Equalities minister says Government is now challenging ‘activist groups’ like Stonewall after it got on the ‘wrong track on gender ideology’

[IwantToRetire]

Ministers were wrong to allow “activist groups” like Stonewall <a class="break-all" href="https://archive.ph/o/bLpjR/www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/08/18/stonewall-removes-government-departments-top-100-employers/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">to set the rules on gender for so long, Ms Badenoch has admitted.

The equalities minister said the Tories got on the “<a class="break-all" href="https://archive.ph/o/bLpjR/www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/09/14/we-can-only-win-from-a-showdown-with-stonewall/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">wrong track on gender ideology” over the past decade by outsourcing policy-making to the charity.

She said the tide was now turning because the Government was doing much more to “<a class="break-all" href="https://archive.ph/o/bLpjR/www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/10/24/conversion-therapy-transgender-children-stonewall/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">challenge activist groups that take over institutions”.

On gender ideology, she said: “I think we should take a step back and look at how we got here and this is where I think the Government does need to do a little bit more.
^^
“And it’s about challenging activist groups that take over institutions… We started going on the wrong track on gender ideology because we allowed other people to start telling us what to do.

“Ideas came from the leftist part of academia, feeding into particular charities - Stonewall is the best example of this but they’re not the only one - where they started advising government, saying this is what you need to do in order to serve a particular community.

“And then it over-reached and started giving people legal advice, or advice that was certainly different from what the Equality Act said.”

She added: “Government needs to be more confident in itself rather than asking other people to mark our homework and wanting to be on Stonewall’s top employers list, that’s when things start to go wrong.

“I think we were able to turn the tide once we stopped being influenced by people who had an agenda, pretending to be neutral, pretending to be charities rather than activists.”

This is quite a long article including comments about conversion therapy https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2023/11/01/silly-pronoun-rows-distracting-bigger-issues-kemi-badenoch/

Behind paywall but can be read by going to https://archive.ph - just paste the telegraph link into the box.

She's absolutely correct, of course, but what took them so long to see it?

The general election, this is their trump card over the Labour 'let's be kind & allow predators into women's spaces' party.

It's a shame it headlines with 'silly pronouns' which I think will be interpreted as insulting and belittling to a particular sector of society and I think that's uncalled-for really. Butyouve got to reel readers in.

It's a good piece and it shows me that the Tories have MPs who totally understand the issues and they have a platform and a voice. They have the courage, the freedom, and I think, the backing of their leader to actually discuss the issue in plain, straightforward terms. All in direct contrast to Labour.

Also really good that Sex Matters' concept of 'modern' conversion therapy is being put out there for people to contrast with the activist claims.

Overall, great to see this. Thanks for bringing it to our attention.

A lay lu ya! All hail to the Kemi.

Haven't read the full article but I got the gist.

So how do they now propose to roll back all the familal, educational, institutional, corporate and societal damage?

I suppose admission is a start.....

This is brilliant but unfortunately coming from Kemi almost all of the left will dismiss this as far right. Stonewall tactics have worked so well people now literally believe the tories have ignored equality law and the general public consensus believes stonewall law, well maybe just the very loud online lefty shouters but that's who makes the most noise.

She is right but what is she going to do about it? Is she going to strip activist groups like Stonewall of their charitable status? Ban public sector bodies from signing up to charter marks? Sack activist civil servants? Remove rainbows? Change the EA so sex means sex?

Go on Kemi

Keep pushing

@SaffronSpice, all or any of those would be a start. Ultimate aim, IMO, is repeal of GRA, which was the nonsense that started it all.

Yes, sex to mean biological sex and gender to mean how you choose to express yourself......

This! She is in government now, she has the power now to do something so why doesn’t she?

shes right, of course she is but fine words butter no parsnips!

Unusual to see a politician openly admitting a collective failure - and pleased to see her reminding us that it's not just the toxic Stonewall that has caused so much damage to society.

That’s fab Let’s hope the NHS follows soon, hopefully big business will see sense as well

I agree. Good for her. The admission also stops any "well we are working with the government" kind of arguments as being solid ones. Now those can be countered "but they said it was a mistake to have you through the door"

I'm not saying that things don't need to change to a degree as much of the way we discuss sex and gender has become wooly and afraid to offend, leaving people confused. However I truly believe that she's piggy backing on this to really try and fuck with some fundamental equalities rights and human rights, I'm afraid. And if you fall for this you're inviting bigger problems. I also think it's the desperate, last chance saloon howl of a dying government who know they're about to lose a GE quite significantly.

Excellent. She totally get it.

It's gone much further than things being woolly and people being confused. As anyone who's tracked this will know. Things being woolly did not lead to the "Karen White" case as just one example. The law being actively undermined by fifth columnists did.

I really hope the government stop just talking about it and make some legislative changes before Labour inevitably get into power next year.

That's right. Without legislative changes this is simply virtue signalling, but this time the variety on the Right rather than the one on the Left.

Which rights do you think will be in danger here?

I suspect that it was neglected because nobody, who understood the issue, was in place. Now they are. Kemi is clearly the right person for the job.

I also suspect that those who were playing Stonewall's hand - such as Maria Miller, Caroline Nokes and Crispin Blunt were more active and influential at committee stage.

Outsourcing is what this government has done from the beginning. When they first arrived with their "bonfire of red tape" what they actually binned for schools were countless well thought out policies and guidance on things like behaviour, bullying, exclusions etc. They replaced them with literally a few paragraphs leaving schools adrift. Inevitably they've had to be replaced and part of that process has allowed political activist groups to self identify as responsible educators. In fact they're dangerous anti safeguarding, anti women and girls organisations who should be nowhere near schools, children or the DfE.

What do you mean @Brefugee? Isn't that particular example obvious?

I think it's part of a tendency to give more power to lobbying and special interest groups across the board.

It's been seen in a lot of cases by the public as a way to give certain groups more of a voice in developing policy that affects them, a way of engaging stakeholders.

It's been going on for decades and I think it very much relates to what Blair said would be the next big scandal in governance.

Yes it takes someone with their energy focused on this

It’s obvious Kemi is

I would say the increasing challenge by males is adding to the likelihood of a politician taking this stance

In the same way many of us are motivated but were not a few years ago

That timing will differ but for me it’s only been last couple of years really, with rise of male threat