Issues

Pro-trans activists attack BBC for quoting gay group that opposes ‘self-declared’ gender

LGBT activists have hit out at the BBC for quoting a homosexual lobby group which does not agree with the self-declaration of gender.

The Corporation published an article quoting the LGB Alliance, which said the current push to ban so-called ‘conversion therapy’ was being used as “political cover to promote an affirmation-only approach to gender identity”.

The complaints come just months after an MP asked Ofcom what could be done to prevent the BBC from allowing the group to speak on transgenderism.

‘Disgusting’

Stonewall co-founder Simon Fanshawe was involved in setting up the LGB Alliance in 2019.

But the national broadcaster’s inclusion of its concerns over radical gender ideology prompted outcry from homosexual news website Pink News, which claimed BBC News faced a “backlash from the LGBT+ community”.

It quoted ‘It’s A Sin’ actor Olly Alexander and Michael Chakraverty, who appeared on ‘The Great British Bake Off’ in 2019.

Alexander branded the organisation “v hateful and incorrect” while Chakraverty claimed that including a quote from the Alliance was “disgusting”.

‘Balance’

In December, Ofcom revealed it had been taking advice from Stonewall on how to bring ‘balance’ to debates on transgenderism, following complaints of the LGB Alliance’s inclusion in a BBC Radio 4 discussion.

Speaking to MPs, Ofcom’s Chief Executive Dame Melanie Dawes criticised broadcasters who included gender-critical voices in discussions about transgenderism, likening it to including racists in a discussion about racism, and suggested that “inappropriate voices” should be excluded from certain discussions.

Responding to comments from SNP MP John Nicolson, Dame Melanie added: “What we’re going to try to do is engage with Stonewall who are actually really expert on this, and who’ve raised this actively with us”.

But in a subsequent letter to the LGB Alliance, Ofcom wrote: “Ofcom has never stated or otherwise implied that ‘it is appropriate to talk to Stonewall and inappropriate to talk to LGB Alliance'”.

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