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?
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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
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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).
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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?)

How do they even define trans though. It’s not really a defined group. It’s clear many of trans needs trample on the needs of others in their organisation.
I can’t think of any other charities off the top of my head who try and represent and advocate for such a massive/undefined group of people. Most charities try and clearly define this and even narrow down who they represent- stonewall now is a free for all. Their greed has destroyed them.

My DH’s company was a top 100 Stonewall champion in 2022. Then for some reason the company seem to have seen the light, I think; it chose not to invest further in their training and removed all reference to them from their corporate website. To my DH’s knowledge, there was no open discussion about this, it just happened, stealthily, overnight by 2023. I suspect a very wise and clever legal professional had a word with the Board and pointed out that the company was laying itself open to significant legal risk. It’s a very risk aware and averse industry, though.

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. ‘

How do you ‘bet your cat’? Do you say to someone ‘if Magic Melody wins the 3.20 ar Doncaster, I will give you Tiddles’? And they say ‘done, if he doesn’t I’ll give you a bag of dreamies’?

That phrase was the most interesting thing in this screed to me.

( Oh no, just realised was it a covert reference to IDENTIFYING as a cat, if so, apologies 🍁🙀)

Our biggest LGBT charity is in crisis. Are we just going to let it collapse?

Personally, no I don't want it to collapse. I want it sued and pulled down, brick by brick, and the leaders never to hold power again.

And then replaced by an organisation that gives a shit about LGB people and doesn't want to force lesbians to do dick or mutilate confused kids or put rapists in women's prisons.

The L, G and B, and supporters, allying in the name of fairness, if you will. I'm sure someone will come up with something suitable.

Yep, talk about closing the stable door after the horse has bolted.

I wonder if this crisis is being exacerbated by murmurings of lawsuits from those who followed their shitty strident subversion of the law.

If someone asked me to name an LGBT organisation my first response would be that ‘LGBT’ is nonsense. Then I’d say that the only LGB organisation I could think of was the LGBA.

And if she understood the issues and could talk, my cat would say that too.

JK Rowling donated £70k towards a legal battle that cost around £400k… donations came primarily in the form of small donations from individuals, mostly women. I believe I saw Susan saying they looked at donations and the average amount was £37.
So to insinuate that JK funded the legal challenge isn’t accurate, and it’s something that does disservice to the thousands of women who supported the crowdfund because they knew how absolutely important it was.

They can cry into their support dogs.

That’s unaccountably cruel. Those poor dogs.

Yes, I was wondering about them the other day because they seemed very quiet following the SC ruling, so I had a bit of a google and found this:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c36we3pnxy6o

The charity's largest funder in recent years has been the Global Equality Fund (GEF), which is overseen by the US state department. It has given Stonewall more than £500,000 between 2021 and 2025.

Stonewall's accounts show the GEF granted it £137,254 in 2021-22, £204,442 in 2022-23 and £233,583 in 2023-24.

And this:

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2025/03/30/scottish-government-handed-stonewall-400k-taxpayers-money/

Scottish Government handed Stonewall £400k in taxpayers’ money

SNP ministers under pressure to cut funding to controversial gay rights charity amid claims it is a ‘shell company’ north of the Border

And of course the bottom must be falling out of their diversity champions scheme by now.

And Allison Bailey has been granted leave to appeal in her case against them so they're probably now belatedly spending an eyewatering amount on advice on the actual law.

I hope they survive just long enough for AB to see justice.

This is what I have been thinking. There is no trans "community" to advocate for. Is it pubescent girls who are uncomfortable with sudden increased sexual attention from men? Is it children and young people who are homosexual? Is it men with autogynephilia? Is it people with autism? Is it middle aged women who have dyed their hair purple and want to be down with the kids? Is it people who are consciously pretending/grifting? Etc, etc. All different cohorts, some have legitimate needs that society should try to meet, others don't. And the legitimate needs are not necessarily anything to do with being "trans" - with the belief that "you" don't fit your body.

Even the belief that they have some sort of trans identity takes different forms. A "trans advocacy" charity would be like an ecclesiastical council for not just all Christian denominations, but all religions, including the mad ones.

I just don't think it is the way to go. But obviously it's not up to me.

They have only themselves to blame if they go to the [support] dogs!

Indeed.

They'd do well to do their collapsing before the big court cases come along for loss and damage as a result of their actions. Particularly as a result of advice that companies and charities paid them for.
The big rats have already jumped off the ship leaving the rest to carry the can.
Excuse the mixed metaphores.

If trans are only a tiny percentage of the population why do they need a specific support group? Why can't they both meet up in the pub?

To paraphrase Stonewall itself:

CHARITIES FAIL - GET OVER IT

Susan Smith addressed this question on Womans Hour yesterday. The total cost of the appeal was £400,000. JKR contributed £70,000. Many others donated with an average amount of £37.

The episode is on BBC sounds if you haven't heard it.

I'm not not minimising the amazing support of JKR by saying this, just sharing what I heard about the funding

The problem is that the tail wags the dog in any sort of organisation aiming to support the TQ+ (this could be said for other types of activism too). In the case of the TQ+ the tail is for the most part, batshit.

In the online age of social media, years of graft, mediation and consensus building are passé. How can you have a stable, future proof organisation based on insane hyperbole and untruths?

I think Stonewall is beyond saving.

They've cost the government and other orgs at lot of money due to their legal fictions and left them with egg on their face so no surprise if they're unofficially blacklisted in many places.

The LGB that have been on our side of the fence will never go back to trusting them.

They will never again be able to be extreme enough to keep the support of the LGBTQ+ crowd who demand they maintain the 'women have penises' mindset.

So where does that leave them?

Well I agree it's hard to define the T. But surely defining the Q+ bit is even more challenging. And the 'I' part arguably has no relevance as it's not about sexual attraction.

Edit: cross-posted with @OvaHere and totally agree

Due to its stance on lesbians I think of Stonewall as a homophobic organisation!

Stonewall is now a toxic brand and needs to go.

This exactly.

Stonewall used to be great but became a distorted, grifting monster.
It is irredeemably tainted and it needs to be dissolved.

See, I really DON'T want to dance on Stonewall's grave. They're an important institution, they played a really important part in getting parity and fairness and recognition for gay, lesbian and bisexual people in the UK. I think that the old Stonewall should be proud of their legacy - they achieved so much.

And then they buggered it all up by opening the umbrella over the T and the Q! Privileging the comfort and rights of fetishists and spicy straights over gays and lesbians who still needed representation and protection at work, etc. Silly idiots. I'm assuming partly out of a need to remain 'relevant' in a world that - in the UK at least - was increasingly accommodating and tolerant of LGB people and lives, and partly because of funding. T and Q are a cash cow and a button to press with the virtue-signalling. Their Stonewall Champions scheme was a money-maker, no more, no less.

So if they fold I'll be genuinely sad. I want there to be a recognisable charity and lobby group fighting for the rights and interests of gay people in the UK, it's still really important. I see it as a sort of trades union. But to do this they're going to have to scale right back on promoting the risible queer crap - the queer story hour at children's libraries, the parade of bedroom fetishwear at Pride marches, the insistence that men in dresses are the MOST oppressed minority ever, the constant erasure of lesbians and same-sex attraction, the relentless lying and flouting of provable science. In short, they have to remake themselves entirely in order to survive. Evolve or extinction, guys.

I know why people are glad about this, but I can’t help feeling sad.

I was a huge supporter of Stonewall back in the day. They were epic over gay marriage. The UK would have been worse off without them then. What has happened to them is terrible - beginning with them looking for a new “big fight” and then selling out women and using their connections and status to backdoor policy change without debate. Now potentially ending with them closing completely. I had always hoped they’d turn, find their senses and start representing LGB people again.