ACON’s Pride in Diversity and Australian Workplace Equality Index (AWEI) were established with the assistance of Stonewall. They are modelled on Stonewall UK’s Diversity Champions Scheme and Workplace Equality Index.

Australian Federal Police also played a critical role in the development of the Australian Workplace Equality Index, it was through their generous support that we were able to bring Stonewall UK out once again to assist with the localisation of the index methodology and to train our staff in its application.

AWEI 5 year review

There are similar schemes in operation globally. The aim and structure of the AWEI are echoed in these schemes, and it is obvious that these bodies coordinate internationally.

The Pride in Diversity website recognises international parters in 6 countries:

  • Diversity Champions (Stonewall UK)
  • Out & Equal (US)
  • Community Business (Hong Kong)
  • Oogachaga (Singapore)
  • Pride at Work (Canada)
  • GLEN (Ireland)

United Kingdom

Stonewall UK experienced some controversy in 2021. It was the subject of an investigative report by a BBC journalist, amid a raft of high-profile organisations exiting the Diversity Champions Scheme. In 2022, Allison Bailey, a black lesbian barrister, sued Stonewall for the advice it gave to her employer regarding her treatment.

Nolan Investigates Stonewall

Nolan Investigates Stonewall is a radio series by Northern Irish journalist Stephen Nolan. Nolan’s team obtained documents under Freedom of Information provisions, and followed up by interviewing key players at the BBC, other media and political figures. The 10 part radio series was nominated for 4 Radio Academy awards.

The relationship between Stonewall and the BBC in the UK is similar to the relationship between ACON and our ABC in Australia. Just like the BBC, the ABC in Australia:

  • Lends talent pro bono to promote ACON’s agenda
  • Adopts ACON’s preferred language
  • Adopts ACON’s people management practices around hiring and leave
  • Follows ACON’s suggestions for facilities management including provision of toilets
  • Promotes ACON-approved days of significance internally and externally
  • Uses its media footprint to put forward ACON’s agenda, including during children’s shows, and more.

Australia should take note of the situation Stonewall is in.

UK Organisations Abandon Stonewall

An editorial titled “Why are employers leaving Stonewall’s diversity programme?” in People Management magazine notes that “Stonewall has also been accused of giving advice that misinterprets the Equality Act 2010”. It names Stonewall’s practice of bigoteering to shut down debate as a factor.

Update

20 June 2022 – Department for Work and Pensions abandons Stonewall diversity plan

Allison Bailey Sues Stonewall

As of 8 May 2022, Allison Bailey is giving testimony in her lawsuit against Stonewall UK. Bailey is a black, lesbian woman, who attained the professional rank of QC.

Bailey alleges that her chambers bowed to pressure from Stonewall to discipline her after she tweeted about her non-belief in gender identity ideology. What follows is a key extract from her testimony.

Ms Bailey replied: ‘Once we had signed up as an organisation to Stonewall’s Diversity Champions scheme, all of the chambers were being induced to follow the objectives of Stonewall.

‘The focus of all of them is to advance a policy position on trans rights and gender identity that go way beyond the law.

‘In the UK, with the exception of [Northern] Ireland, LGBTQ equality at law has been achieved, what hasn’t been achieved is gender identity.’

She added: ‘Stonewall is a very powerful organisation and it can confer protection or it can take it away.

‘The inducement that Stonewall offers with its scheme is reputational protection or reputational harm, it’s like a criminal protection racket.’

Allison Bailey, testimony quoted in the Daily Mail

Allison Bailey is a professional barrister who has staked her reputation on calling out Stonewall as being unfit for purpose.

Other International Schemes

ACON recognises a number of sister schemes internationally. The front page of the Australian Workplace Equality Index asks if the organisation participates in any of these benchmarks:

This is a different list to the international partners list above.

USA – Human Rights Campaign

In the USA, the Human Rights Campaign (HRC) sounds like a broad social justice movement. However its mission is narrowly focused on members of “the LGBTQ+ family”. The corporate sponsors list for the HRC is eye-watering: Microsoft, Apple, Google, Pfizer, Target, Intel, Cocoa-Cola, among many, many others. This is a rich and influential movement.

The HRC Corporate Equity Index is a stripped-down version of the AWEI, but has similar features. There is a dedicated section on transgender rights, and a 25 point deduction for any “anti-LGBTQ blemish” such as allowing any forces to undermine HRC’s proposed policies and practices. This could include, for example, taking on board the concerns of a female lobby group about self-id.

Links to Dentons and ‘That Document’

Denton’s Australia is a “small gold employer” in the AWEI, yet self-described as “the world’s largest law firm” with over 200 offices globally.

There is a document known colloquially as The Denton’s Document. It is a report with the more formal title “Only Adults? Good Practices in Legal Gender Recognition for Youth; A Report on the Current State of Laws and NGO Advocacy in Eight Countries in Europe, With a Focus on Rights of Young People; November 2019“. The report was commissioned by Dutch NGO named IGLYO and Thompson-Reuters, and prepared by Denton’s.

The Denton’s Document analyses “good practices” for NGO advocacy to attain gender recognition for youth across 8 countries: Norway, Malta, Belgium, Denmark, France, Ireland, Portugal, United Kingdom.

Advice spans from the benign (‘use case studies of real people’) to the diabolical:

  • Target youth politicians who will empathise with youth and appear to be “on the right side of history”
  • De-medicalise the campaign; reasoning that people are reluctant to allow minors to undertake irreversible surgeries.
  • Tie your campaign to more popular reform; “in Ireland, where marriage equality was strongly supported, but gender identity remained a more difficult issue to win public support for”
  • Avoid excessive press coverage; “in Norway, campaigners developed strong ties with youth politicians, who then presented to the senior members of their parties”
  • Be wary of compromise; “it might take years to revise the legislation to render it more favourable to trans youth”

The Denton’s Document defines “good” practices as including:

  • Abolish minimum age for transgender treatment
  • Recognise change of legal sex as a right (rather than an administrative record of factual information)
  • Make gender transition “self-defined, quick, transparent, accessible“
  • Not registering sex at birth, but allowing individuals to wait until they are 18
  • Gender treatment is fully reimbursable by the government
  • No medical requirement (diagnosis or treatment) for changing gender
  • Removal of parental safeguards; “It is recognised that the requirement for parental consent or the consent of a legal guardian can be restrictive and problematic for minors.”

The methodology of the AWEI aligns with the approach outlined in the Denton’s document. Avoid excessive media coverage (or lose 25 points), use lobbying and influence, de-medicalise the issue, take a rights-based approach and enter via the back door.

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Last updated on June 20, 2022