The British Left’s dream of an intersectional alliance took a further battering when the London Stonewall conference was picketed by ‘pro-Palestine’ demonstrators. The protest, on Thursday, May 8th, centred upon the slogan “From Bricks to Bombs: Arms Embargo Now!,” telling delegates, “You can’t pinkwash colonialism.”
Such anger has been on show since the LGB (and, more controversially, T) charity made public its acceptance of arms industry funding, prompting criticism going back to at least November last year. Whereas there has been some verbal conflict between Muslim and ‘queer’ contingents on London’s regular ‘pro-Palestine’ marches, the demonstration outside the Stonewall conference brought this out into the open.
It may also surprise some observers to see the arms trade funding Stonewall, unless they recall how, in recent years, the charity has been running a protection racket. This takes the form of a league table of LGBT-friendly workplaces, where poor performers could then pay Stonewall to come in and advise on how to get a better rating. Such advice on trans issues was found to misinterpret the law, as revealed in the Cass Report on the failings of the main English ‘gender clinic.’
If it looked like the writing was on the wall for Stonewall in its parasitic institutional relationships, close proximity to London’s antisemitic Gaza protesters was probably ill-advised—not least since the first demonstrations were being planned during the October 7th pogrom.
In a recent interview, veteran gay rights campaigner Don Milligan looked back on what his own generation achieved in the fight for gay and lesbian equality in the late 20th century. He suggested that with equal treatment for homosexuals in hand, it was time for Stonewall to shut up shop—or maybe focus the campaigning on less tolerant countries overseas. Instead, there has been a catastrophic focus on ‘trans rights’—and some overlap with those who ultimately hate the charity and its alleged ‘pinkwashing’ of Israel.
