The first woman to head a High Court division, Baroness Butler-Sloss, has accused the campaign group Stonewall of “muddying the waters” around the law and transgenderism.
As reported by the Times, Butler-Sloss, a retired Court of Appeal judge, who was the first woman to lead the family division of the High Court, said that a balance had to be struck between the rights of transgender people and “people who are biologically women”. The report continues:
Trans people have been “unhappily treated by being over-protected by activists” whose “unattractive” campaign has created a backlash, she said.
A supporter of Stonewall’s past campaigns for gay rights, Butler-Sloss, 90, went on to accuse the group’s recent leadership of misrepresenting equality law and having had too much sway over Whitehall civil servants and other public bodies.
“We should recognise that there are people who are transgender and be entirely sympathetic to them and recognise their rights,” said Butler-Sloss, before criticising Stonewall for lobbying for the replacement of ordinary female terms, such as “chest-feeding” for breastfeeding. She said that Stonewall was “muddying the waters”, which pushed away people who would otherwise be sympathetic to trans rights.
Originally set up to advocate on behalf of lesbians, gays and bisexuals (the “LGB”), in 2015 Stonewall effectively decided to change direction and prioritise campaigning on behalf of those who identify as transgender (the “T” of the “LGBT”), including backing the prescription of puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones for children and young adults who say they are transgender.
However, over recent years it has faced criticism for purporting to provide public, private and third sector organisations with advice on complying with the law on equality and diversity, when in reality it has been “pursuing its own law reform agenda in the guise of ‘training’”.
Last month, legal opinion commissioned by campaign group Sex Matters found that King’s College London’s Stonewall-influenced EDI policies relating to sex and gender reassignment are “incorrect, as a matter of law, in several substantial respects”.
The legal opinion was produced by Akua Reindorf KC, the same barrister who was commissioned by the University of Essex back in 2021 to review the Stonewall-influenced harassment and bullying policies that led to the ‘no-platforming’ of two visiting gender-critical law professors. Her conclusion there was that the University’s guidance around trans issues was “misleading” because it “states the law as Stonewall would prefer it to be, rather than the law as it is”.
