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Gender-critical gay rights groups unite against trans lobby

Newly formed LGB International says gay people are at risk of losing hard-won rights

 

Gender-critical gay rights groups are forming a global alliance to challenge transgender advocates.

On Saturday, the LGB Alliance relaunched as LGB International to declare its “independence from the LGBTQIA+ establishment” and to distance itself from the “legacy gay organisations which now focus entirely on transgender issues”.

The LGB Alliance was started in 2019 following a fallout and factionalism at Stonewall, Europe’s biggest LGBT rights organisation, after it was accused of promoting a “trans agenda” at the expense of gay and lesbian rights.

At the time, the LGB Alliance, which is made up of gender-critical lesbian, gay and bisexuals, said the point of forming a new organisation was to “counteract the confusion between sex and gender which is now widespread in the public sector and elsewhere”.

Speaking of the group’s relaunch, Frederick Schminke, the chairman of LGB International, which does not include transgender organisations, said: “We are launching this because the organisations that once represented gay people are now entirely devoted to ‘gender identity ideology’.

“We risk losing our hard-won rights, and as public support plummets, traditional LGBTQ+ organisations have barricaded themselves up against all reason, fostering an atmosphere where no dissenting views are tolerated.”

The launch of the new global organisation comes amid mounting friction between some LGB groups and the International Lesbian, Gay, Bisexal, Trans and Intersex Association (ILGA), which has been increasingly vocal in its support of trans issues in recent years.

Mr Schminke added that ILGA “no longer speaks for us”.

LGB International said it had member organisations in 18 countries, including Australia, Bulgaria, Taiwan and the US, and that the groups were inspired by the creation of LGB Alliance six years ago.

The group said it wanted to raise awareness of the 64 countries where homosexuality was still illegal, places where same-sex partnerships were not recognised in law and cases in which it believed that “gender identity ideology is undermining same-sex rights”.

It also wants “to fight the way that heterosexual men are defining themselves as lesbians and heterosexual women as gay men and demanding access to our spaces and bodies”.

‘Peddling victimhood’

Bev Jackson, the co-founder of LGB Alliance, added: “Gay men, lesbians and bisexuals are sick of seeing our movement, their language, and their rights stripped away. Organisations like ILGA that once championed LGB people now peddle victimhood. Meanwhile, LGB has been replaced by meaningless jumbles of letters like “SOGIESC” [sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, and sex characteristics].”

Responding to the launch of the new organisation, a spokesman for the Beaumont Society, the largest and longest-established transgender support group in the UK, said: “The emergence of yet more LGB isolationist and similar ‘sex-based’ advocacy groups such as this, represent the continuing efforts of well-funded groups with their own agenda to divide the LGBTQIA+ family, and this is now spreading beyond the USA and UK.

“This is a retrogressive step as it ignores the fact that all sections of the family intersect each other and that the history of
the fight for rights for all sections depended on the actions of all working in harmony.”

The row comes after the UK Supreme Court ruled in April 2025 that the legal definition of a woman is based on biological sex, rather than gender identity. The ruling has far-reaching implications for single-sex spaces and services.

Last week, the equalities watchdog submitted its formal guidance about how institutions should respond to the landmark ruling.

The Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) has handed the guidance to Bridget Phillipson, who, as well as being Education Secretary, is also minister for women and equalities, and she must decide whether to accept the recommendations of the watchdog.

Its interim advice, released in April, included guidance which said that trans women should not be permitted to use women’s facilities, and that schools must provide single-sex toilets for boys and girls over the age of eight.

The row also comes amid a number of high-profile cases in which lesbian and gay people with gender-critical beliefs have faced backlash for their views.

In March it was reported that police were forced to apologise over an investigation they mounted into a Newcastle United fan banned by the football club after expressing her gender-critical views on social media.

Northumbria Police told Linzi Smith that crucial elements of their investigation into claims she had committed a hate crime were not acceptable.

Ms Smith, who is gay and promotes lesbian, bisexual and women’s rights, was accused of being transphobic by a complainant who told the football club that trans people would not feel safe sitting near her.

In May it emerged that a gay volunteer was banned from a railway group after expressing his gender-critical views on email and social media.

Matthew Toomer, 48, was thrown out of West Midlands Railway’s (WMR) adopt a station scheme after he privately contacted company bosses to express concern about its “Progress Pride” train.

In response, he was summoned to a meeting and told that his views “do not align with [WMR’s] values and mission”. He was banned from the Redditch station volunteer group.

He spoke out, saying: “The Progress Pride flag has become associated with particular ideological stances – particularly around gender – which not everyone, including many within the LGB community, fully endorse.”

In response to the LGB International launch, a spokesperson for ILGA-Europe said: “ILGA is a global family of thousands of independent organisations – more than 700 in our region alone – working together to advance the rights of all LGBTI people.

“Our movement is built on a simple truth: the freedoms we share, such as the rights to private and family life, bodily autonomy, freedom from discrimination, and self-determination, are strongest when we defend them collectively. None of us will be free until all of us are free.

“As an organisation working for almost 30 years to advance, protect and defend human rights, ensuring everyone’s rights – including those of women, migrants, racialised groups, and others – are upheld has always been strong and a fundamental principle.

“Building coalitions that reflect the diversity of our communities are the cornerstones of real progression. Division only weakens the advancements we have already made, while collaboration across groups with different needs is the path to lasting change for all, not just for some.”

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/gift/9c8b2057c4a6d15a