the woods.

Agree. Tackling homophobia in Russia etc would be much more useful

Like restorative justice?

en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Restorative_justice#:~:text=Restorative%20justice%20is%20an%20approach,representatives%20of%20the%20wider%20community.