How ‘gay rights’ charities turned against gay people

Once upon a time, any self-respecting gay-rights charity would know that releasing thousands of insects to break up a meeting of gay, lesbian and bisexual people would obviously be a bad thing. Yet one week on from just such an attack at the LGB Alliance conference in London, we have heard crickets from Stonewall, Galop and LGBT Foundation – three of the largest taxpayer-funded charities that still identify as representing LGB people.

It shouldn’t be hard to condemn what happened as blatant homophobia. A cluster of trans-identified teens from the group Trans Kids Deserve Better (TKDB) opened bags containing 6,000 crickets and set them free in the auditorium. They claimed this was to disrupt a ‘breeding ground for fervent and violent transphobia’. Of course, as spiked readers may have gleaned, the accusation of ‘transphobia’ is bogus. What apparently makes LGB Alliance so objectionable is that, unlike Stonewall and Co, it is clear that biological sex matters for homosexuals. Speakers at the conference (of which I was one) differ on many points, but all are in firm agreement that lesbians don’t have penises. This is considered ‘transphobic’ because it calls into question the identities of men who get off on pretending to be women.

Before releasing the bugs, a member of TKDB said, apparently without a trace of irony, ‘It makes me really angry to see trans kids being talked about like a bunch of brainless children who can’t make decisions for or speak for themselves. I’m sick of having our voices taken away by bigoted people like [LGB Alliance] who speak over us instead of listening.’

Had these entitled bullying brats engaged their still maturing critical faculties, they might have realised that they were quite at liberty to ask questions and open up conversations at the conference. Instead, after the stunt, the group members were escorted out of the building and supervised until some were collected by their mums. The incident is now being investigated by the Metropolitan Police.

Many of those involved in LGB Alliance remember the fight for homosexual equality from decades ago. They are quite used to confronting bigots, rolling up their plaid shirt sleeves and carrying on. And so, after the TKDB protest, delegates, organisers and speakers pulled together and most of the talks continued.

That teenagers are undertaking stupid stunts for dubious causes is fairly unremarkable. But what is more troubling is the refusal of legacy gay-rights groups to at least agree that same-sex attracted people have a right to meet without fear. In the week that has passed since the LGB Alliance conference was disrupted, neither Stonewall, LGBT Foundation nor Galop have offered words of support or condemned what was clearly a homophobic attack.

Perhaps if the LGB Alliance conference had been disrupted by religious nuts wanting to ‘pray the gay away’ Stonewall and its siblings might have had the courage to ‘come out’. Yet it seems despite all the noisy demands for ‘trans visibility’, when trans activists behave badly, an omerta of silence descends across the mainstream gay sector.

Kate Barker, CEO of LGB Alliance, told me that she has been saddened but not surprised by the lack of solidarity. ‘These groups talk incessantly about alleged hate crimes, but when activists attempt to disrupt the UK’s only conference for LGB people, their silence is deafening’, she said. ‘The added irony is that this attack occurred on the eve of National Hate Crimes Awareness Week.’

When planning this article, I emailed Stonewall, LGBT Foundation and Galop. I followed-up with a post on social media, and then I made phone calls and left messages. I received neither a comment nor even an acknowledgment. It seems entirely fair to ask what these groups are doing, because they if won’t condemn an attack on a conference for same-sex attracted people, they certainly aren’t standing-up for lesbians, gays and bisexuals.

The activity on their X accounts makes their priorities abundantly clear. The LGBT Foundation has posted about international pronouns day and hate crime. Stonewall has plugged its ‘Hold My Hand’ campaign and hate crime. Galop has commented about needing funding, job vacancies and hate crime. Each of these charities claims to represent same-sex attracted people, yet none has had the decency to condemn TKDB’s homophobic stunt.

Many supporters of LGB Alliance have long called for a divorce between the LGB and T, tired of the bullying in what has for much of the past decade become an abusive relationship. The total disdain legacy gay-rights organisations have shown to LGB people makes it clear that the separation has already happened. Stonewall, LGBT Foundation and Galop now only stand for the T.

Jo Bartosch is a journalist campaigning for the rights of women and girls.