Get the violins out - Stonewall is "in crisis"

[IwantToRetire]

Our biggest LGBT charity is in crisis. Are we just going to let it collapse? LGBT people need armour; an organisation like Stonewall to act as a first line of defence

Stonewall, Britain’s largest LGBT organisation, is in crisis. It’s plummeting financially, with rounds of redundancies as funding cuts hit. And its credibility and influence is plunging amid a national and global backlash against LGBT rights.

This matters. If someone asked you to name the first LGBT organisation that comes to mind, I would bet my cat you’d say Stonewall. Since it was founded more than 35 years ago, the charity has become entwined in our country’s psyche, Parliament, schools, sporting and business sectors. But for how much longer?

However you feel about Stonewall, we need a conversation about the state of the biggest charity defending LGBT people. And we need to ask ourselves a question as the opponents of all kinds of human rights lie in wait: are we just going to let it die?
...
To highlight one recent example of Stonewall’s seemingly waning influence, I asked the Government several times recently whether it has consulted with Stonewall over a proposed ban on conversion therapy since taking office. A spokesperson from the Cabinet Office declined to confirm whether it has even had any meetings with the charity about it, instead offering vaguely: “We will engage further with a broad range of stakeholders.” I asked Stonewall three times, but they did not provide a response.

Perhaps both sides are being coy or don’t want the public to know that they’ve met. But either way, this is as bizarre as it is concerning. Stonewall was once the charity that lobbied every MP in the country to help pass the same-sex marriage law in 2013. Now, it is unclear whether they’ve even had a meeting with the new Government over the psychological torture of LGBT people
...
Should it die, many will dance on Stonewall’s grave. But then many would happily see the rights of LGBT people revoked too – thereby exposing how much a strong, influential organisation for this community is still needed.

If you think it should return to only representing lesbian, bisexual and gay people, then you’re ignoring not only the plight of trans people but also how intertwined all these rights are and how many government’s incarcerate people for laws that oppress every letter in the acronym – or pass laws like the Equality Act that protect everyone (until that is chipped away).
...

Complete article at https://inews.co.uk/opinion/biggest-lgbt-charity-crisis-stonewall-3645337
Can also be read in full at https://archive.is/yGTYs

(If LGB people can set up their own Alliance, why cant trans people do the same?)

I can’t actually locate my violin- it’s so teeny tiny.

Oh dear what a shame never mind.

If you give advice which is legally incorrect and the organisations you’ve advised then have to pay a fortune in payouts after losing multiple legal cases due to that incorrect advice then it’s no wonder organisations are going to avoid consulting you anymore.

I saw some commentary about how the supporter of Trans-rights were struggling because they didn't have a plan for this outcome.

I wonder if a lot of the toxicity has come from the fact that there is a lot of confusion about what Trans actually means today. In 2010 I think it was exclusively meaning people with severe and persistence gender dysphoria, and that has now changed.

I also think if we had heard more from moderate Transmen i.e. people who can empathise with the female position rather than from gay men on this issue it would have been less toxic. It felt like the men did the whole "don't worry I got this" and then just projected their own mysoginy onto the situation.

They need a new identity; it shouldn’t be too hard to choose one from the many they invented.

Ah, I see they've made a mistake, they wrote LGB, when they've should have only written TQIA++.

Apart from that, you lot have covered everything.

I think it was at the point that Stonewall said lesbians were racists if they didn’t accept males identifying as trans, as partners, that Stonewall self destructed. The meme of the Nazi played by David Mitchell saying ‘are we the baddies?’ in a surprised tone, springs to mind.

Enjoy your erasure, Stonewall! 👋

I'm in two minds about this because I really think that this is the time for conciliation and compromise and without an organisation to represent the interests of transgender people then that is pretty much impossible.

I do also think that the reason there isn't an organisation well placed to represent transgender people is because anything less than total capitulation to the TWAW fallacy is met with rejection and hatred so how can any organisation ever come to the table with transgender support and have a productive discussion. The two (trans support and ability to have a productive discussion) are mutually exclusive.

Even now on trans Reddit they are calling for what "needs" to happen for their community and the demand are utterly absurd (especially in the wake of the SC decision). Of course Reddit doesn't represent all transgender people but where are the reasonable ones who are able to talk coherently and discuss compromise. I haven't seen any of that even in what to my mind are very clear cut areas like prisons and ( to a lesser extent?) sports.

Stonewall are directly responsible for thousands of trans people believing their rights are now being rolled back.

Stonewall wanted "No Compromises" and that's what they've achieved. Just not in the way they intended.

The couldn't have done a worse job at representing trans people if they'd tried.

I still can't believe how badly trans activism does campaigning. Yesterday was yet another march and somehow the person who ended up talking to the media (it wasn't even clear if they were trans) was someone built like a door bouncer wearing a bizarre outfit saying how vulnerable they were. A less sympathetic individual is hard to imagine.

Trans people do need representation but it's hard to see how anyone could do it effectively at the moment.

I love that Stonewall now has a disclaimer prominently on many pages on its website, in all caps:

STONEWALL IS PROUD TO PROVIDE INFORMATION, SUPPORT AND GUIDANCE ON LGBTQ+ INCLUSION, WORKING TOWARDS A WORLD WHERE WE'RE ALL FREE TO BE. THIS DOES NOT CONSTITUTE LEGAL ADVICE, AND IS NOT INTENDED TO BE A SUBSTITUTE FOR LEGAL COUNSEL ON ANY SUBJECT MATTER

It should have been obvious it would come to this, how could they think they would get away with misrepresenting the law and no one would push back? As Abraham Lincoln said You can fool some of the people all of the time, and all of the people some of the time, but you can not fool all of the people all of the time.

I appreciate what Stonewall has achieved, good for them. But they've reached a point of stagnation now. Most gay and lesbian folk of my acquaintance say Stonewall doesn't represent them. Maybe Stonewall was useful in a specific time in history, but is now an anachronism? Or maybe they should just rebrand as a TQIA+ charity?

So they want a conversation now, do they?

My violin is washing its hair. For the foreseeable future.

hilarious! 😆

That is amazing! Not so ahead of the law now are they?

Stonwall et al achieved significant results after gay marriage was legalised and the trans grift was the next money spinner.

This has been like a rug pulled out from underneath them.

Pride before a fall, literally.

All grift must come to an end eventually. They had an extraordinarily good run, taking large sums from virtue signalling corporates and public bodies. But they overdid it with “Stonewall law” and now here we are.

Stonewall used to be fantastic. Now they’re actively homophobic & especially anti-lesbian. The sooner they sink the better.

What @PerkyBlinder wrote.

Stonewall morphed into a completely different organisation that has failed to achieve anything constructive in its transformed state. It needs to go.

Trans people are a very diverse group and it is difficult to imagine how a single organisation/charity could represent the different interests effectively.

The young trans people that I work with are not represented or supported by current TRA organisations and self advocates. However, it’s difficult to see how a new, moderate organisation, who could actually help, will ever be able to establish itself, as the baying mob of extremists will call them transphobes!

Big picture : there's no coming back from wilfully misinterpreting the law to "the most vulnerable" minority in society.

Just like the politicians, Stonewall needs to come clean and develop underlyng ethics (otherwise known as a backbone) or clear rules on what it stands for (potentially common sense).

Realise lgb and t actually conflict, develop a separate charity where the T can work out how it fits in rather than trying to bulldoze its way in (or even work out what it actually is).

Baby steps.

Then money will come flowing back in.

Stonelaw have ruined their own credibility which they’ve been warned about for years so it’s not a shock. It’s entirely self inflicted.

LGB Alliance will fill the space doing what it says on the tin. Meanwhile it is a shame for trans people but they will need to build up their own infrastructure. Every group has to.

Utter bullshit in that article about how LGB interests overlap with trans people’s interests.
Quite the opposite. Lesbian culture especially has been put under dire threat by men getting into women’s spaces and all kinds of idiots generally inciting aggressive rhetoric about ‘sex separatists’ or ‘sexual racists’