Keeping track of Stonewall
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Stonewall redefines trans to exclude crossdressers
Stonewall has expelled crossdressers from the trans umbrella Stonewall’s long-standing definition of “trans” changed on 27th June 2024 to drop “crossdresser” from the list. Before then, it said: “Trans people may describe themselves using one or more of a wide variety of terms, including (but not limited to) transgender,...
28th June 2024
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Stonewall chair speaks (and then recants)
Iain Anderson, chair of trustees for Stonewall, has given an extended interview to Sky News’s Beth Rigby. It is well worth watching the whole thing. In the interview Anderson seemed to be trying to distance the organisation from the extreme position it has taken, saying that he recognises that...
22nd July 2023
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Stonewall ‘eroding’ gender pay gap monitoring among civil servants
Ewan Somerville for The TelegraphMaya Forstater is quoted. Six government departments among employers urged to check inequalities by self-identified gender, according to charity’s training scheme.
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Stonewall is scaremongering: write to your MP
Stonewall has been sending out alarmist emails to MPs which misrepresent the law. On 9th January Kemi Badenoch, the Minister for Women and Equalities, announced that the government would be updating its list of approved overseas countries and territories for gender-recognition certificates. She explained: “There are now some countries and territories...
13th January 2023
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Risks in the final rush to legislate self-ID in Scotland
The Scottish government’s plans to allow anyone from age 16 upwards who is ordinarily resident in Scotland to obtain a gender recognition certificate (GRC) without any medical assessment are due to be voted on by the Scottish Parliament tomorrow, 21st December. The vote comes barely a week after the...
20th December 2022
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Mass harassment in HM Prisons and Probation Service
As reported in The Telegraph today, HM Prisons and Probation Service’s Pride in Prison and Probation (PiPP) staff network has circulated documents for Trans Awareness Week telling MoJ staff to recognise a series of words and phrases as “transphobic dogwhistles”. The PiPP is an official staff network, with a...
20th November 2022
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Sex Matters writes to the new Chair of Stonewall
Iain Anderson is Stonewall’s new Chair of Trustees. This morning he made his first public appearance, on the BBC. Laura Kuenssberg asked him about engaging with women who are “gender critical”, saying they are asking questions about the trans rights debate and “feel like they have been shut out...
30th October 2022
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Law firms ‘should quit Stonewall advice scheme’ after Allison Bailey ruling
Catherine Baksi for The Times Victory for the Lionesses in the Euros at the weekend temporarily quelled the debate over what a woman is — they are footballers who win trophies for England. More widely, an employment tribunal published a ruling last week protecting free speech in the gender debate.
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Freedom of information obligations for Stonewall scheme participants
A briefing to inform public authorities participating in Stonewall (and similar) schemes in order to encourage them to respond promptly and appropriately to future freedom-of-information requests.
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Employers must reconsider their policies and relationship with Stonewall after Allison Bailey’s victory
Allison Bailey has won her claims of direct belief discrimination and victimisation against Garden Court Chambers. The Employment Tribunal unanimously found that Miss Bailey was discriminated against and victimised by her barristers’ chambers on the basis of her gender-critical beliefs. Importantly, the judgment recognises that the whole of Allison Bailey’s...
27th July 2022
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Information Commissioner strikes down secrecy of Stonewall scheme
The Information Commissioner has ordered the University of Oxford to disclose the scores and feedback it received from Stonewall as part of the lobby group’s controversial Workplace Equality Index scheme. Following a Freedom of Information appeal undertaken as part of the “Don’t Submit to Stonewall” campaign initiated by Legal...
1st July 2022
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Is the Attorney General wrong about the law, or is Stonewall?
The Department for Education is developing new guidance for schools on how to accommodate children who identify as transgender. Attorney General Suella Braverman gave an interview which suggests that the guidance will be based on the principle that children who identify as transgender have not changed sex, and therefore...
29th May 2022
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Highlights from Kirrin Medcalf’s evidence
From our live notes of the evidence of the Allison Bailey v Stonewall Equality Limited and Garden Court Chambers Case – cross-examination of Kirrin Medcalf, 10th May 2022 (all screenshots are from documents in the public domain). Background: Kirrin Medcalf had been employed by Stonewall as its head of...
16th May 2022
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What is behind the campaign to ban conversion therapy?
The campaign to ban “conversion therapy” has come out of nowhere, to suddenly dominate the priorities of organisations such as Stonewall, Gendered Intelligence, Mermaids, GIRES and the LGBT Foundation. There have been protests and petitions, and these groups pulled out of a planned international conference on human rights when...
4th May 2022
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Why ban talking therapy?
How a campaign to criminalise the most effective treatment for gender-distressed children made it from the margins to the mainstream: we look at the history of conversion therapy.
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What does it take to get into Stonewall’s Workplace Equality Index?
Stonewall’s Workplace Equality Index (WEI) has had a revamp, with new “gold”, “silver” and “bronze” awards. Are these medals anything to be proud of?
25th February 2022
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Government organisation leaves Stonewall over concerns about impartiality and cost
The government’s Insolvency Service is the latest organisation to leave Stonewall, stating in its internal communications: “Unfortunately, there are concerns around impartiality and upon review, we found that the contract did not represent value for money.” The Insolvency Service joins a growing list of companies and organisations who have...
10th February 2022
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What does case law say about single-sex services?
The Equality and Human Rights Commission is planning to release new guidance on single-sex services imminently. Kishwer Falkner, Chair of the EHRC, agreed when Joanna Cherry QC MP asked her: “Would you agree with me that all guidance issued by EHRC should be grounded in statute and case law,...
3rd February 2022
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Why UCL decided to leave Stonewall
UCL (University College London) has published the documents about its decision not to re-join Stonewall.
1st February 2022
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Legal Feminist responds to FCA consultations
Legal Feminist applauds the intention behind the proposals, and is a strong proponent of data-driven policy-making, but felt that the way in which those intentions were to be reflected in rules and policy rendered the proposals at best ineffective and at worst dangerous.
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Sex matters in the City
The Financial Conduct Authority is the regulator for the financial services sector in the UK. They are proposing to set new rules to encourage big companies to have more “female” directors on their boards. The new regulations would cover over 1000 firms, employing tens of millions of people, and...
19th October 2021
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It is time for a public inquiry
The Nolan investigation In an explosive documentary just released by the BBC, journalist Stephen Nolan shines a bright light on the relationship between public bodies and Stonewall. The podcast series focuses on the BBC, the Scottish and Welsh Governments, the NHS and Ofcom. It sets out how Stonewall as...
13th October 2021
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Ofcom bows out of the Stonewall Champions scheme – but read the small print
Sex Matters has recently learnt that Ofcom is leaving the Stonewall Diversity Champions scheme because of concerns that remaining a member “could harm perceptions of Ofcom’s impartiality”. Ofcom, the communications regulator, has been a member of the Stonewall Diversity Champions programme since 2007, spending over £12,000 in 2019 and...
25th August 2021
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Understanding the risk of following Stonewall guidance – briefing for employers
The mismatches between current legislation and Stonewall’s guidance on ‘trans inclusion’ that employers need to be aware of.
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Employers: consider Stonewall risk
Should I stay or should I go? At least 40 organisations that we know of have left Stonewall including the Cabinet Office, Ministry of Justice, Ofsted and the Equality and Human Rights Commission. Anglian Water Bristol, North Somerset and South Gloucestershire Care Commissioning Group Cabinet Office Cancer Research UK...
7th July 2021
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Oxford’s submission to Stonewall
We are pleased to announce that Michael Biggs, Associate Professor of Sociology at St Cross College, Oxford University, is joining the Sex Matters Board of Directors. Professor Biggs has written this post, as well as a letter to Professor Louise Richardson, Vice Chancellor of the University of Oxford, calling...
6th June 2021
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Time to #LeaveStonewall
This is the letter we have sent to the CEOs of the 850 organisations that are members of the Stonewall Diversity Champions Scheme. Re: Leaving the Stonewall Diversity Champions Scheme We are writing to call on you to withdraw from the scheme, both for the sake of your own...
29th May 2021
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EHRC Chairwoman writes to Sex Matters: we have left Stonewall
This week we received welcome news in a letter from Baroness Kishwer Falkner. The Equality and Human Rights Commission is no longer part of the controversial Stonewall Diversity Champions Scheme. She said that the Commission seeks to ensure that all staff enjoy “acceptance without exception”. We responded welcoming this...
23rd May 2021
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Stonewalling the Domestic Violence Bill: Why make “misogyny” gender neutral?
A short month ago there was an attempt to rush a bill through parliament that would set a precedent of “gender neutralising” motherhood in law; replacing the words mother or woman with “pregnant person” in the Ministerial and other Maternity Allowances (MOMA) Bill. As Baroness Noakes highlighted, this is...
13th March 2021
