A new group of senior lesbian, gay, and bisexual executives is fighting what it calls the “corruption of corporate equality, diversity and inclusion (EDI) programmes” by working with business leaders on re-establishing fair workplace policies.

The LGB Alliance Business Forum has been created in response to the “infiltration of businesses by groups promoting ‘equality index’ schemes”, a reference to the LGBTQ+ charity Stonewall

These schemes, said the LGB Alliance, misrepresent the law, encourage the replacement of women’s lavatories with gender-neutral facilities, and compel employees’ speech via enforced pronoun usage.

It said these initiatives have been particularly damaging for LGB workers who object to gender identity ideology, with many instances of employees being bullied or dismissed for stating their belief in biological sex.

“We believe EDI initiatives can be a force for good, but they have been corrupted by powerful lobby groups that present the law as they’d like it to be rather than how it actually is,” said Simon White from the Business Forum.

“Denying the right of LGB workers to state who they are, and smearing them as ‘genital fetishists’ for being same-sex attracted, turns workplaces into battlegrounds in the culture war. Worst of all, the internal staff networks which should stand up for LGB people have been co-opted by extremists focused on advancing a narrow, misogynistic, and homophobic interpretation of ‘trans rights’.”

The Business Forum will work with business leaders and HR departments to re-establish robust protections for freedom of speech and conscience, while sharing knowledge and best practice so that the rights of every lesbian, gay, and bisexual person in the workplace are protected.

The goal is not only to foster greater employee cohesion, but to protect businesses from expensive and reputationally-damaging litigation, such as Maya Forstater’s landmark case against her employers that established legal protection for gender-critical beliefs.

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Kate Barker, the LGB Alliance’s chief executive, said: “Fighting for diversity and inclusion is part of LGB people’s shared heritage, but these noble aims have been corrupted by the infiltration of ‘progressive’ lobby groups into the workplace.

“LGB Alliance Business Forum will play a crucial role in returning EDI to its founding principles, ensuring every business is a welcoming place for all staff, gay or straight, by supporting diversity of thought and rejecting divisive activist orthodoxy.”

LGB Alliance has described itself as the UK’s only registered charity “exclusively for same-sex attracted people”.

Led by senior LGB executives – including HR leaders – the Business Forum will also report on good and bad workplace EDI practices through an ambassador programme, which aims to place representatives within every UK business employing over 250 people. Ambassadors are eligible for special networking events and invitation-only webinars on employment law and relevant workplace regulations.

Over the past five years, the LGB Alliance says there has been a surge of employee complaints and lawsuits related to “corrupted workplace policies”. These range from individuals being disciplined or dismissed for expressing gender-critical views  – as was the case in Forstater v Center for Global Development – to guidelines that enable men who identify as women to access single-sex spaces such as toilets and changing rooms.

Last year, the independent Inclusion at Work panel, appointed by then women and equalities minister Kemi Badenoch, reported that many employers want to “do the right thing” but are implementing EDI initiatives without any evidence base, and do not evaluate their impact.

The LGB Alliance has been described as anti-trans, which it denies. It was formed in 2019 in response to Stonewall’s refusal to engage in debate about how sex and gender relate to LGB people. It was granted charitable status in 2021.

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