Kemi Badenoch, the business secretary and minister for women and equalities, has launched a critique of LGBTQ+ charity Stonewall, denouncing it as an organization influenced by “leftist” ideas. Speaking at an international gathering of conservatives, Badenoch expressed agreement with the notion that the more extreme ideas regarding transgender rights had been thwarted. She argued that government had veered off course on gender ideology due to undue influence from leftist perspectives channeled through certain charities, with Stonewall being a prominent example.
“It’s not the same Stonewall of 20 or 30 years ago, which started advising government and saying: ‘Well, this is what you need to do in order to serve a particular community.’ And then it overreached and started giving people legal advice or advice that is certainly different from what the Equality Act says,” remarked Badenoch.
The minister, considered a potential future Conservative leadership contender, delivered her comments at a summit organized by the Alliance for Responsible Citizenship (ARC), a rightwing umbrella group. Attendees included conservatives from various countries, with remote addresses from notable figures like US House speaker Mike Johnson and potential Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy.
Stonewall defended its work, emphasizing its role in offering expert guidance to employers in support of LGBTQ+ individuals in the workplace. They clarified that organizations are free to implement their guidance as per their specific contexts and stressed that their work is not tethered to any particular political ideology.
Badenoch’s remarks come amid ongoing calls for the release of government guidance for schools on gender dysphoria, a document of significant interest to the transgender community. Badenoch asserted that she believed the discourse around trans rights in the UK had shifted and that some of the more extreme ideas surrounding trans ideology were on the decline.
In her address, Badenoch also criticized diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives in businesses, asserting that they often originate from academia without considering the real-world consequences. She urged a focus on contemporary issues rather than getting bogged down in debates over pronouns, critical race theory, or racial measurements.