Stonewall | |
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Formation | 1989 |
Purpose/focus | LGBT rights |
Headquarters | London[1] |
Region served | United Kingdom |
Website | www.stonewall.org.uk |
Stonewall is a lesbian, gay and bisexual rights charity in the United Kingdom named after the Stonewall Inn of Stonewall riots fame. Now the largest gay equality organisation in Europe, it was formed in 1989 by political activists and others lobbying against section 28 of the Local Government Act. Sir Ian McKellen, Lisa Power, Matthew Parris and Michael Cashman were among its founders. Stonewall GB is based in London. Stonewall Scotland has offices in Edinburgh and also includes work on transgender within its remit. Stonewall Cymru is in Cardiff and north Wales.
Although Stonewall was a lobbying organisation rather than membership organisation, it has diversified into policy development for the rights of lesbian, gay and bisexual people since Labour came to power.
Contents |
Accomplishments
Its most high profile work was backing legal test cases in the European Court of Human Rights. These included:
- teenager Chris Morris, who successfully challenged the unequal age of consent laws.
- Duncan Lustig-Prean, Jeanette Smith, Graham Grady, John Beckett who successfully challenged the ban on gays in the military.
- Lisa Grant, who (unsuccessfully) sued her employer, South West Trains, for equal pay and benefits.
However, in the last six years it has seen many successes in parliamentary lobbying. Under Director Angela Mason (1992 to 2002) who was awarded an OBE "for services to homosexual rights", it saw amendments to the 2002 Adoption and Children Bill which treated lesbian and gay couples in the same way as heterosexuals. Under its current Chief Executive Ben Summerskill it was in successful parliamentary campaigns to:
- repeal Section 28 of the Local Government Act (2003),
- recognise anti-gay hate crimes, through the Criminal Justice Act 2003,
- introduce the Civil Partnership Act 2004 giving gay and lesbian couples a legal framework equivalent to civil marriage,
- introduce the 2007 Sexual Orientation Regulations, protections against discrimination on grounds of sexual orientation in the provision of goods and services secured through the Equality Act 2006.
- equalise treatment of lesbian parents and their children in the 2008 Human Fertilisation & Embryology Act
- introduce an offence of incitement to homophobic hatred in the 2008 Criminal Justice Act, matching existing protections around race and religion.
Stonewall now works with 500 major employers[citation needed] providing advice and support to lesbian and gay staff. These include IBM, Credit Suisse, the HMRC, the Army and the Royal Navy. An Education for All campaign launched in 2005, with 70 other organisations, to tackle homophobic bullying in schools. Stonewall's work is now supported by an evidence base derived from research commissioned in the last five years on such subjects as lesbian and bisexual women's health, hate crime, homophobic bullying in schools, productivity and the lesbian experience in the GB workplace.
Criticism
Peter Tatchell has accused Stonewall of endorsing discrimination by holding champagne receptions for celebrities and politicians supported by HSBC, despite its being sued by Peter Lewis in 2005 for unfair dismissal on grounds of sexual orientation. However, Lewis did not win his case and expressed gratitude to Stonewall for its support. (Stonewall supporters note Peter Tatchell's own high-ticket fundraising activities in, for example, July 2007.[2]) Act-UP AIDS activists also criticised Stonewall in 2002 for endorsing HIV drug manufacturers, including GlaxoSmithKline through its Diversity Champions initiative. One of Stonewall's fiercest critics is right-wing Daily Mail columnist Richard Littlejohn. It is his assertion that Stonewall has become "a byword for intolerance, bigotry and bullying".[3]
In October 2008, Stonewall had as one of its nominees Julie Bindel, described by transfeminist groups as transphobic, for a Stonewall "Journalist of the Year" award. This led a protest at the awards event at which protest organisers claimed 150 activists. A much smaller counter protest in support of Bindel by the London Feminist Network attracted a few dozen protesters.[4]
See also
References
- ^ About us, official website (accessed 9 July 2009)
- ^ www.pinknews.co.uk
- ^ Littlejohn, Richard (2008-02-29), "Gay bigots make the little children suffer...", Daily Mail, http://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/columnists/article-522763/Daves-dedicated-follower-fashion.html
- ^ [1], Celebs split over trans protest at Stonewall Awards