'Educate, motivate, and inspire lawmakers' - Stonewall's New 'Proud Employers' scheme and strategy

[BridgetPhillipsonIsACowardlyJobsworth]

From summer 2025

Another one to watch out for: Stonewall's revamped and relaunched (prior to appointing their new chair) "Proud Employers" scheme.

As part of my trip down the rabbit hole of where the TRAs might go next, Stonewall seem to be doubling down on influencing legislation and business. Part of their strategy is going after the lawmakers in this country. We'll see how long this lasts under their new Chair.

https://www.attitude.co.uk/news/stonewall-unveils-new-approach-and-three-year-strategy-to-educate-motivate-and-inspire-lawmakers-487706/

Approaching its 40th anniversary, as part of the ‘In Courage and Unity, is Hope’ strategy, Stonewall says it will focus on being “pragmatic conveners resisting the rollback of rights for all LGBTQ+ people and advocating for progress with politicians and business leaders”.
^^
It also outlines a continued commitment to legal equality for LGBTQ+ people, stating:
“Together we must educate, motivate, and inspire lawmakers [my bold] to support equality, and continue shaping the legislative and policy landscape to improve the lives of LGBTQ+ people.”.

As part of this transition, the charity has begun the search for a new Chair, following Catherine Dixon’s decision to step down.

Re Stonewall Proud Employers scheme, new from 2025:

see third para below, especially. This is what it means to be "proud" now: "privilege training" and "mandatory EDI training." They have learned nothing!

https://news.fmbusinessdaily.com/2026/03/emcor-uk-part-of-ocs-achieves-trailblazer-status-in-stonewalls-proud-employers-accreditation/

EMCOR UK, now part of OCS, has been accredited as a Trailblazing Employer in the Proud Employers Accreditation Scheme.
^^
EMCOR UK had a strong performance in all eight categories: leadership, empowering individuals, employee network groups, the employee lifecycle, policies and benefits, monitoring, supply chains and external engagement.
^^
Mandatory EDI training, allyship and privilege training for leaders, inclusive parental leave policies, anonymous diversity monitoring and targeted staff survey engagement were also recognised.

I'm hoping that sex matters get their own employer rating system out soon

Delta Housing, formerly Estuary Housing Association, Feb 2026
https://estuary.co.uk/news/we-are-recognised-as-trailblazer-in-stonewall-proud-employers-programme-6273/

Pennington Manches Cooper, law firm
https://www.penningtonslaw.com/news/penningtons-manches-cooper-achieves-stonewalls-proud-employer-leader-status/

Close Brothers, specialist banking group providing lending and deposit taking.
We employ approximately 3,000 people, principally in the United Kingdom and Ireland. Close Brothers Group plc is listed on the London Stock Exchange.
https://www.closebrothers.com/

Weightmans, law firm
https://www.weightmans.com/media-centre/news/weightmans-accredited-as-leader-in-stonewall-proud-employers-benchmarking-accreditation/

Through Proud Employers, our workplace inclusion programme, we help jobseekers find roles with organisations committed to equality for their LGBTQ+ staff.
https://www.proudemployers.org.uk/looking-to-recruit

Stonewall are definitely going for the "good for business" route
https://www.stonewall.org.uk/uploads/files/Stonewall-Trends-Report-2026-External.pdf

Looks like they are going to be trying to use ERGs (employee resource groups) to influence change from within employers
https://radius-networks.org/stonewall-shaping-lgbtq-workplace-rights/

ERGs Igniting Change
Although ERGs have been affected by the shifting landscape inside and outside organisations, Stonewall remains optimistic about their potential to ignite change.
“Whilst we are no doubt in the midst of a cultural backlash and moral panic, the work to advance inclusion in our workplaces continues with many ERGs finding creative, low-cost ways to continue supporting LGBTQ+ colleagues.”
Jake Laws – Stonewall

It all seems a bit random at the moment, nothing coming up in searches for large, well-known organizations, so we'll see where this goes. Mainly targeting business and legal at the moment, from what I've found.

The Proud Employers list seems to be hidden behind a members-only wall, so searches are all I can do right now.

Do they not want people to see the list?

Well hopefully there are more eyes on this batshittery now, so they won't be able to exert any undue influence without someone noticing and kicking up a fuss about it.

It's the activist groups embedded in every company and organisation that need the most watching, they're the enemy behind the lines infecting everything.

A reminder of the ground they have already lost:

Scottish Parliament joins list of employers pulling out of Stonewall diversity programme
...
Employers including the BBC, Channel 4, Ofsted, the Cabinet Office and equality watchdog the Equality and Human Rights Commission have all withdrawn from the scheme in recent years.
Reasons include Stonewall’s stance on trans issues, including the assertion that people should be allowed to self-identify in their chosen gender, and whether the scheme provides value for money.
Scottish Parliament joins employers pulling out of Stonewall diversity programme

Mystery surrounds the disappearance of several big companies from Stonewall’s annual list of the UK’s top 100 LGBTQ+ employers, following an exclusive investigation by Graduate Fog published on the eve of Pride month, which starts on 1 June.
While many top employers that ranked highly in 2022 are also prominent in the 2023 list, BP, NatWest, law firm Slaughter and May and the Bank of England are all missing from the list (also known as the Workplace Equality Index, or WEI) – as is Macquarie, the professional services firm that topped the list in 2022.

Is these firms’ disappearance a sign that their confidence in Stonewall is wavering – perhaps due to negative media coverage about the organisation, concerns about the legal validity of its recommendations, and/or discomfort with the organisation’s ‘no debate’ approach to discussions about how best to include trans and non-binary people in the workplace, as well as in wider society?
Are employers stepping back from Stonewall? You decide - Graduate Fog
May 31, 2023

So already in 2023 there were concerns about the legal validity of its recommendations, and in the previous article, from 27 March 2024, whether the scheme provides value for money.

These are probably the kind of non-ideological reasons that have most significance for organisations, esp commercial ones.

Tbh corporates and legal are pretty much the main orgs that stayed with the stonewall scheme anyway. Legal were early adopters as were finance and they've not stepped away so are they in fact targeting the ppl who already signed up anyway

Possibly. But these don't seem to be UK high flyers? The one thing in common a few of them have is that they pitch themselves as global companies/firms. And Stonewall is definitely trying to "go global." Searching for "Proud Employers" brings up very few companies, so it may be that there aren't very many yet, or it may be that employers have signed up to it, but they're not happy about advertising that fact (hmm) or haven't gotten around to advertising it on their websites yet.

The pricing for the Proud Employers scheme is also not publicly available, that I have been able to find.

If working in the UK doesn't bring Stonewall the money or influence it wants, and they're looking globally, then they might feel that Canada, Ireland, and Australia would be better markets for them.