Organisations Leaving Stonewall: The List

[Barracker]

Thought it would be handy to keep a running list here of organisations who have done 'budget reviews' or similar and have subsequently decided that Stonewall are 'not value for money'.

EHRC
ACAS
House of Commons
DVLA
Dorset Police
The Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government

Do feel free to update the thread as more join the exodus.

The loss of Channel 4 will be a massive blow, they are pretty much SW's media platform.

Looks like the first non public body to withdraw as well.

Not sure if this is the right thread to ask but is anyone able to link the online telegraph article today - Stonewall 'threatened' so silence gender critical barrister by having her sacked, says judge'? It's behind a paywall and I have no clue about accessing it. If someone has seen it on another thread could you direct me. Thank you!

On Twitter a lot of the big name companies have 'rainbowed' their logo for Pride month ( or however long it goes for).

But Stonewall haven't - just got the trans colours.

EHRC
ACAS
House of Commons
DVLA
Dorset Police
The Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government
Bristol, North Somerset and South Gloucestershire CCG
Channel 4

UPDATE: North Wales Police (reference: twitter.com/robjessel/status/1399761845490262018?s=19)

Here’s an archive link for the Telegraph article:

archive.is/XpEMe

As the OP I'll continue to reiterate the new additions so that they are easily found on the thread. Great work and many thanks to everyone bringing them to our attention.

*EHRC
*ACAS
*House of Commons
*DVLA
*Dorset Police
*The Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government
*Bristol, North Somerset and South Gloucestershire CCG
*Channel 4

UPDATE
*North Wales Police

For the first time ever, my employer are going full rainbow. The company was bought by an américain comment ac year or two ago, but it's still disappointing. We are existed to bring our whole selvess to work- for little for than min wage? They can can eff off!

Justawoman - thanks for the link.

@AfternoonToffee

The loss of Channel 4 will be a massive blow, they are pretty much SW's media platform.

Looks like the first non public body to withdraw as well.

That's not strictly true. It's a regulated company with a defined public service remit.

In a way it walks a fine line between a public sector organisation and a private company and as such is like the former subject to judicial review I believe (example: https://www.5rb.com/case/traveller-movement-v-ofcom-channel-4/).

Happy to be corrected if I'm wrong.

From Wikipedia:

Channel 4 was established with, and continues to hold, a remit of public service obligations which it must fulfil. The remit changes periodically, as dictated by various broadcasting and communications acts, and is regulated by the various authorities Channel 4 has been answerable to; originally the IBA, then the ITC and now Ofcom.
The preamble of the remit as per the Communications Act 2003 states that:
"The public service remit for Channel 4 is the provision of a broad range of high quality and diverse programming which, in particular:
• demonstrates innovation, experiment and creativity in the form and content of programmes;
• appeals to the tastes and interests of a culturally diverse society;
• makes a significant contribution to meeting the need for the licensed public service channels to include programmes of an educational nature and other programmes of educative value; and
• exhibits a distinctive character."[12][28]
The remit also involves an obligation to provide programming for schools,[29] and a substantial amount of programming produced outside of Greater London.[30]

@SudokuMania

On Twitter a lot of the big name companies have 'rainbowed' their logo for Pride month ( or however long it goes for). But Stonewall haven't - just got the trans colours.

Nice to see some honesty from them for a change.

@InflagranteDelicto

For the first time ever, my employer are going full rainbow. The company was bought by an américain comment ac year or two ago, but it's still disappointing. We are existed to bring our whole selvess to work- for little for than min wage? They can can eff off!

So when this happened in my former workplace I did the following (but in disclosure I was a very senior with the support of the only other female director at the time):

• I emailed the Head of HR asking what the basis for this new initiative was, specifically asking for data on what the levels of pro-rata population diversity in the company was for all protected characteristics.

• Got a dismal reply. Asked the same question again copying in my Exec Line Manager asserting my interest in the matter as belonging to at least one protected group (by virtue of sex) and that I was very interested to understand the data and mechanisms being used to support ALL protected characteristics.

• Finally got shown data (on the quiet) by my Exec boss. Low and behold - exactly what a walk around the multiple offices, in 3 continents in a tech industry organisation could have told you. That gay men and TW were statistically massively over represented. BAME just about on target until you dig deeper and find a massive under representation of black employees. Woman massively under represented and within that Black women especially so (also not one TM in the org). The inequality was also markedly worse the higher in seniority you filtered results.

• Upshot the whole thing quietly went away.

Data and sunlight.....

Sorry meant to add lesbians also massively under represented.

Note on data: based on anonymous staff survey re: LGBT status done as a precursor to the the new rainbow policies.

Data on other protected characteristics available as "standard" on the HR system.

The list is being updated here too, showing names crossed out
sex-matters.org/stonewall-champions-list/

The hypocrisy...

Stonewall @stonewalluk

"The institutions that should protect us – our governments, communities, faith institutions, and families – too often stand silent, or actively harm us. #PrideMonth"

2:11 pm · 1 Jun 2021·Twitter Web App

The prospect of losing a mahoosive income stream, which must pay for dozens of jobs reading through all the 1400 pages of documents for just one member of the champions scheme, will make them fight for survival.

They won't go quietly.

UPDATE:

THE POST OFFICE

The Post Office did not renew it's membership this year 😂

twitter.com/SexMattersOrg/status/1399845411834191874?s=19

Sex Matters lists:

NHS Highland withdrew 2019: twitter.com/SexMattersOrg/status/1399842763131269122

North Lanarkshire Council hasn't been a Stonewall Diversity Champion or member since 2018:

www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/information_about_your_dealings_202

Are there some names listed there that haven't actually been members for some time? I realise the list came from Stonewall's list so there could be a fair few on there who aren't actually Diversity Champions and haven't been for some time?

If Stonewall are adding companies/orgs etc who aren't actually DCs it shows them up further.

Golly no wonder they've pulled that list from their website....

[quote justawoman]Here’s an archive link for the Telegraph article:

archive.is/XpEMe[/quote]
A Stonewall spokesperson said: “We strongly refute any suggestion that we instructed Garden Court Chambers to investigate or take action against Allison Bailey, and believe these allegations are baseless”.

Earlier in the article there's a giant quote from the email Stonewall sent to Garden Court Chambers, warning them about the risks if they "continue to associate" with Alison Bailey.

I guess barefaced denial of reality is the only trick they've got?

Iirc The list was somewhat out of date anyway. Could it be that quite a few organisations have woken up to what an onerous burden the championship scheme is and have quietly removed themselves?(Possibly not updating stationary meanwhile - looking at you University of Bedfordshire). So Stonewall didn't bother to update the list to reflect falling numbers?

I did four letters yesterday. I was shocked to see MacMillan and Marie Curie on the list so planned to write to them too. I have spent some considerable time this evening looking through their websites. I can't find any reference to Stonewall anywhere in the Macmillan website, nor can I find their diversity policy. On the other hand Marie curie erroneously list gender instead of sex as a protected characteristic (the second of my chosen target organisations to do so) and in their most recent annual report they proudly announce they have just joined the Stonewall Diversity Scheme. I'll be writing tomorrow.

Greenwood Academies Trust ended in 2020:

www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/724870/response/1781144/attach/html/2/FOI%20Response%20Stonewall.docx.html

If you are doing SexMatters letters I do recommend trying to look through the EDI policy of your target organisation. I've found it much more time consuming than I had expected, but given that two of my five organisations are wrongly listing gender as a protected characteristic it's worth checking for that to point it out in your cover letter.