“Since when did Stonewall side with bullies?” is the latest article in Julie Bindel’s online column for The Critic, “The feminist fix”, which explores feminism’s answer to today’s challenges. The previous article, on the fake feminist dudebros who want to take away sex-based rights, can be read here.

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Did you know that “transgender hate crimes” recorded by police forces in England, Scotland and Wales rose by 81 per cent in 2018-2019? And that 41 per cent of trans people experienced a hate crime or incident because of their gender identity in 2017, compared to a measly 16 per cent of lesbian, gay and bisexual individuals during the same period? 

These questionable figures came to my attention during the case brought by the black lesbian barrister, Allison Bailey against Stonewall and Garden Court Chambers (GCC). I don’t need to rehash the background and details of the case: enough has been written and exposed about it. Suffice to say that the gender fascists at Stonewall, which was originally established as a lesbian and gay rights charity, complained to Bailey’s chambers after she tweeted about the newly founded LGB alliance. They claimed that any trans member of staff that entered GCC would not just feel, but actually be in danger from this terrible TERF. 

It is far more dangerous to be an out lesbian than it is to be a gay man

Welcome to Stonewall’s World, in which, according to its report, LGBT in Britain: Hate Crime and Discrimination, there is barely a trans identified person in the UK who hasn’t either been murdered, attempted to kill themselves, been the victim of literal, actual violence [usually misgendering] or been beaten up on the street, presumably by radical feminists concerned about sex stereotypes. Stonewall pedals the idea that being trans identified in the UK today is more dangerous than being a heterosexual woman, despite the fact that every three days in the UK, a woman will die at the hands of her former or current male partner. Rates of rape and sexual assault of women and girls are off the scale, and sexual harassment in the workplace and on the streets is a daily fact of life for women everywhere.

And what about lesbians? Well, here’s the rub. No one currently knows the violence and threats they face, because the only time lesbians are mentioned in the Stonewall report, we are lumped in with gay men. This is despite the fact that, due to the toxic combination of anti-lesbian violence and misogyny, it is far more dangerous to be an out lesbian than it is to be a gay man. Conflating the two groups when looking at hate crime statistics is as sensible as looking at the combined alcohol content of wine and whisky. 

One key witness in the Bailey case is Kirrin Medcalf, head of Trans Inclusion at Stonewall. Medcalf, a transman, complained to GCC by email, referring to a number of perfectly reasonable tweets by Bailey in which she critiqued trans ideology and the erasure of lesbian identity. Medcalf claimed that “her actions… threatened the positive relationship that Stonewall and GCC have built with the trans community”, before going on to accuse Bailey of making trans people feel “unsafe” if they bumped into, or merely caught a glimpse of her while visiting GCC for meetings. “We need to ensure they would be safe from the claimant”, he had the nerve to say. 

When Medcalf was sworn in to give evidence, he asked to be accompanied not only by his solicitor, but also his support person, support dog and his mother. The hearing is not in person but conducted remotely. Medcalf was coddled and humoured whilst Bailey sat there alone, days after leaving hospital, fighting for her hard-won career and her dignity. She was subject to gruelling cross-examination over a period of days. While she was explaining to the court that she had received a number of death threats, someone (whose microphone was not muted) said, “Here we go again!” It could only have been a lawyer or the judge, but no one took responsibility for saying those cruel, callous words.

Police don’t seem to know the law on anti-trans ‘hate crime’

Stonewall appears to have convinced large numbers of people that danger to trans people is significantly more present than to any other community, which is how Medcalf came to be so convinced that a black lesbian posed a threat to white men masquerading as women. 

According to the Stonewall report, relied on by Medcalf in both his witness statement and direct evidence, “between January 2008 and September 2020, 3,664 murders of trans and gender-diverse people were registered worldwide. Ninety eight per cent of those killed were trans women. Between 1 October 2019 and 30 September 2020 alone, 350 murders of trans and gender-diverse people were registered”. The reality is that the large proportion of those murdered are in countries like Brazil, where most of the transwomen murdered are in prostitution. There has not been a single murder of a transwoman in the UK in recent years.

Stonewall believes that any action or use of words “which is perceived by the victim or any other person, to be motivated by hostility or prejudice” is a hate crime. Police don’t seem to know the law on anti-trans “hate crime”. Many have been visited by officers who received inane reports about tweets, such as one where I highlighted the ridiculousness of the non-binary, polyamorous, aromantic/asexual identitarians.

At the time Medcalf sent that email to GCC, accusing Bailey of being a danger to trans people, he had only been at Stonewall for a few weeks. No doubt Medcalf felt perfectly entitled to send such an outrageous, defamatory communication because of the stance taken by Stonewall that blocks debate and buoys up misogynistic trans ideology over and above the rights of lesbians. In exaggerating and even inventing out of thin air the levels of abuse and danger faced by trans people, and by positioning feminists as the enemy, Stonewall has allowed the likes of Medcalf to do a classic DARVO (deny, attack, reverse victim and offender) move. 

The feminist fix is to do what Allison Bailey, Maya Forstater and Raquel Rosario Sanchez have done, which is to refuse to accept transgender ideology, and to continue to push forward the feminist line. 

Stonewall has become a monster, doing nothing but harm to those it used to represent. Medcalf is merely one of its useful idiots.

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