Stonewall's missed campaigns

[SapphosRock]

We all know Stonewall has dropped the ball When it comes to LGB people. It used to have some excellent resources for lesbians, for example this document published in 2009 was really handy when me and DW were planning our family:

https://www.stonewall.org.uk/system/files/pregnantpauseewithcoverr2.pdf

This started me thinking about what Stonewall could have done instead of trampling over women’s rights.

1.	Started a campaign for IVF equality. Infertile heterosexual couples get between 1 and 3 rounds of IVF funded by the NHS depending on where they live. Funding for same-sex couples is practically non-existent.

2.	Campaign to make it illegal to teach under 18s that homosexuality is a sin / gays are going to hell. This is still being drummed into kids in churches and other religious organisations across the country which can be very damaging for the mental health of young, gay children and teenagers. 

3.	Championed lesbian visibility and support groups for lesbians and bisexual women as their voices are often drowned out in mixed LGBTQ+ groups 

Any others?

I am hoping the LGB Alliance will pick this stuff up.

It's a false equivalence. And actually many fertile het couples are told to use donor sperm.

Homophobes in those 71 countries can point to places like Canada and the US and say "if you let the gays have their way, next they'll be drugging your kids and letting men into women's sports".

Stonewall's current campaigning in this country is harming LGB people worldwide.

Good points @NecessaryScene I often think this too. It's set things back years.

Whenever I check LGB-A tweets, they're highlighting homophobia, executions etc around the world and the focus is clearly on LGB human rights.

I think some people are being a bit harsh on the OP. Yes there are discussions to be had about the rights and wrongs of IVF, religion in schools, all sorts of things, and people will hold different views.

The important point is surely that there were lots of things Stonewall could have chosen to campaign for, but it didn't, because the "T" eclipsed the L,G and B. People would be well within their rights to agree or disagree with whatever they chose to focus on, but at least they would be doing something for the L, G and B.

Personally, I'd like to see a focus on international issues as the homophobia in some countries is off the charts and very much state sanctioned. Although having said that I was saddened to hear from my 10 year old about the homophobia of one of his classmates so there is clearly a long way to go in this country.

The important point is surely that there were lots of things Stonewall could have chosen to campaign for, but it didn't

Quite.

This turkey baster discussion really demonstrates how absent Stonewall has been.

Under current law, lesbians are entitled to IVF on the same terms as straight women if we have medical infertility, but this right is in practice difficult if not impossible to access. In place of a period of unsuccessful "trying" before male-female couples qualify for IVF, different regions have different policies on what self-funded efforts lesbians should make before qualifying. Six rounds of IUI is sometimes suggested as equivalent to two years of trying, but not all areas accept this (or any other equivalency scale). And if you didn't go the IUI route, I believe that most areas won't accept unsuccessful home IVI (turkey baster) as evidence of infertility - and I seem to recall that unsuccessful self-funded IVF can actually disqualify women from receiving NHS-funded IVF.

When we got nowhere with IUI, we had to self-fund through IVF - which we were lucky enough to be able to afford.

This is all quite separate from the issue of whether the NHS should fund IVF for couples without a medical fertility issue. My ex lives in a jurisdiction which does this, and she had a great experience, but personally I would want to improve IVF access for all infertile women (lesbian and straight) before opening up to medically fertile couples. And a first step is to get lesbians the support to which we are already entitled.

A thousand years ago these issues used to come up a lot on Pink News, but they lost interest. The LGBA should absolutely put support for lesbians with medical infertility at the top of its to-do list.

Also agree with PP about LGBT asylum applications - another issue Stonewall never seemed to get to grips with properly, perhaps because there wasn't any money in it.

The important point is surely that there were lots of things Stonewall could have chosen to campaign for, but it didn't

Thank you, yes that's what I'm getting at.

They could have done equality campaigns which didn't negatively affect anyone else.

Their gay marriage campaign had no impact of straight marriage so IMO they should have continued along these lines.

An IVF equality campaign would have no impact on straight couples accessing IVF.

A LGBT asylum seeker campaign would have no impact on straight asylum seekers.

A campaign to stop telling gay teenagers they are sinful / going to hell would have no impact on straight teenagers.

But their trans equality campaigns negatively affects 50% of the population, particularly lesbians who they are supposed to represent.