The gay rights organization LGB Alliance was created to “promote transphobic activity rather than pro-LGB activities”, the head of the Consortium, an umbrella group of LGBT organisations, told a court on Monday.
In the first full day of hearings in transgender rights charity Mermaids’ appeal against the Charity Commission’s decision to grant charity status to the LGB Alliance, Paul Roberts, the chief executive of Consortium, said LGB Alliance was created to pursue an anti-trans fight. schedule
In cross-examination, Akua Reindorf QC, for the LGB Alliance, repeatedly questioned whether the transphobic label was merited, arguing that there were areas where lesbian, gay and bisexual rights might not be aligned with the rights of trans people, which justified the creation. from a separate charity.
The day’s hearing in the General Regulation Room explored the line between transphobia and the campaign for separate lesbian, gay and bisexual rights.
The questions focused on several controversial areas of LGBTQ+ rights. The changing definition of sexual orientation was discussed at the start of the hearing. The definition given by the country’s largest LGBTQ+ organization, Stonewall, has changed over the past decade from “same-sex attraction” to “same-sex attraction”; LGB Alliance says it was founded to defend the rights of people who are attracted to the same sex.
Reindorf asked Roberts, “Do you think it’s transphobic to say that a person with a female body can’t be a gay man?” Roberts replied, “Yes.”
Reindorf asked whether being attracted to people of the same gender was “a qualitatively different thing” than being attracted to people of the same sex. “I don’t think we live in such a clear, binary way,” Roberts replied.
Reindorf also highlighted concerns raised by the LGB Alliance that some children who have been referred to gender identity services may have passed out as gay but were offered puberty blockers as treatment for gender dysphoria .
He cited media interviews with staff at Tavistock’s gender clinic warning that possible same-sex attraction was being ignored and noted that some doctors had said that sending children who might be gay down the road to reassign it felt like “conversion therapy.”
Roberts said there were “elements of transphobia” in that position.
Roberts was asked about questions raised in Hilary Cass’s review of gender identity services for children and young people about the 4,400% increase in the number of young girls, a disproportionately high percentage of whom were attracted by people of the same sex, who were referred to the service.
“There seems to be an extraordinary sudden increase in girls who are attracted to people of the same sex who identify as men and who seek a medical route. If this is happening, then it is not a matter of great concern for an organization that promotes LGBT rights? asked Reindorf. Roberts said he was not an expert in the area, but added that in his day-to-day work he saw “a lot of trans youth and a lot of trans adults living healthy lives, and that wouldn’t reflect their experiences “.
Roberts was also asked to address whether lesbians should be denied membership on lesbian dating sites if they say they would refuse to date trans women, and to say whether she agreed with the comments made by Nancy Kelley, the executive director of Stonewall, that not wanting to date trans people was “sexual racism.”
He said no one should be forced to have sex with someone against their will.
In 2020, the Consortium refused to admit LGB Alliance to its umbrella group of organisations, of which Mermaids is a member. In outline arguments released on Monday, Mermaids said it would argue that the LGB Alliance was “not dealing with the issues facing lesbian, gay and bisexual people, but rather seeks to prevent the resolution of issues facing transgender people”.
In its skeleton arguments, the LGB Alliance said the call was ideologically motivated, stemming from a “deep disagreement with the LGB Alliance’s approach to the promotion and protection of LGB rights”.
It is understood to be the first time a charity has tried to strip another of its legal status. The hearing will last until Friday.