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Feminism: Sex and gender discussions

Stonewall CEO attempting to adopt a more moderate position

110 replies

ItsCoolForCats · Yesterday 11:16

He wants to "turn down the heat" 🙄

I can't imagine this going down well amongst the TQ++++.....

"Stonewall was not, Blake stressed, aiming to overturn the supreme court ruling.* *“We understand that this is the law. But we also want to ensure that trans people are protected and, along with other organisations, we are looking at what that would look like.”

Article in the Guardian today

https://www.theguardian.com/society/2026/nov/01/progress-takes-time-stonewall-ceo-on-turning-down-the-heat-on-the-trans-debate?shem=dsdf,sharefoc,agadiscoversdl,,sh/x/discover/m1/4

‘Progress takes time’: Stonewall CEO on turning down the heat on the trans debate

Leader is charting a course through troubled waters as a new survey finds trans people feel more pessimistic about social acceptance after combative decade

https://www.theguardian.com/society/2026/nov/01/progress-takes-time-stonewall-ceo-on-turning-down-the-heat-on-the-trans-debate?shem=dsdf%2Csharefoc%2Cagadiscoversdl%2C%2Csh%2Fx%2Fdiscover%2Fm1%2F4

OP posts:
UnaPersson · Yesterday 14:47

ItsCoolForCats · Yesterday 14:42

They've been calling the Guardian transphobic for a while now. I've no idea why. Maybe because the occasional non-affirmative, non-worshipping article by Susanna Rustin has slipped through?

Oh that's interesting. Going to search for Susanna Rustin in a bit. Presumably they've forgotten about the Graun driving off Suzanne Moore and Hadley Freeman.

Then again they never seem to be satisfied

Tears0fTheMushroom · Yesterday 14:53

HenriettaSwanLeavitt2 · Yesterday 12:04

That's an understatement. The rage is palpable.
So I guess Stonewall have now succeeded in pissing off EVERYONE

Slow hand clap. This is what happens when you fence sit controversial situations.

ItsCoolForCats · Yesterday 15:06

TRAs try to manipulate LGB people into supporting them by telling them that we big bad TERFS will be coming for their rights next (they ignore the fact that many TERFS are LGB). Yet...

"The Stonewall survey finds that while almost half of British LGBTQ+ people feel more accepted by society than a decade ago, 58% of trans+ people – and 75% of trans women – feel less so".

So that's a positive for all the LGB people who feel more accepted than a decade ago. Progress. Because, on the whole, British people don't care who consenting adults sleep with or have relationships with. But we don't like people taking the piss, e.g. the unfairness of males in female sports categories or denying that women have needs and rights, distinct from men, too.

And now Stonewall is trying to reverse the tanker because people have had enough of the utterly uncompromising and selfish demands of TRAs. Too late though Stonewall.

OP posts:
Hugasaurusrex · Yesterday 15:10

I honestly don’t know how they can come out of these last 10 years and succeed again as a productive organisation.

They hit a completely bum note on the overall zertgeist and unfortunately were allowed to continue playing their out of tune concerto for a prolonged period. Not a nettle I’d enjoy grasping.

HenriettaSwanLeavitt2 · Yesterday 15:10

I'm interested to see that Simon Blake is Deputy Chair of the Board of Non-Exec Directors of Sussex Partnership NHS Trust. The trust signposts the notorious WellBN clinic on its webpage.

ItsCoolForCats · Yesterday 15:11

Jk Rowling on X:

A lot of us were very willing to have a debate without heat, @stonewalluk, and the reason that never happened wasn't because gender critical feminists didn't want one.

While we were trying to get you to listen to our concerns, your former CEO was telling a BBC boss that gay people not wanting to include the opposite sex in their dating pool was 'sexual racism'. While we were pointing out the homophobia inherent in gender ideology, Stonewall ambassador Alex Drummond (a bearded, heterosexual man who'd had no surgery and taken no cross-sex hormones but liked wearing skirts), was going into schools to talk to students about his 'lesbian' identity. @BluskyeAllison, who actually is a lesbian, was subject to unlawful discrimination at her place of work for tweeting: ‘Stonewall recently hired Morgan Page, a male bodied person who ran workshops with the sole aim of coaching heterosexual men who identify as lesbians on how they can coerce young lesbians into having sex with them. Page called [it] “overcoming the cotton ceiling”.’

When the UK Supreme Court upheld women's right to single sex spaces, you issued a statement expressing your unhappiness about the ruling. In her report on your unhappy influence at the University of Essex, you were found by barrister @akuareindorf to have misrepresented the law as it related to women's rights: '[Stonewall have] stated the law as Stonewall would prefer it to be, rather than the law as it is’.

In 2018, you publicly advised schools to shred a research pack saying there were risks to puberty blockers, in spite of the fact that you aren't a medical charity and that there was already credible evidence that puberty blockers are neither irreversible nor harm-free. Meanwhile you produced your own educational packs, recommending a children's book, for ages 5-9, in which the parent 'is neither a man, nor a woman – they’re non-binary.' In July 2022, Stonewall sent out a tweet that read ‘Research suggests that children as young as two recognise their trans identity'.

@thetimes has reported how you've sought to control the language used by NHS trusts and government on their social-media accounts. Organisations would get points from you for replacing commonly understood words with ideologically approved terms, eg, 'birthing parent' instead of 'mother'. thetimes.com/uk/society/art…

In short, you took a maximalist position on gender identity ideology, which you attempted to enforce by diktat. You refused to acknowledge that you'd hitched your wagon to a cause that, unlike civil rights, gay rights or women's rights, sought to strip rights from others. You sought to curtail everyone's right to freedom of speech and belief by controlling what it was permissible to think and say, through the management and political class. You have argued against women's and girl's rights to their own spaces, their sports and to assemble without men. Your CEO tried to shame gay women/men into dating the opposite sex if the latter claimed to be female/male.

Your mantra was 'no debate' because, like all totalitarians, you preferred slogans, bullying and infiltration of powerful institutions to talking to opponents. You appear to have had no concern for the lowly people your ideology was harming: gender confused kids, female rape victims, female prisoners, regular people hounded and investigated at their places of work for refusing to accept the new mandates on sex and gender issued from on high.

Your 'activism' has been a disaster for those trans-identified people who really do just want to get on with their lives in peace. You have besmirched the name of an organisation many of us were once proud to donate to, the charity that was partly responsible for securing the legal right of gay people to marry, which a lot of us thought would never happen in our lifetimes. The milquetoast words quoted below do not erase a decade of gender activism that has been disastrous not only for individuals but for society as a whole.

There was once a debate to be had, but until you acknowledge the direct harm you've caused, it is no more possible to debate you than to persuade a person in the throes of a drug-induced psychosis that they are not, in fact, the reincarnated Christ.

OP posts:
HenriettaSwanLeavitt2 · Yesterday 15:15

JKR superb as ever 💚🤍💜

MrsOvertonsWindow · Yesterday 15:31

ItsCoolForCats · Yesterday 15:11

Jk Rowling on X:

A lot of us were very willing to have a debate without heat, @stonewalluk, and the reason that never happened wasn't because gender critical feminists didn't want one.

While we were trying to get you to listen to our concerns, your former CEO was telling a BBC boss that gay people not wanting to include the opposite sex in their dating pool was 'sexual racism'. While we were pointing out the homophobia inherent in gender ideology, Stonewall ambassador Alex Drummond (a bearded, heterosexual man who'd had no surgery and taken no cross-sex hormones but liked wearing skirts), was going into schools to talk to students about his 'lesbian' identity. @BluskyeAllison, who actually is a lesbian, was subject to unlawful discrimination at her place of work for tweeting: ‘Stonewall recently hired Morgan Page, a male bodied person who ran workshops with the sole aim of coaching heterosexual men who identify as lesbians on how they can coerce young lesbians into having sex with them. Page called [it] “overcoming the cotton ceiling”.’

When the UK Supreme Court upheld women's right to single sex spaces, you issued a statement expressing your unhappiness about the ruling. In her report on your unhappy influence at the University of Essex, you were found by barrister @akuareindorf to have misrepresented the law as it related to women's rights: '[Stonewall have] stated the law as Stonewall would prefer it to be, rather than the law as it is’.

In 2018, you publicly advised schools to shred a research pack saying there were risks to puberty blockers, in spite of the fact that you aren't a medical charity and that there was already credible evidence that puberty blockers are neither irreversible nor harm-free. Meanwhile you produced your own educational packs, recommending a children's book, for ages 5-9, in which the parent 'is neither a man, nor a woman – they’re non-binary.' In July 2022, Stonewall sent out a tweet that read ‘Research suggests that children as young as two recognise their trans identity'.

@thetimes has reported how you've sought to control the language used by NHS trusts and government on their social-media accounts. Organisations would get points from you for replacing commonly understood words with ideologically approved terms, eg, 'birthing parent' instead of 'mother'. thetimes.com/uk/society/art…

In short, you took a maximalist position on gender identity ideology, which you attempted to enforce by diktat. You refused to acknowledge that you'd hitched your wagon to a cause that, unlike civil rights, gay rights or women's rights, sought to strip rights from others. You sought to curtail everyone's right to freedom of speech and belief by controlling what it was permissible to think and say, through the management and political class. You have argued against women's and girl's rights to their own spaces, their sports and to assemble without men. Your CEO tried to shame gay women/men into dating the opposite sex if the latter claimed to be female/male.

Your mantra was 'no debate' because, like all totalitarians, you preferred slogans, bullying and infiltration of powerful institutions to talking to opponents. You appear to have had no concern for the lowly people your ideology was harming: gender confused kids, female rape victims, female prisoners, regular people hounded and investigated at their places of work for refusing to accept the new mandates on sex and gender issued from on high.

Your 'activism' has been a disaster for those trans-identified people who really do just want to get on with their lives in peace. You have besmirched the name of an organisation many of us were once proud to donate to, the charity that was partly responsible for securing the legal right of gay people to marry, which a lot of us thought would never happen in our lifetimes. The milquetoast words quoted below do not erase a decade of gender activism that has been disastrous not only for individuals but for society as a whole.

There was once a debate to be had, but until you acknowledge the direct harm you've caused, it is no more possible to debate you than to persuade a person in the throes of a drug-induced psychosis that they are not, in fact, the reincarnated Christ.

Brilliant!
Her fury at the sheer cheek of this man trying to rewrite this grim history.

And the wonderful thing is, apart from the deeply self interested minority (who will no doubt be along to hurl their normal word salad insults on this thread) she speaks for the majority.

Wishesandhorses · Yesterday 15:34

Yep she nailed it. As always. Brilliant.

But from Reddit; the main concern is 'rolled back rights'. Because Stonewall told them that if they told everyone the law as they wanted it to be, and told everyone the Equality Act meant they'd be sued if they didn't let men into women's spaces, then it would happen and be impossible to undo, and eventually the law would have to change to 'catch up'.

It's being undone.

Those were never rights. These activists were absolutely fine with rolling back other people's actual legal rights in their own interests. But Stonewall led them right up the garden path.

HenriettaSwanLeavitt2 · Yesterday 15:40

@MrsOvertonsWindow And the wonderful thing is, apart from the deeply self interested minority (who will no doubt be along to hurl their normal word salad insults on this thread) she speaks for the majority.

it's notable that no-one has been along to defend Stonewall.

Helleofabore · Yesterday 16:22

HenriettaSwanLeavitt2 · Yesterday 11:58

Was the defensive “no debate” position some activists then took, refusing even to acknowledge any conflict between trans rights and women’s rights, counter-productive? “What I recall that period to be was saying that there is a reality which is that trans people exist and that actually trans people should be around the table having the conversation, and that when trans people went around the table in some of those conversations it felt really difficult and therefore (they) didn’t feel able to participate … everybody needs to be able to have questions, we need to be able to have discussion, but we do have to find ways to do that without heat.”

Yes, of course, it was women making the conversation difficult. How did we not realise it was our fault all along. We should never have issued all those death threats.

Yes.

I read this and thought, well fuck, of course it is ‘difficult’. Imagine how fucking difficult it was for women!!!

And there is a difference between ‘difficult’- making sure female people’s needs are met and ‘difficult’ - we are not getting what we demand.

But hey ho!

PronounssheRa · Yesterday 16:54

Stonewall is only changing its approach now because organisations realising Stonewall advice is nonsense are withdrawing from the various ally schemes.

That is costing them money

I dont think id ever trust them again because it won't be long before they are encouraging organisations to 'get ahead of the law' again.

ArabellaScott · Yesterday 17:54

HenriettaSwanLeavitt2 · Yesterday 15:10

I'm interested to see that Simon Blake is Deputy Chair of the Board of Non-Exec Directors of Sussex Partnership NHS Trust. The trust signposts the notorious WellBN clinic on its webpage.

Eurgh.

Interesting that JKR talks in past tense - there are no signs that Stonewall have abandoned their previous batshit extremist anti women positions.

One of them was in HoC arguing for the Conversion Ban Bill just last week.

ChequerToRed · Yesterday 18:01

HenriettaSwanLeavitt2 · Yesterday 12:04

They’re having a normal one, then.

MrsOvertonsWindow · Yesterday 18:32

HenriettaSwanLeavitt2 · Yesterday 15:40

@MrsOvertonsWindow And the wonderful thing is, apart from the deeply self interested minority (who will no doubt be along to hurl their normal word salad insults on this thread) she speaks for the majority.

it's notable that no-one has been along to defend Stonewall.

Suspect after recent embarassing beclownings, some are busying themselves elsewhere 😂

HenriettaSwanLeavitt2 · Yesterday 18:54

ArabellaScott · Yesterday 17:54

Eurgh.

Interesting that JKR talks in past tense - there are no signs that Stonewall have abandoned their previous batshit extremist anti women positions.

One of them was in HoC arguing for the Conversion Ban Bill just last week.

IMHO Stonewall, or some iteration of it, is very much a future tense organisation.
I don't think they are particularly interested in the travails of the 'community' they pretend to serve. I believe that their primary interest is in embedding queer ideologies in politics and law. Hence their support of a bill that holds dangers for trans-identified people, as well as for women and children, and Blake's signalling to the trade unions in that article.

ArabellaScott · Yesterday 18:57

Agree. What I take from that Guardian article is very much not that they have changed any of their views. Just that they are going to change their tactics. Less bullish, more back-room deals.

ArabellaScott · Yesterday 18:58

It's very much in the vein of Labour's sex fudge. Sophistry and massaging of the narrative. Look at the examples he's chosen - it's all his poor beleaguered friends who can't go to the loo. There is still a conspicuous absence of any acknowledgement that women have suffered, continue to suffer, as a direct result of all of this bullshit, and that Stonewall have caused a good deal of suffering for women, including lesbian/bi women.

MrsOvertonsWindow · Yesterday 19:05

ArabellaScott · Yesterday 18:58

It's very much in the vein of Labour's sex fudge. Sophistry and massaging of the narrative. Look at the examples he's chosen - it's all his poor beleaguered friends who can't go to the loo. There is still a conspicuous absence of any acknowledgement that women have suffered, continue to suffer, as a direct result of all of this bullshit, and that Stonewall have caused a good deal of suffering for women, including lesbian/bi women.

Yes. Not to mention the carnage they've visited on the young by abusing the trusted position they gained from producing very good school anti bullying materials around homophobia. Only to blow it by enabling safeguarding busting materials and training from the born in the wrong body blokes.

They've ended up as a toxic disaster.

HenriettaSwanLeavitt2 · Yesterday 19:11

ArabellaScott · Yesterday 18:58

It's very much in the vein of Labour's sex fudge. Sophistry and massaging of the narrative. Look at the examples he's chosen - it's all his poor beleaguered friends who can't go to the loo. There is still a conspicuous absence of any acknowledgement that women have suffered, continue to suffer, as a direct result of all of this bullshit, and that Stonewall have caused a good deal of suffering for women, including lesbian/bi women.

The poor friends who can't use the loo is a story for the gullible Guardian readers and an attempt to seem sympathetic to the TRAs. He has no interest in communicating with women at all, because he genuinely doesn't care about us. The only women he is interested in are the ones already onboard with Queer politics and the ones he can manipulate.

Helleofabore · Yesterday 19:37

HenriettaSwanLeavitt2 · Yesterday 14:00

I think this is my fave. Difficult though; so many to choose from:

Motherfucker we're going to melt the ice palace you're clearly dependant on for self-regulating, and then act like perfectly average Sims players whilst you writhe around begging for someone to turn down the heat oh please turn down the heat until you pop like that dreadful narcissist from new Dr Who.

🥶

Another demonstration of why female people don’t want these male people in single sex provisions.

very grim

CliantheLang · Yesterday 19:55

Bless 'em, they DO understand.

  • so you see, until trans people can justify why they won't prove they're not lying, predatory, perverted frauds, without asserting anything that might discriminate against their reasonable interlocutors by disagreeing with their accusations, there's simply nothing to be done! maybe if you all just go away for a little bit things will simmer down.
ArabellaScott · Yesterday 20:57

HenriettaSwanLeavitt2 · Yesterday 19:11

The poor friends who can't use the loo is a story for the gullible Guardian readers and an attempt to seem sympathetic to the TRAs. He has no interest in communicating with women at all, because he genuinely doesn't care about us. The only women he is interested in are the ones already onboard with Queer politics and the ones he can manipulate.

Exactly. Women are just irritating noise who have spoiled this man's plan. But it's a temporary glitch and I'm sure he'll find a workaround.

CoolforKats · Yesterday 21:03

ItsCoolForCats · Yesterday 11:16

He wants to "turn down the heat" 🙄

I can't imagine this going down well amongst the TQ++++.....

"Stonewall was not, Blake stressed, aiming to overturn the supreme court ruling.* *“We understand that this is the law. But we also want to ensure that trans people are protected and, along with other organisations, we are looking at what that would look like.”

Article in the Guardian today

https://www.theguardian.com/society/2026/nov/01/progress-takes-time-stonewall-ceo-on-turning-down-the-heat-on-the-trans-debate?shem=dsdf,sharefoc,agadiscoversdl,,sh/x/discover/m1/4

"The background to the “No Debate” slogan
Since the early 2000s, many in the trans community have taken the position that they will not discuss the validity or existence of trans identities; ‘no debate’ became the shorthand slogan for this position.
Over the years, the meaning of that slogan has been intentionally misappropriated to suggest that trans people and their allies were refusing to collaborate, compromise or discuss policy affecting trans people.
Many public forums that aired discussions on trans issues or topics chose not to focus on policy questions, but instead often focused on whether being trans was a valid identity and whether trans people existed. In response to this, many trans people were left feeling vulnerable and unsafe, and refused to engage in public conversations on these terms.
In 2017, Stonewall highlighted how some were using proposed reforms of the Gender Recognition Act to again question the very right of trans people to exist. As Stonewall highlighted at the time, “This cannot be up for debate.”
Stonewall’s position has always been clear: trans people’s existence is not up for debate. Just as debates over the existence of gay people or people of faith wouldn’t be tolerated, the same applies to trans communities. This is separate from discussions about policy affecting trans people, which Stonewall has consistently and openly engaged with. As Simon Blake, Stonewall’s CEO, reiterated in a wide-ranging 2024 Guardian Interview, drawing on the 2017 ‘Vision for Change’ report, open conversation is always welcomed and encouraged, but not at the expense of legitimising hate or discrimination.
https://www.stonewall.org.uk/resources/lgbtq-hubs/trans-hub/trans-equality

Trans Equality
Stonewall is part of a vibrant, growing and global movement advocating for LGBTQ+ rights. Over the last 35+ years, we have helped create transformative…
https://www.stonewall.org.uk/resources/lgbtq-hubs/trans-hub/trans-equality

An arrow and text reading 'Stonewall'

Trans Equality

Stonewall is part of a vibrant, growing and global movement advocating for LGBTQ+ rights. Over the last 35+ years, we have helped create transformative…

https://www.stonewall.org.uk/resources/lgbtq-hubs/trans-hub/trans-equality

MyAmpleSheep · Yesterday 21:05

Over the years, the meaning of that slogan has been intentionally misappropriated to suggest that trans people and their allies were refusing to collaborate, compromise or discuss policy affecting trans people.

That's obviously not true, and a convenient retcon for stonewall.