Stonewall - i am complaining to the charity commission

[Karensalright]

Started calling myself GC quite recently having read and heard far and wide.

So, had a good look at Stonewall charitable objectives, which are many, an attempt to cover their arse i guess.

A charity can only do what its objectives say it can do and must legally be a charitable objective

A charitable objective they have is education, which means they can charge for educational activities.

The charities commission definition of educational activities expressly excludes “promoting a specific point of view”

Raising awareness of a issue to build support is also not an educational activity for the purposes of a charitable activity.

Stonewall accounts show that approximately half their income falls under the heading of education.

In addition it should be noted that their political activity probably crosses the charitable law line, offering education to civil servants at Whitehall who include political advisors.

so am complaining to the charity commission.

Feel free to do the same safety in numbers and all that …

👍

That's quite interesting about those guidelines. I suspect quite a few organizations could fall afoul of that distinction.

Excellent idea, could you give us some contact details and bullet points of what to include. I’ve probably got the time but not the knowledge to make a proper complaint

Great idea OP.

I don't like Stonewall anymore (they used to be great) but I don't see what this will achieve. Their primary charitable purpose is the advancement of human rights rather than education.

I do think it's ridiculous though that they list educating the public about human rights and advancing education in equality and diversity given their track record in this area!

If I remember rightly, you're supposed to approach the errant charity about what they're doing before you go to the Charity Commission about it. I (rather idly, I confess) thought about complaining about the wretches when I heard they were campaigning for the removal of single sex provision, as it's against the rules for a registered charity to campaign for the removal of rights. Then I heard they'd dropped that aim. Not sure how true that is and you've reminded me to check that, OP.

Let us know what response, if any, you get.

@Rightsraptor i agree should firstly complain to the charity but i think i can evidence what a personal risk that would be to me and others being threatened and called names by its supporters.

Yes they changed their aims years ago to general equality
you could say TRA rhetoric opposes equality due to active aggressive policing and denial of same sex attraction and women’s rights

also the false legal advice as a matter of a charity being unapologetically incompetent yet charging (especially to public bodies) for training which wasn’t correct- that seems culpable once the inaccuracies had been pointed out to SW did they stop training in that way?

Trust has been completely broken in SW. And so it’s fine to complain straight to the charities regulator, that’s exactly what the Charity commission is there for. If there’s no problem and they feel that everything is in line with the law then the CC will write back and say so.

Worth a shot.

Hi to all ! Has anyone got any documents at hand such as “educational” materials for schools and public/ private bodies.

@PoseasRadicalActuallyMisogynistic

it is going to take some time to put this complaint together as i am still trawling charity commission statutory guidance and Stonewalls accounts mission statements etc.

Will post what i send to the commission when done.

One thing to bear in mind OP is that all schools are under a legal responsibility to be politically impartial. They must prohibit the promotion of partisan political views and ensure the balanced presentation of opposing views on political issues for pupils. (Education Act 1996 sections 406, 407).

Thus Stonewall that openly campaigns for the removal of the rights of women and girls to single sex spaces, sports etc is by definition a political activist group.
I know your focus is on Stonewall itself but its extensive illegal influence on children and school practice and policy may be useful to bear in mind.

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/political-impartiality-in-schools/political-impartiality-in-schools

@MrsOvertonsWindow

Thanks for that i want to include materials for schools as evidence… Am hoping i can challenge their activities as outside the scope of education which if successful would cut of their main income source as a charity. They would have to set up a separate trading arm, pay tax, charge VAT etc.

Part of the problem with their materials for schools is that they used to provide very good anti bullying materials on homophobia for schools - the government paid them to produce materials for what was called the "National Strategy" up to 2011. So they had considerable credibility.
Unfortunately they then morphed into pushing transitioning to children and influencing school organisation, curriculum & pastoral care with all the anti women and girls rhetoric of mixed sex spaces and changing language etc. I've not looked at their demands for "Stonewall Champions" for some years (they keep them well hidden from scrutiny) but staff and governors in captured Stonewall schools will have access to them.

Good news on two counts. I have now been blocked from Stonewall website, so i cannot complain to them ha ha

I have found a site called Transgender trend which examines the so called education materials for schools so can direct the charity commission there as evidence.

Good Luck OP
i noticed on the Stonewall Website that one of their directors has a day job at the Civil Service, which probably isn’t relevant, but I thought was interesting

Somewhere on MN (here, I think) a few months ago was a thread in which a parent (mother) was asking for help in combating illegal advice about sex/gender in her DC's (?primary) school. If you find that thread, I think it could be useful. I think it contained links to a lot of material that could be relevant. Good luck!

Surely if Stonewall were to lose their charity status, then LGB-Alliance would need to as well?

What exactly do the LGB-Alliance do other than talk about trans people?

The LGBA would love nothing more than to not have to talk about trans people, for 5 damn minutes.

lol Steph here you are in another thread demonstrating your ignorance

stonewall at least were smart enough to withdraw from that mad court case by mermaids trying to get LGB alliance charitable status withdrawn. That went well 😆😆😆

@Stephannee i do not want Stonewall to lose their charitable status at all. And i am all for people expressing themselves in whatever way they want. And i am all for freedom of speech. (Although am not so keen on public displays of a sexual nature but that may just be my age.)

The issue is that Stonewall are offering education programmes as if they are fact when they are in just a belief. They are prohibited from doing that under the Charities statutory guidance.

The LGBA are not entering schools and demanding that everybody are gay. They were set up to give some balance to public discourse and to offer an alternative dialogue that, which trans activism tries to close down.

@Theeyeballsinthesky I tried to read the mermaids case which was really that about that they lacked standing, but could not sop laughing about their bizarre and histrionic submissions. The barrister in that case must have had a WTF moment

@Stephannee Hi again I. Also noticed on another thread that a poster suggested that you were transgender person yourself, i don't care either way.

But i would like to direct you to a blogger called Debbie Hayton who has a very sensible approach to trans people and women's rights. Debbie is a trans woman btw

Genuinely, what did i say wrong?? 🤷🏻‍♀️