I’m sad to share that I’ll be leaving @stonewalluk at the end of this month. Sad, but so SO proud of what we’ve achieved in the last three years, working as part of the incredible LGBTQ+ rights movement (BIG 🧵incoming!) We got through the pandemic, working hard to respond to the escalating needs of LGBTQ+ people across the UK and to adapt to new ways of working.

🧵Every reasonable quality survey I have seen shows trans hostile views are more common amongst men than women. Cis/het men to be precise. This is the group that is most likely to think that trans rights have 'gone too far', and is most concerned about single sex spaces 1/4 If over recent years the media had simply reflected this fact, instead of persistently adopting a frame that positions cis women, and particularly feminist lesbian cis women as deeply concerned about (and at risk from) trans women, we would not be where we are today.

Our public conversation about LGBTQ+ rights, and trans rights in particular has skipped the rails in recent years. Deadly boring, centrist positions are now commonly denounced as ‘radical’ and ‘going too far’. Yes, this mega🧵is a love letter to Theresa May’s LGBT Action plan. In 2018, the government published an LGBT Action Plan, based on a major survey, consultation with the movement and collaboration with the community. It was pretty good! Here are just some of the things it included:

The idea that the Scottish Gender Recognition Reform Bill was ‘rushed through’ is complete nonsense. Here, in excruciating detail is *why* it is nonsense, and why this is something no serious person should be saying: 🧵

https://twitter.com/stonewalluk/status/1612820460403818500

Consultation 1 on #GRRBill ran from 9 November 2017 to 1 March 2017. There were 15,697 responses. 60% of respondents supported proposals to introduce a self-declaration system for legal gender recognition.

🧵One of the things that gets in the way of us *actually* treating all LGBTI people with respect in the UK is our absolute *conviction* that we already are. That we are already a completely progressive and rights respecting society. Reader: we are not.

https://twitter.com/ILGAEurope/status/1524630712531525635

When you have this conviction, anyone asking for further human rights protections is seen as unreasonable, even extreme. There is no problem you see? The UK is a leader in human rights across the globe surely? (we are not)

A short thread on founders. No tea, just charity wonkishness😊You may have noticed that we’ve had *a lot* of media covering the fact that a couple of our founders think we shouldn’t advocate for the rights of trans people (or bi people ). In charity world, this is NORMAL. 1/7 Founder syndrome is A WHOLE THING in charity world and founder-led charities often crash and burn in the tension between founding vision and the changing world we live in. Often organisational infrastructure hasn't professionalised - many charities just don’t make it. 2/7