The UK’s self-proclaimed ‘leading’ LGBT equality lobbying group Stonewall is no longer fit for purpose. Since LGBT equality has now been achieved in the UK, there seems little point to the organisation and this is manifest by the fact that they have so much time on their hands they have filled it with pointless identitarian politics. Worse, they now denigrate the very constituency they were originally constituted to defend. Sounds outlandish?
Well, how else can this be explained? In Stonewall’s glossary on their website, they state:
Queer is a term used by those wanting to reject specific labels of romantic orientation, sexual orientation and/or gender identity. It can also be a way of rejecting the perceived norms of the LGBT community (racism, sizeism, ableism etc). Although some LGBT people view the word as a slur, it was reclaimed in the late 80s by the queer community who have embraced it.
What on earth do they mean by the “perceived norms” of the LGBT community being “racism, sizeism, ableism, etc”? Is this what they think of the community they once served and which once supported it? Do they think so little of lesbians and gays that they feel it necessary to promote a range of new identities with different names? Has gay pride ultimately become gay shame in the hands of the identitarian Left who have captured the organisation?
The identitarian Left of course has been busy for more than a decade capturing organisations. Here at Harry’s Place we have tracked much of this over the years. Human Rights Watch attacking Peter Tatchell for criticising Islamic regimes who murder gay people; Amnesty International purging Gita Sagal; Liberty getting into bed with Begg and Cage; and the less said about the state of the current Labour Party the better.
Stonewall’s glossary – apart from terms which have been in use for decades and need no explanation since becoming mainstream at least two generations ago – ‘homophobia’, ‘coming out’, etc – is a roadmap to madness. It is almost entirely taken up with faddish terms mostly dealing with Millennial delusions and the current hysteria around transgenderism (which I fully expect to one day take its place next to ‘false memory syndrome’ and ‘multiple personality disorder’ and similar bouts of social madness by existential hypochondriacs.) I am certain there are genuine cases of gender dysphoria – in less than 0.5% of the population – but it is insane when one single primary school reports having 17 trans pupils. That suggests a mass sociogenic mania – a moral panic of sorts – akin to seeing witches in Salem in the 1690s or suffering a syndrome of ‘recovered memories’ or ‘multiple personalities’ in the 1990s.
Naturally Stonewall is right on top of this.
Now, while it certainly is the case that LGBT rights have been secured in the UK, as with racism, antisemitism, and similar bigotry, homophobia is socially entrenched, and discrimination based on these prejudices will always be with us, so there is potentially an educational and support role for nearly-redundant groups like Stonewall.
Indeed, only this week we have had to witness the unedifying spectacle of a Labour MP advocating for the de facto return of Section 28. This tweeted by Labour MP, Shabana Mahmood:
It’s vital that schools follow the guidance for teaching #RSE, with parental engagement and proper consideration for pupils’ religion and background. Yesterday, I made this clear to Education ministers in response to a petition signed by 1,763 #Birmingham #Ladywood constituents.
This was in response to news that LGBT-inclusive lessons had been suspended at a Muslim school following protests.
At the start of the crisis, the homophobic Muslim parents gained the support of Labour councilor, Mohammed Idrees, who told the Birmingham Mail that “promoting homosexuality” was “not a good idea” because the “children were too young”.
So perhaps it might be premature to defund LGBT organisations. It certainly looks like there might be a bit of a fight ahead. But here’s the thing, Stonewall is not the organisation to take a lead in this fight. When former London Mayor Ken Livingstone embraced the Islamist cleric Yusuf al-Qaradawi , a theocrat who supports punishments for homosexuality, including the death penalty, Stonewall was not one of the groups who stood up to Livingstone. On the contrary they allied with the Socialist Action-aligned far-Left group ‘Lesbians & Gays Against Racism’ to denounce the groups protesting. Given this, is it any wonder that they now officially associate common-or-garden lesbians and gays as “perceived racists”?
Stonewall simply cannot be trusted to defend lesbians and gays in the looming intersectional war between increasingly confident regressive religious factions and LGBT people who have barely started to enjoy their new-found equality. Whoever finds the courage to stand up to regressive religious lobby, it won’t be the so-called progressive-Left running Stonewall.
Save your support for whoever does take a lead. Do not give your money to Stonewall who – if they do anything – will most likely run interference for the homophobes, just as the did for Livingstone and Qaradawi.
