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.

Meanwhile in Scotland....

What makes you say this?

She wrote a piece a while ago about the fact that equalities rights are being widely misunderstood as applying to special groups, rather than being universal. I think she is completely right, many people, including many posters here, seem totally unaware of this, they think this kind of legislation applies to minorities or disadvantaged groups, rather than individuals.

I don't think I've seen anything from any politician that showed such a clear understanding of why a lot of this implementation was going so wrong. It's a fundamental misunderstanding and working on that basis leads to so much bad policy. That's deeply racist and sexist in the most basic sense.

I just don't see how that leads anyone to the conclusion that she is trying to undermine rights.

It's interesting, because admitting you've been suckered by a bunch of loony activists wouldn't normally be a positive election campaign.

But she has to say it in order to address the issue of how this has happened.

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.

I'm really hoping this ^ is a contender for the understatement of the year award.

And regarding the conversion therapy issue, which apparently is now not going to be in the Kings speech Stonewall said:

“Now by letting the clock run out, you are showing callous disregard for the harm faced by LGBTQ+ people.

“You are giving the green light for abusers to continue unhindered. You are letting down survivors and victims of abuse across this country.”

Which couldn't be more hyperbolic and is exactly the sort of accusatory rhetoric which makes the scales positively plummet from the eyes.

You suddenly realise, oh, hang on, they've actually got nothing, they really are talking bollocks.

if this is anything like it plays out elsewhere, the more they push back against Stonewall, the more clearly ridiculous nonsense stonewall will spout.

Elsewhere this culminates in flouncing, or blocking. I wonder how that it will be played out.

Kinda looking forward it it.

Right now there are males in female prisons….words alone will not change that status quo. Right now there are males enjoying using the ladies spa facilities because they claim a GRC gives them the right to & gloating about it on social media.
there are male teachers in schools claiming a trans identity & dressing in womens clothes & accessing previously single sex spaces for women & girls…not to mention GG and the shit show that is happening there.

She's making the first noises about identifying and addressing political capture as a safeguarding issue, in a way that will not frighten the horses.

Yes, this is exactly where it needs to go. Government outsourcing thinking and being trained by extremist political groups is a huge, huge safeguarding disaster and it shouldn't have been able to happen.

I hope, that once they stop listening, they will have the spine to realise that nothing can actually happen to them.

That they are the ones in charge.

And that if they say something definitive and strong, and full of common sense, the pushback from places like Stonewall looks more and more ridiculous.

And if they point out the perfectly-fucking-obvious-to-everybody-else, safeguarding failures, pushback will look like exactly what it is, a deliberate disregard for safeguarding.

And as we all know, once you see it...

They just need to get the ball rolling.

Just listening to something along these lines on the radio on the way home. It is very sinister that Stonewall have achieved so much power. I wonder who is funding them?

They’ve got the perfect grift, government councils business and NHS are funding them

Yes and the law backing them with the GRA

Gravy train

They’ll fight hard to keep it

I agree with the comments that KB not only has her own clear understanding of the issue, but she is bold enough to say them out loud.

However, one individual in the Tory cabinet is not going to be able to make this a priority for all of them. I suspect many dont care, and some maybe just using it to score points against Labour.

And they are now so near the end of being in Government, that I suspect it will come very low down on the list of things they want to try and cram in before the election.

And even if we all think it is obvious, anyone who watched the Westminster Hall debate about amending the Equality Act, will see that it is clear that should it come to a vote in Parliament they probably wouldn't win. So it is as much about all politicians and all parties.

Who would ever thought in the 21st century so many MPs are happy to say that sex is not biological.

Why do you say they wouldn’t win?

I watched the debate and Labour were majority TWAW but Cons MPs were majority for biological sex

Where are the wider numbers coming from?

Cons MPs were majority for biological sex

But those who turned up for the debate aren't representative of other MPs, and I suspect many wouldn't even think this was a vote important enough to turn up for.

Well let’s give it a go and see.

Well let’s give it a go and see.

If only, but as I said, with MPs in election mode this is just not going to be an issue for either party.

Unless of course somehow FWR posters go out into their local communities and get every potential voter to write to their MP and say this is a top priority for me.

And as you well know this wont happen.

MPs do not see this as a priority.

I’m not letting people off the hook yet

We’ve got Kemi going for it, and each post saying don’t bother isn’t for me.

Public demand changes outcomes, we’re already seeing it but it’s slow

Public demand changes outcomes, we’re already seeing it but it’s slow

Where is the public demand. A few niche groups isn't public demand.

Sure there is.

Look at Starmer’s shift after Sturgeon Bryson debacle

Absolutely no thanks to those who posted ‘no one cares’

And thanks to those who challenged and showed how there can be political hurt

Obviously Starmer is still untrustworthy but I’m dubious about anyone posting no one cares on here when I can see politicians reacting to those who take the time to care

Yep people care, they are speaking up, court cases are happening. Courage calls to courage and all. I speak out and most people agree that it is a big issue

In schools there is a tentative move to question a bit more, less acceptable to say mermaids, less likely to be threatened with the sack if something non affirmative of the ideology comes out.

That's reassuring to hear. It was inevitable that when schools stop & think about what the dodgy lobby groups have been demanding - especially those going as far as transitioning children in secret from their parents - that professional instincts will start to kick in. They'll be aware that (as Cass reminded us) that for the majority of children this is a phase. And a close look at the remaining mentally unwell children who're caught up in the extremes demanding binders, drugs & surgery will reinforce that this a a dangerous ideology for any school to push at children.

But it's taking so long for schools to step out from under the yoke of Stonewall, Gendered Intelligence, Global Butterflies, Mermaids, GIRES & countless other adult groups determined to access children. Until that happens ideology will continue to overcome safeguarding and professional standards.

I didn't see this at the time, but for anyone interested this is the Guardian's version of KB speech.
https://www.theguardian.com/society/2023/nov/01/kemi-badenoch-claims-stonewall-has-been-taken-over-by-leftist-ideas

So they decide this just before it looks like they’re going to lose an election and be kicked out of office.

the Tories party needs utterly wreaked in my opinion so it can be replaced by a properly conservative and right wing party, or be reformed from within to be one. But we will never have a proper right wing party under FPTP while the Tories are one half of the political spectrum so I will welcome their defeat if it happens, I just hope it’s big enough. The phrase to little too late comes to mind when I think of the Tories.

The Tories are "American right-wing" at the moment. They threw out all the old style Tories during Brexit (the ones who valued tradition and institutions), and I completely agree with the people who have been pointing out that Kemi is only emboldened to say they've got the gender/sex/self-ID stuff wrong after over a decade in charge because she can see they really have nothing left to lose now, so she might as well.

If Labour wins, we will be right where we are right now, having to lobby and work and chip away at digging out gender ideology from our institutions in the name of TRUE civil liberties and balanced rights for society. If the Tories win, same thing. Belt up people, we're. It out of the woods and hoping for Kemi or anyone else to ride to our rescue is naive.

Tories are liberal shitlibs in my opinion. Because they bow to the vile morality of the left. The still work inside the same basic moral framework of labour. I think we need a right wing party that rejects the lefts moral compass in its entirety.