Ofsted have left Stonewall

[PatsArrow]

Apologies, I don't have a Telegraph subscription so can't read the full article but the bones of it from Twitter are that Ofsted have LEFT Stonewall.

Hopefully this is the beginning on the end of the gender ideology in our schools.

twitter.com/ripx4nutmeg/status/1401058196127686658?s=21

If 'Freddie' is the baby's dad, who is its mom?

how do you know the baby is being raised by the GPs?

Stonewall paved the way for lgbt+ rights and recognition. Why is everyone up in arms? Genuinely curious not being goady.

Stonewall did some good work in securing the rights of the LGB. Now they've turned their back on them, instead misrepresenting the law to further their own goals, which directly conflicts with sex based rights. Aside from impacting on women's safety, it is also deeply homophobic in this approach. The problem with Stonewall is they pretty much achieved what the founders had set out to achieve. And they should have scaled down at this point. But instead, they recognised that their brand was a big money maker, so they continued, added the T about 5 years ago, and escalated, in direct conflict with LGB.
I truly believe that trans people have the right to live in safety. But destroying the rights of other protected characteristics in that process is not the answer. And this is what Stonewall have done.

The Telegraph understands the Government is due to make a decision next week on whether to withdraw Whitehall departments from the scheme.

I hope this is correct and the decision has to be that they withdraw, how can they justify spending tax payers cash on a political lobby group? The insidious influence of Stonewall is laid bare in that article. How dare our elected representatives allow an unelected lobby group to distort and misrepresent the law as suits them and pay them tax payer money for the privilege of doing so? This is no more and no less than a protection racket being run at the expense of tax payers.

PreservativeFree

"I work in a school that supports Stonewall. I have to wear rainbow colours in this month! I've tried a couple of times to explain that it might not be a good idea and the reaction is always that I must be a bigot who doesn't support inclusion."

As far as I am concerned, that sounds a lot like forcing people to take a political stance which they may not agree with. If someone tried to force me to wear a rainbow tie or even a Labour party tie, then I would be telling them where to shove it.

@andyoldlabour

PreservativeFree

"I work in a school that supports Stonewall. I have to wear rainbow colours in this month! I've tried a couple of times to explain that it might not be a good idea and the reaction is always that I must be a bigot who doesn't support inclusion."

As far as I am concerned, that sounds a lot like forcing people to take a political stance which they may not agree with. If someone tried to force me to wear a rainbow tie or even a Labour party tie, then I would be telling them where to shove it.

Absolutely I would do the same. Since when does your employer dictate what you wear unless it’s a particular uniform?

@EmbarrassingAdmissions

The CPS guidance judicial review failed because the judge thought that the Champions scheme's influence was limited to the CPS as an employer, not it's public functions. We can see now that was a wrong assumption to make.

Are there sufficient grounds for revisiting such assumptions and judicial reviews? In the light of such interference can some organisations be asked to disclose their correspondence?

I think in practice there's little point in bringing another JR again now. I strongly suspect Stonewall is going to be gone from most government departments within weeks, if not days.

But if that's not the case, I think it would now be quite plausible to challenge departments' membership of the scheme, especially if they are responsible for policies where sex is relevant that Stonewall might be lobbying/advising them wrongly on - Department of Health, Government Equalities Office, Department for Education, BEIS, HSE, MoJ, PHE all spring to mind.

@PreservativeFree

I work in a school that supports Stonewall. I have to wear rainbow colours in this month! I've tried a couple of times to explain that it might not be a good idea and the reaction is always that I must be a bigot who doesn't support inclusion.

I know I should be able to put a decent argument together, but I've really struggled. Can anyone point me in the direction of a really straightforward summary of what the objections are?

Coercing you to do that is straight out of the playbook of every totalitarian dictatorship, perhaps ask your school if they understand history and the concept of freedom and free will. Enforcing you to do this, however subtly, falls foul of the Human Rights Act which I am sure your school would claim to uphold.

Excellent excellent excellent. Here's to some more leaving the scheme

As far as I am concerned, that sounds a lot like forcing people to take a political stance which they may not agree with. If someone tried to force me to wear a rainbow tie or even a Labour party tie, then I would be telling them where to shove it.

Exactly, the school cannot force you to do this and if you are then made to feel uncomfortable or are disadvantaged by refusing to bow down then they are discriminating against you.

@RedDogsBeg

The Telegraph understands the Government is due to make a decision next week on whether to withdraw Whitehall departments from the scheme.

I hope this is correct and the decision has to be that they withdraw, how can they justify spending tax payers cash on a political lobby group? The insidious influence of Stonewall is laid bare in that article. How dare our elected representatives allow an unelected lobby group to distort and misrepresent the law as suits them and pay them tax payer money for the privilege of doing so? This is no more and no less than a protection racket being run at the expense of tax payers.

Yes - membership of the Champions scheme by public bodies is now wide open to judicial review - this is now obvious. I would be very surprised if central government departments don't all pull out next week.

I predict that ScotGov and some local authorities will stay in though, to score a political point

I queried a document sent home by my children’s primary school last week to support parents. It conflated sex and gender, stated gender assigned at birth, included intersex within transgender and defined gay as ‘same gender attraction’. I’ve queried whether they are teaching this in school and raised my concerns about teaching the above as fact. It’s great timing as I’m sure the head will be reading these articles this weekend.

As suggested by Sex Matters I’ve emailed 4 organisations I deal with: Waitrose, Ocado, John Lewis and Santander and asked all of them to leave Stonewall.

I spend a lot with all of these organisations but will happily rethink if they continue to support this bullshit. Here’s the link if anyone wants to do the same:

sex-matters.org/posts/updates/leave-stonewall/

I predict that ScotGov and some local authorities will stay in though, to score a political point

Yes, I am expecting the same.

They really don't know how to quit while only slightly behind, up here.

Good

It went on to ask if primary schools would be marked as “requires improvement” or “inadequate” – the lowest grades in Ofsted inspections – if children were not made aware of “specifically, sexual orientation and gender reassignment”.

If you think about what schools have to deal with, and in how many ways they have to be seriously failing in their duty to children before being rated "inadequate", that demand is preposterous. Getting that rating is a serious issue for schools. It has real life consequences. You don't just hand this out to placate a lobby group.

You're also dealing with 5-year-olds, an age group that may not understand the notion of human rights, the law in general, this specific law and the idea behind protected characteristics, let alone the protected characteristic of gender reassignment. Of course Stonewall knows this. And of course one way to teach children about all of this without reference to the Equality Act is to teach them the doctrine of gender identity. Which is a faith-based ideology that has no place in a school curriculum (outside of RME) in my view.

@FannyCann

I have to wear rainbow colours in this month!

Is that confined to a rainbow lanyard @PreservativeFree or do you have to go the whole hog and dress like a clown?

I'd just forget/lose the lanyard. Or get a colourful one supporting a different issue, like the sunflower lanyards which support hidden disabilities?

A sunflower one is there to indicate that the wearer may need additional help/consideration. It doesn't really work if everyone wears one to show solidarity.

How about this?
www.amazon.co.uk/Henbrandt-Fancy-Rainbow-Coloured-Clowns/dp/B00B5G6FR0?tag=mumsnetforu03-21

Oh I’ve also emailed Lloyds, who I bank with

Getting that rating is a serious issue for schools. It has real life consequences. You don't just hand this out to placate a lobby group.

It's utterly outrageous 😡

[quote PerditaCambellBlack]As suggested by Sex Matters I’ve emailed 4 organisations I deal with: Waitrose, Ocado, John Lewis and Santander and asked all of them to leave Stonewall.

I spend a lot with all of these organisations but will happily rethink if they continue to support this bullshit. Here’s the link if anyone wants to do the same:

sex-matters.org/posts/updates/leave-stonewall/[/quote]
Brilliant. I also support some of the above. I will do the same. Thank you for the link.

Aside from everything else, as someone who looks horrendous in bright colours, I would be pissed off if my employer dictated that I had to go out and buy clothes I don't want to wear and would never wear again. A lot of teaching assistants and school office staff would struggle to afford new clothes. It's yet another example of pushing diversity symbolically while not caring about diversity in practical, material ways, i.e. class, poverty and social mobility.

You’re welcome @Nonmaquillee 🙂

@andyoldlabour

PreservativeFree

"I work in a school that supports Stonewall. I have to wear rainbow colours in this month! I've tried a couple of times to explain that it might not be a good idea and the reaction is always that I must be a bigot who doesn't support inclusion."

As far as I am concerned, that sounds a lot like forcing people to take a political stance which they may not agree with. If someone tried to force me to wear a rainbow tie or even a Labour party tie, then I would be telling them where to shove it.

Something similar to this has happened to a friend of mine, a very quiet religious man who is a lawyer. His firm has ore and more pushed various Pride related activities, including walking in the parade.

He's never given any argument about anything like that, which is totally irrelevant to his work, but he felt that more and more he was being pushed to explain why he didn't participate. Which would put him in a really difficult position where he is forced to make a controversial political stance at work.

This might help @RainbowBriteUk.

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/womens_rights/4259233-Stonewalled-Simon-Fanshawe-in-the-Daily-Mail

Something similar to this has happened to a friend of mine, a very quiet religious man who is a lawyer. His firm has ore and more pushed various Pride related activities, including walking in the parade.

He's never given any argument about anything like that, which is totally irrelevant to his work, but he felt that more and more he was being pushed to explain why he didn't participate. Which would put him in a really difficult position where he is forced to make a controversial political stance at work.

The exclusionary aspect of the inclusion trumpeted by Stonewall and cheered on by its acolytes. The illiberal traits of the oh so liberal.