With Friends Like Stonewall...

Sometimes I think I'm being a little unfair on Stonewall. Maybe I should give them a break; cut them some slack. Then they provide me a reminder for why I shouldn't and why I despair at a bunch of well meaning folks who have simply well and truly lost touch with the people they supposedly represent.

It seems that Ben Summerskill has spoken at a fringe meeting during the Lib Dem conference in Liverpool and come out against gay marriage. "Why" I hear you ask? Is it a careful appraisal of the issues? A complex analysis drawing upon queer and feminist arguments? Noooo. It's because it would cost too much. Now then, Summerskill is apparently denying this version of events but Pink News is standing by their story (and as I wasn't there I can only go off the bloggers, tweeters and reporters who were there).

What I find particularly powerful is regardless of whether it did or did not happen. It is believable. It is believable that the political giant that is Stonewall could argue against gay marriage. I don't react "oh no, that report is wrong". I react "here they go again". That alone should be an indicator of how completely lost Stonewall seem to be these days. As I've said, this is not to say they don't do some great work - they do. Yet, they also seem to have lost touch with the people they represent.

Read the Pink news story here.

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