By Kate Barker, CEO, LGB Alliance
As Margot James MP famously said, “if you don’t like the idea of gay marriage, don’t marry a gay person.” Showing, rather neatly, that the advances LGB people have sought have never been at the expense of the rights of others.
In fact, it’s clear that lesbians, gay men and bisexuals have a pretty good track record of driving social changes that – as it turned out – were actually good for everyone.
It’s an approach that has served us well.
It’s no longer illegal to be gay in the Armed Services and LGB people cannot be dismissed from any job simply for being homosexual. Gay parents receive the same parental leave as their straight colleagues. Homophobic bullying that was once dismissed as ‘banter’ is taken seriously and tackled. In 2024, thanks to the work of Professor Robert Wintemute, an LGB Alliance Trustee, the last piece of discriminatory pensions’ legislation was dismantled.
Today’s workplace activists, who entreat women to ‘be kind’ when removing their rights, and imposing a strict ‘no debate’ dictat, are the polar opposite.
Their chutzpah is astonishing. And their ‘like it or lump it but, above all keep schtum’ approach has been disastrous for businesses; especially for leaders who have felt as coerced into extreme and unwelcome change as many of their own staff.
The LGB Alliance Business Forum will build on the gay rights’ tradition of facilitating reasoned argument and generating respectful and informed debate.
It will start from the position of supporting LGB people and protecting LGB rights in the workplace but will ask how fairness can benefit all.
Setting aside the competing demands of different groups – and many disgruntled staff members feel their concerns certainly have been set aside – we must first ask how we’ve got here.
We would say that listening is the first step towards improved morale because properly engaging with others is a radical notion in an age of polarisation and intolerance.
We’ve been listening to leaders and they want change.