Stonewall champions and the news

[sqwertyCream]

Without outing anyone in the real world , a big media outlet is asking all the diversity champions if they will be renewing membership or not, citing the Essex university case and the EHRC decision.

Watching and waiting with intense interest...!

@OhHolyJesus

LGB Alliance - yes, good point Abitofalark.

I find their tweets at the weekend and now this very worrying.

twitter.com/simonjedge/status/1396794588485099521?s=21

The balloons on their Twitter seem to have been placed there deliberately as a diversion. It might work at a kids birthday party but do they really think this will work with adults?

That's so bizarre. Why choose the teal colour? It's not in the Pride flag is it?

TRAs are posting pictures of the full logo and saying it's not the same and Simin os therefore "thick" and anyway lot of equality organisations use an = , but on its website and press releases Stonewall is absolutely using just the = , and it's the exact same colours

How do I find out if my kids school is a 'champion'?

And still Stonewall can't bring themselves to use the words 'women' or 'sex' even in their discussion explicitly about the Equality Act...

It's madness that lots of us who are LGB would definitely not choose to work for a company that was part of the scheme

Very much this. It is absolutely inappropriate anyway for organisations, especially schools, to subscribe to any partisan political view, particularly one increasingly being shown to be rather dodgy in its ethics in achieving its political goals by misrepresenting law, and by its continual misogyny and discrimination towards female people.

@JerushaSturgis

How do I find out if my kids school is a 'champion'?

It should be on their website? Until recent events lots of schools were under the impression it was a good thing.

but on its website and press releases Stonewall is absolutely using just the = , and it's the exact same colours

It's a very weird choice that's for sure, both in colours and design. A complete departure from previous branding which is fine as it's very much the purpose of a rebrand but the arrow being used to make the = makes it an exact copy of EHRC and that would be weird enough even if you ignored the timing of the launch, post letter, The Times, Essex Uni, the tweets at the weekend, the Head of Media's sabbatical...

@Over600Ecalypts

Stonewall have this on their website:

Stonewall statement on misinformation about the Diversity Champions programme

"What kind of attacks are organisations advocating for LGBTQ+ equality receiving?" You might not have heard about any organisations being attacked for their work on equality, but it's happening. Let us enlighten you

"In the first four months of the year there were more than 900 Freedom of Information requests sent to public bodies about their work with Stonewall." Some busy-bodies asked the companies who pay us to work with them what they actually do with us.

"As we have highlighted, a number of groups have launched legal challenges to public sector organisations regarding their work with Stonewall, with case after case being thrown out as ‘unarguable’." Not quite the same as what we've said earlier, but some people have tried to challenge us legally. Not all of these cases have progressed.

"And the weekend of 22/23 May saw a coordinated attack on our Diversity Champions programme launched across the media." Some more people have started asking questions about what we do and who we do it with, and that's simply not on.

"Other LGBTQ+ organisations and advocates will have their own story to tell, but this is just some of what we’ve seen recently at Stonewall." We don't have any more information on the hateful and carefully coordinated questioning around spending of public funds, but it's definitely happening. Just ask our friends, they saw it happen.

It is interesting that the EHRC also pointed out that Stonewall did not represent value for money. I think other organizations may see it that way too. I can just about see the point of some training courses but why the need to permanently affiliate? What new updates do Stonewall provide every year?

@JerushaSturgis

How do I find out if my kids school is a 'champion'?

As a pp said, it's usually on their website, or do a google search with the school's name and Stonewall.

This is what I've done and no indication or hits, so I'm assuming they are not champions. Thank goodness!

A good hint I've read here if you do find out that your school is investing in Stonewall, or similar, ask them if they have identified that homophobia/transphobia is a particular problem and if the investment is therefore warranted. Eg would the investment be better in, say, resources for autistic children, or bereaved children, etc.

@OhHolyJesus

but on its website and press releases Stonewall is absolutely using just the = , and it's the exact same colours

It's a very weird choice that's for sure, both in colours and design. A complete departure from previous branding which is fine as it's very much the purpose of a rebrand but the arrow being used to make the = makes it an exact copy of EHRC and that would be weird enough even if you ignored the timing of the launch, post letter, The Times, Essex Uni, the tweets at the weekend, the Head of Media's sabbatical...

Given that EHRC told SW they'd not be renewing membership in March, I wonder what discussions/meetings have been had since then regarding the new logo?

Does anyone in the business know what the process for a re-brand involves?

Also utter confusion from Stonewall on its Diversity Programme at various part of that statement.

So what does our Diversity Champions programme do?

Our in-house team provides expertise, evidence and recent best practice to help Diversity Champions meet their goals. Dedicated relationship managers provide training and consultancy, advise on submissions to the Workplace Equality Index and Global Workplace Equality Index, and support the development of LGBTQ+ leaders, role models and allies.

Vs

Is Stonewall trying to silence free speech through its Diversity Champions programme.

Absolutely not! Our Diversity Champions programme is simply a tool to help employers to embed LGBTQ+ inclusion across their organisations.

The programme and our staff have absolutely no sway over any organisation’s wider decision-making. A recent report on free speech at University of Essex referenced Stonewall’s membership of the Diversity Champions programme. These claims had no basis, Stonewall staff had no involvement at all in this decision.

So.. this is a robust in-house team offering ongoing support, expertise and evidence on inclusivity best-practice, but which makes sure it has absolutely no sway or involvement in internal decision-making on issues around inclusivity. Got it.

@Leafstamp thanks, I just looked and nothing cropped up, thankfully.

Excellent critique @sqwertyCream

This is what gets me....someone else has said this on this board: I'd love to see a proper study that investigates the correlation between IQ and someone's "GC/TRA quotient".

The communications from the likes of FPFW/Dr Nicola Williams, Sex Mattters Org, Allison Bailey and others are so well written and thought out (to the extent that I almost think they quite rightly build in questions to themselves like: 'how could this be criticised? How could this be misinterpreted?')

Whereas the comms that comes from Stonewall and similar are just of such poor quality, on so many levels.

As a school teacher would say - they need to review and check their work more thoroughly!

@Artichokeleaves

It's madness that lots of us who are LGB would definitely not choose to work for a company that was part of the scheme

Very much this. It is absolutely inappropriate anyway for organisations, especially schools, to subscribe to any partisan political view, particularly one increasingly being shown to be rather dodgy in its ethics in achieving its political goals by misrepresenting law, and by its continual misogyny and discrimination towards female people.

It's not just about working for them though is it, although that's the main thing, it's buying their goods and services. Especially in an era when we keep being told ethics and values are as important to consumers as quality and price. It's why manufacturers and service providers are tripping over themselves to follow the woke agenda.

OMG. A ldiscrimination specialist barrister writes a thoroughly researched foot noted report, and Stonewall says “These claims had no basis,”.

Is Stonewall trying to silence free speech through its Diversity Champions programme.

Absolutely not!

What about their “No debate”? They are such liars, and think we’ve all got very short memories.

Just looked at the list of champions . Yes the capture has been pretty complete. So the next campaign is....I plan to write to my bank , local council, NHS trust, ......etc there are just too many to do it justice. Shocking how this has happened but explains a lot. Is there ny orgnistion or business that hasn't signed up?

@TabbyStar

It's madness that lots of us who are LGB would definitely not choose to work for a company that was part of the scheme and they're more likely to attract heterosexuals trying to be right on and reduce their pool of LGB candidates.

Yes, they've "ticked the box" for equality and diversity, but put off many LGB people from applying. I'm lucky in that my current employer isn't signed up to Stonewall. It held a Menopause Wellbeing Group recently; the HR person only once said "women and people who menstruate" but otherwise seemed happy to talk about women, and I did think that if Stonewall had got in there with their "training" we wouldn't have been able to have the discussion that we had.

So.. this is a robust in-house team offering ongoing support, expertise and evidence on inclusivity best-practice, but which makes sure it has absolutely no sway or involvement in internal decision-making on issues around inclusivity. Got it.

they advise and incentivise a company but don't expect anyone in the company to change policy to meet their "best practice" suggestions demands ?

Ooh 🍿
I tend not to bother with the Beeb these days but I'll be watching

@TabbyStar

It's madness that lots of us who are LGB would definitely not choose to work for a company that was part of the scheme and they're more likely to attract heterosexuals trying to be right on and reduce their pool of LGB candidates.

I think it's really important to feed this back to recruitment agencies.

Until companies are aware that large swathes of the LGB community finds stonewall membership off putting when choosing potential employers and service providers, they will keep signing the cheques.