Politicians, civil servants and public bodies across the UK have unquestioningly accepted controversial and often misleading advice from Stonewall in shaping key policies, an 18-month investigation has found.
Nolan Investigates uncovered the widespread influence of the LGBT lobby group on national governments and institutions through a series of Freedom of Information (FOI) requests.
Its findings have now been revealed in a new podcast by BBC journalists Stephen Nolan and David Thompson.
Stonewall schemes
The duo sent FOI requests to various public bodies asking for details of their involvement in Stonewall’s ‘Diversity Champions’ programme and its Workplace Equality Index.
Public bodies pay upwards of £2,500 plus VAT to subscribe to the LGBT lobby group’s scheme, which rewards employers for promoting LGBT ideology inside and outside of the workplace.
Under the Workplace Equality Index, organisations that comply with the lobby group’s advice are able to improve their position in its annual ranking of top 100 LGBT ‘inclusive’ workplaces.
According to the podcast, the BBC refused to give any information about its involvement with Stonewall’s schemes.
‘Unaccountable’
During the series, Nolan observed: “We have spent months investigating the public bodies who have a relationship with Stonewall.
“And we’ve found examples, where government is essentially paying Stonewall to lobby it. Yes. You’ve heard that right. I’ll say it again. Lobbyists, being paid by the people they are lobbying, to lobby.”
Lobbyists, being paid by the people they are lobbying, to lobby.
He asked: “How worrying is it, that there is an unaccountable lobby group, partly funded by you, the public, which has unparalleled access to your Government, to your employer, to your police force, to your BBC?”
Government bias
Information obtained by the Nolan team confirmed that the Scottish Government ditched the word “mother” from its maternity leave policies after being advised to do so by Stonewall.
The Scottish Government now uses only “gender neutral equivalents”, as recommended in the lobby group’s inclusive policy toolkit.
Following the podcast revelations, Labour MP Tonia Antoniazzi accused the Welsh Government of being “dictated to by Stonewall”, for claiming that gender identity is a protected characteristic under equality law.
She said the Welsh Government was guilty of “blatantly misrepresenting” the Equality Act 2010 under the influence of Stonewall’s “ideological culture”.
Response
The Christian Institute’s Deputy Director Ciarán Kelly said: “Stonewall’s capture of public institutions should concern us all.
Stonewall’s capture of public institutions should concern us all
“Here is an unaccountable lobby group pushing a radical gender ideology that is dictating government policy. It’s high time our public servants shunned its misleading advice and bowed out of its self-serving schemes”.
But Labour’s Deputy Leader Angela Rayner and co-leader of the Scottish Greens Patrick Harvie gave their backing to the lobby group. Labour MP Zarah Sultana also expressed her support for Stonewall, and complained that the BBC had used public money to investigate the extent of their political influence.
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