By Jo Bartosch
Inclusion policies are fast burning a hole in corporate pockets. The blaze was ignited five years ago when lesbian barrister Allison Bailey took her own chambers, Garden Court Chambers (GCC), to an employment tribunal for punishing her over the outrageous assertion that lesbians are, in fact, female. GCC, on the advice of lobby group Stonewall, deemed her refusal to accept that straight men could be lesbians as transphobic. She won aggravated damages.
Fast forward to today, and the inferno is spreading. Organisations that once brandished their #BeKind credentials are feeling the heat. From the civil service to universities, staff are rejecting policies that let men waltz into women’s spaces and straight people commandeer gay groups. The cost isn’t just astronomical legal fees—it’s the lasting reputational damage suffered by brands and institutions that really should have known better.
So here we are. Pronoun badges gathering dust in stationery cupboards, employees finding their voices, and HR departments nervously wondering how to extricate themselves from this mess without admitting they were duped. The question now is: what’s next?
Some businesses might take the Elon Musk approach—slash DEI roles, fire the consultants, and demand accountability. As head of DOGE the tech titan drained the activist swamp and exposed DEI for what it was—a corporate guilt-driven parasite feasting on fear and enforcing conformity. He’s torched the lot.
For those who lack Musk’s appetite for public confrontation, there’s always the more British Stephen Fry shuffle: retreat, recalibrate, and pretend you were never fully on board with the madness to begin with. The ‘national treasure’ has been quietly edging away from Stonewall, a charity he once championed. As with businesses, Fry is no doubt aware that continued association with trans activism could leave an indelible stain on his personal brand. Fry is not alone. With headlines warning of rapists housed in female prisons and males winning women’s sporting trophies, luvvies who once parroted ‘trans women are women’ are now furiously backpedalling.
But here’s the snag: businesses spent years branding their own employees as bigots for simply asking questions. Controversial ideologies have been woven into corporate DNA; reputations, roles, and even identities now hinge on DEI orthodoxy. And yet, doubling down on policies that erase same-sex attraction and women’s rights is no longer viable.
Dan James Smith, a communications consultant and co-chair of the LGB Alliance Business Forum, has seen the fallout within his own industry as brands from the BBC to Channel 4 quietly distance themselves from Stonewall.
“Many big names are waking up to the perils of taking advice from lobby groups that potentially misrepresent the law,” he says.
“I expect buyers’ remorse will come thick and fast in 2025, as firms realise they’ve been had by lobbyists and unqualified chancers from LinkedIn. Leaders will be left cleaning up the mess—just look at NHS Fife, where potentially duff advice has led to a costly tribunal and enormous reputational damage that speaks volumes about its workplace culture.”
Corporate leaders now face a choice. Own up, cut ties with the ideologues, and start rebuilding trust—or keep up the charade and hope no one notices the glaring hypocrisy. The longer they wait, the greater the legal and financial perils become.
Consumers and employees alike are waking up, and businesses that fail to course-correct risk becoming cautionary tales. Either way, the era of unquestioned DEI dominance is over. The reckoning is here.