Thread by @ALLIANCELGB

Open letter from LGB Alliance to Tim Davie, Director General, BBC
30 Oct 2020 /1of27

Dear Tim Davie,
The BBC is one of the great British institutions, treasured by the public and revered across the world. It is because the BBC remains so important that every word you utter is dissected forensically. /2of27

In addition, the fact that you depend on the licence fee makes it even more important that you represent the population in a balanced and well-informed way. /3of27

Over the last 24 hours we have followed the reporting of your proposed new guidelines on impartiality with keen interest. We would like to believe that at last the BBC is waking up to a dangerous drift in its coverage of issues around sex and gender. /4of27

As an organisation that defends the rights of lesbians, gay men and bisexuals, we have been concerned for some time that the BBC is no longer living up to its traditions and its Charter responsibilities to cover controversial subjects with scrupulous neutrality. /5of27

Whatever your final guidelines, we welcome this acknowledgment that there is now a serious problem with how the BBC covers issues that matter to much of society – not least to the LGB community. /6of27

We believe that the BBC has increasingly allowed some of its journalists to become advocates of one side of a debate that has a profound impact on our rights, as well as those of women and children. While we support trans people’s rights to full equality under the law, /7of27

which they currently have, & support their full participation in public life, we believe their rights are being exploited by a lobby of powerful and well-funded organisations to promote quite dangerous ideas that help neither the trans community nor the rest of the public. /8of27

In the last decade and at astonishing speed, what was once a movement that pursued equality under the law has morphed into something very different with multiple aims. These aims include the promotion of the following: /9of27

* The completely unscientific notion that instead of two sexes there is some sex “spectrum” with innumerable variations /10of27

* The position that it is perfectly reasonable to give some children puberty blockers to prevent them going through an uncomfortable puberty /11of27

* The insulting assertion that some lesbians have male genitals /12of27

* The entitlement of entirely male-bodied people who have taken no hormones or had no surgery and sometimes don’t even shave their beards – like Stonewall representative Alex Drummond – to call themselves women /13of27

* The delusion that children can have any of more than 100 “genders” /14of27

This last claim is made in an educational video intended for school pupils aged 7 to 11, that bears the logo of the BBC itself. When a BBC educational video tells young children that they may be "demiromantic", /15of27

asexual, or … "genderqueer" (whatever that is) … the BBC clearly has a major problem that needs solving. Despite vast numbers of complaints made to the BBC about this video, inexplicably it remains online. /16of27

This is only one example of many from the BBC’s output that we believe shows the Corporation is badly out of step with public perceptions and increasingly in thrall to a lobby that claims to speak for all LGB and T people but doesn’t. /17of27

This lobby constantly attempts to shut down debate by claiming it is homophobic to challenge any of the ideas they promote. It isn’t. /18of27

We therefore believe the BBC needs a thorough review of the influence of this "gender identity" lobby on the organisation and its output. Many BBC employees have contacted us to complain they dare not speak out against the promotion of "gender identity" within the BBC. /19of27

They feel they would be fired for "homophobia" if they did, which is tragic and ironic, since we believe gender identity itself is actually a deeply homophobic idea. /20of27

We note that there was specific confusion today about the question of whether staff should attend Pride events. We’re heartened to hear this will still be encouraged because many of our supporters who have been or are BBC employees have long loved attending. /21of27

However, it’s equally heartening that staff should be reminded that taking a stance on controversial demands while at Pride undermines BBC impartiality. / 22of27

It is no longer possible to continue with the illusion that there is just one gay voice on issues like Gender Recognition reform or the protection of women’s sport. /23of27

The message of Pride has also, unfortunately, become increasingly polarised. Lesbians who oppose self-ID have been bullied, threatened and excluded from Pride marches. /24of27

The danger of unthinking acceptance of some Pride activists’ demands was summed up for us in a comment last year at Trans Pride in Brighton when one leading trans activist said: “if gender is on a spectrum then homosexuality doesn’t really exist”. /25of27

Homosexuality does exist. We know the BBC does not have an animus against homosexuals. It is in danger of unwittingly giving too much influence to those who do. /26of27

We are writing to you separately to request a meeting. Meantime we send you our full support for having the courage to begin to address these important issues.

Malcolm Clark
Kate Harris
Bev Jackson
LGB Alliance /27of27