Two of Britain’s most tiresome and least self-aware campaigns have teamed up in yet another attempt to bring down the right-leaning broadcaster GB News. They now claim that the station poses a threat to the LGBT community.
Defeat-prone legal grift the Good Law Project, headed by self-beclowning King’s Counsel Jolyon Maugham is new to this particular racket, which seeks to starve the TV channel/radio station of advertising revenue. Long-term users of his censorious tactic can be found at the grotesquely misnamed campaign group Stop Funding Hate, which hates GB News so much it was campaigning to defund it before a single programme had aired.
Backed by the usual appeals for more funds, the campaign this time takes the form of asking advertisers to “Pick a Side—Hate or Pride?” It alleges that the channel is (uniquely) hateful toward LGBT people and therefore corporate support for Pride events is incompatible with advertising on GB News. Both campaigns run websites with template messages allowing their supporters to protest via email, spamming companies running ads on the station. Stop Funding Hate has encouraged supporters to run to the official communications regulator Ofcom like a school snitch to complain about content on such shows as Farage and late-night newspaper review Headliners—before citing the fruits of this activity as proof that advertisers should pull out.
In reality, and in compliance with Ofcom, GB News has to structure its content to meet impartiality guidelines. It has also had various homosexuals on the roster of presenters, pundits, and guests since its launch in June 2021. Some shows, including the weekly Free Speech Nation, have given extensive coverage to an ‘LGB without the T’ perspective, explaining how gay rights are a separate issue from trans ideology.
Supporters of “Pick a Side—Hate or Pride?” should be careful what they wish for. Following the Supreme Court ruling that sex is defined as biological for the purposes of the Equality Act (2010), the corporate world has become increasingly divided. Cosmetics firm Lush withdrew from its partnership with Download Festival because the latter was observing the law on single-sex toilets. In contrast, Pride in Liverpool forced its own cancellation by cutting ties with Barclays because the bank started following current legal guidance on single-sex spaces.
In related hate news, last month Jewish “LGBT+” charity KeshetUK withdrew from the 2025 Pride in London march, expressing fears for participants’ safety amid a growing threat from antisemitism. No comment on this yet from the Good Law Project or, er, Stop Funding Hate.
