Stonewall has defended its work with public bodies after a health minister said that the charity should not be allowed to write gender policies for NHS organisations.
The health minister Will Quince said on Tuesday that NHS trusts should develop their own policies “without the help of organisations like Stonewall”, claiming that there was a danger of “ideology” coming before the concerns of patients and staff.
His comments come after it was reported that Stonewall, the UK’s largest LGBTQ+ charity, had helped to draw up gender policies at about 30 NHS trusts.
The charity has been at the centre of a number of controversies linked – directly or indirectly – to its position on trans rights but it has also increasingly become a target for conservative media outlets and Tory MPs seeking to leverage so-called “culture war” issues.
Asked if the organisation should be involved in writing policies for NHS bodies, Quince said in an interview with Times Radio on Tuesday: “So in my view, no.
“Ultimately, this is an operational decision for individual trusts and NHS England but I would like to see those policies actually being written by trusts, having spoken with both staff and patients of those trusts.”
Asked if the government had powers to intervene, Quince said it would have to pass legislation, but he added: “I would just gently say to trusts that they shouldn’t ever be putting ideology ahead of the views and concerns of patients, and indeed their own staff.”
When Quince was told it was the case that people who were temporarily identifying as women could access female-only wards in some NHS trusts in England, he replied: “Well, it shouldn’t be.”
A spokesperson for Stonewall said: “As the UK’s largest LGBTQ+ charity, it is appropriate that we work with a wide range of public bodies to help them understand and meet the needs of lesbian, gay, bi and trans people who rely on their services.”
“In particular, trans people experience extensive discrimination in general healthcare, and waiting times for specialist services are often in excess of five years. It is vital that health services work with expert groups and trans people to improve those services. Rather than dismissing them as an ‘ideology’ – an assertion that flies in the face of human rights and global medical consensus.”
The right to change one’s legal gender was established in the UK in the 2004 Gender Recognition Act but it was in 2015 that Stonewall announced that it would work for trans equality and apologised for its past failure to do so.
In recent years bodies including the BBC and the Equality and Human Rights Commission have quit or opted not to renew their association with a diversity programme run by Stonewall.
