Department for Education leaves Stonewall

[yourhairiswinterfire]

Breaking: DFE has left Stonewall

"we do not feel it provides value for money for the service it provides and we shared concerns across government about the charity's stance on free speech"

twitter.com/SexMattersOrg/status/1541474620712407040

Ah, thank you re Michelle Donnelly info

Who and what are EDI please?

And about flippin time re the news!

Yep. Very lucrative it is too. My experience is that the people who take these roles are uninformed at best, about all the protected characteristics, are oblivious to the debates going on and just go along with the wokery. I am constantly vigilant where I work for this, and have weighed in where needed.

Thank goodness, I teach biology and always teach that during puberty girls become women: adult human females, and boys become men: adult human males. I then teach reproductive systems etc which inevitably over the last few years has resulted in the question of how men get pregnant and me having to explain that just because you might decide to look like a man from the outside the body parts are still female and that males cannot get pregnant. I'm always waiting for a complaint to come through even though I know I am correct.

Good to see Athena Swan namechecked there as well - I wonder if they will come to regret their move away from their original mission statement.

Such good news.

It's great news

Why don't you think it is?

EDI Equality, Diversity and Inclusion.
Also written as DEI Diversity Enquiry and Inclusion.

NhS has their own EDI officers as do most organisations. Very captured by the likes of Stonewall.

Not enquiry, equity!

Bot on the loose?

Thanks @FemaleAndLearning

"we do not feel it provides value for money for the service it provides and we shared concerns across government about the charity's stance on free speech"

Well well well.

Hahahahaha!
Just in time for my gov meeting tomorrow....

Has this news been officially reported anywhere? I just Googled (well, used Ecosia) "Stonewall department for education" and the nearest match was The Times from last week saying that a different government dept (DWP) had quit the SW Diversity Champions scheme.

Just looking at the twatter thread by Sex Matters as posted above…
In the comments - re replacing Stonewall with “Global Butterflies”, with suggestions that following the money leads back to SW.
Anyone heard of or followed the rabbit warren of the butterflies to see if it is just a reincarnation?

Looks like “Global Butterflies” was set up by someone with a background in Financial Services HR and has been a trustee for GIRES?

I've just searched quite extensively, and I can't find anything at all other than the sex matters twitter post, and this thread. Sex matters have tagged Christopher hope, but he only seems to have retweeted their post tagging him?

Interesting. The local LGBTQ+++++++++ rep visited my kids' school recently, presenting a wonderful display of all the different rainbow++ flags with sweet colourful little labels that kids could play some inane games with. Schools should not be allowed to manipulate children with the ideology du jour, it's unethical IMO.

👏Thank you

Global Butterflies are worse, if that's humanly possible. Google them and BBC to find recent articles about their BBC training.

I'm cautious until I see this confirmed in the news.

This is an example of the sort of pushback Donelan’s letter is getting from academics on Twitter, and it’s hard to overstate how wrong it is:

’Minister, if gender and race equality initiatives are threats to your free speech, I think I know what it is that you want to say. And that type of speech is not consistent with a democratic society.’

‘Free speech’ does not include racist or homophobic or transphobic abuse. Nobody is suggesting it should. But initiatives that specifically suppress speech - drawing up rules about things people are allowed to say, or that have the overall effect of reducing the range of things people feel they are allowed to say - don’t just influence what is said at that abusive level. They influence what is said at the level of anything people feel might lead to a backlash against them. That prevents people speaking the truth. Sometimes the truth is unpopular and people have to speak it anyway. Sometimes - and I think this is what Donelan is navigating - the truth isn’t particularly unpopular. It’s just unfashionable. And what these initiatives do is elevate the fashionable to the status of the unquestionable. That gives some people more power than other people. That is unequivocally bad.

Thank you!

I can't actually type how i feel about this.

This is such excellent news.

Im fuming at how much money they spent. When im scraping the barrel to fund my department. And using my own money.

How much money do universities actually spend on DEI that could be funding teaching or vital support services for students? Does anyone know?

Horrifying how many posters on here can't or won't see how this is an opportunity to smash all equality legislation by an extremely right wing government using the trans issue - like several on here- as a way of progressing their extreme right culture war