I thought things with Stonewall had settled down some. With just over two weeks to go until the Stonewall Awards Protests (Outside the V&A Musuem on the 4th November) it appeared as if there might be a whole week in which they did not manage to screw something up.
But no, it was not to be – on Tuesday, Stonewall announced the nominees for their 2010 awards. And one of the people nominated for Journalist of the Year is someone who Stonewall have themselves pointed out as an example of transphobic reporting.
It seems that back in 2007 a subsidiary of Stonewall, Stonewall Scotland, published a report on LGBT portrayal in the Scottish press. Stonewall Scotland do actually campaign for the full spectrum of LGBT rights, including Transgender. One of the pieces of work they highlighted in their report was an article by Bill Leckie in the Scottish edition of The Sun:
EIGHT o’clock on Wednesday and an army of frighteningly ugly women are pouring into a boozer called Prism for bingo night. Or at least from a distance they LOOK like women. But then you see the poster on the door.
And you realise that this isn’t just any bingo night. It’s Drag Queen bingo night.
Now, I can’t pretend that my devotion to this column is such that I wiggled along to see how it went. Not when I got there and saw someone going in with the same frock.
However, my sources tell me it went a little bit like: “Two fat ladyboys… 88. Unlucky for some … unprotected sex. Five and two… Danny La Rue.” And someone shouted: “Really nicely-decorated house!”
Now, guess who one of the people Stonewall nominated for Journalist of the Year this year is?
I’ve asked it before and I’ll ask it again: Are they actually trying to antagonise the Trans community?
“Are they actually trying to antagonise the Trans community?”
There is no doubt in my mind that this is exactly what they are doing. And I would imagine most of that is down to Summerskill and his personal views. Stonewall = Summerskill, full stop.
Anyone who read his snide and transphobic comments on FaceBook, during the Vauxhall Tavern row, will know what an unpleasant piece of work he really is.
I think it is now time to make formal complaints to the Charity Commission, on the grounds that Stonewall is being used simply to promote Summerskill’s own personal and narrow political agenda, and thus is in breach of its charitable status.
There is certainly enough evidence for them to investigate such a complaint.
chrissie
xxxx
At this point I’m going to go anti-Hanlon’s Razor on you and say that surely this level of stupid is designed to agitate trans womyn into properly agitating for their rights.
That or Bill Leckie and his fans are a procession of utter wankers.