We were proud to launch LGB Christians at the third LGB Alliance Conference on 27th October 2023 with a stall, one among many, in the busy conference lobby at The Queen Elizabeth II Centre in Westminster.
A few days earlier we released a press release and unveiled our website, with a mailing to nearly 500 people. Our X/Twitter account was unveiled at the same time and has so far generated 41,300 impressions, and helped boost supporters by 200 new contacts.
The first blog post on the website by Revd Lorenzo Fernandez-Smal is a powerful first hand account of the challenges that LGB Christians seeks to address.
Even before the conference began we had received interest from popular sex-realist Youtuber, Barry Wall reading and commenting on extracts from Fr Lorenzo’s blog. We met Barry at the stall along with many others including Clive Simpson from The Queen’s Speech, a wonderfully informative and entertaining weekly podcast. It was exhilarating to meet people that we had previously only watched and listened to with great interest, entertainment and admiration from a distance.
Check out our montage of some visitors to our stall.
Alongside our stall were many dynamic organisations whose interests aligned with the LGB Alliance. Among these were Sex-Matters led by groundbreaking gender critical voices, Helen Joyce and Maya Forstater currently advocating against Modern Conversion Therapy. There were other encouraging new initiatives launched aiming to provide single sex spaces for LGB people including Jenny’s Bar and Adult Human Male.
Why LGB?
LGB Alliance conferences provide an important opportunity for LGB people holding firm to the importance of biological reality to meet face to face. This is important because for the rest of the year much activism is carried out over the internet: on Twitter, Youtube particularly.
The LGB Alliance came into existence because of the confusion between sexual orientation – what makes us lesbian, gay or bisexual – and issues relating to identity. LGB Alliance believes that these two areas are incompatible, and LGBTQI+ organisations which seek to represent both sexual orientation and identity cannot adequately represent LGB people.
LGB Alliance gives an example of this incompatibility.
In their new report “Don’t Call Me Queer” they ask:
‘How can LGBTQ+ organisations support a lesbian who wants her social event to be women only, and a male person who identifies as a woman and insists he must be allowed to attend”.
And LGB Alliance claim that “the needs and rights of same-sex attracted people are negatively impacted by the use of ‘Queer’ and ‘LGBTQ+’ because the gender-identity ideology they represent is inherently homophobic.” pg.2
LGB Christians share these concerns. We cannot represent the interests of gay, lesbian and bisexual Christians without clearly asserting that a gay man is a biological male and a lesbian is a biological female.
The various panel discussions illustrated the ways that gender identity ideology is impacting society, and on LGB people.
Schools
Harry Cooper and Steve Mastin featured in a discussion about schools. Harry provided insight as a secondary school teacher around the time that smartphones, Snapchat, Tick Tock appeared. Steve Mastin asked why the government had failed to provide guidance on dealing with these issues in schools.
Eileen Glallagher, OBE continued the schools discussion with a founder of PSHE Brighton to explore the impact of activist teachers in relation to safeguarding and how parents, school leaders and the staffroom can respond to prevent the medicalisation of gender-confused children.
More details of the schools discussion is provided in The Telegraph.
Conversion Therapy
Malcolm Clark led a discussion on conversion therapy. Dr Az Hakeem explained the flaws of the ‘affirmative’ approach, and stressed the importance of thinking and questioning why people come to the beliefs they have about themselves. Stephanie Davies-Arai from Transgender Trend stated that ‘The real conversion therapy today is medicalising and sterilising young gender nonconforming children.’
The post-lunch keynote speech came from Andrew Doyle, the author, political satirist and broadcaster. There was considerable warmth and respect for Andrew whose work on GB News had provided a space for gender critical voices.
Workplace
The session on the workplace included contributions from a founding public supporter of LGB Christians, Simon Fanshawe OBE and Richard Collumbell and Kate Grimes. Simon stressed the importance of avoiding binary positions, and that if employers allow a single perspective to dominate in the workplace, they will inevitably divide their workforce. Kate Grimes, a former Hospital Chief Executive spoke about the public sector equality duty and the need to foster good relations. She talked about employers taking one side on a political issue, and therefore silencing opposing voices and giving licence to other members of staff to engage in bullying and harassment. Richard Collumbell described working in the civil service, and the need for the gender critical SEEN (Sex Equality and Equity Network). He talked about LGBT staff networks being allowed a monopoly on speaking for lesbian and gay staff.
A question from the floor during the workplace session also stated the reality that LGB rights had not been won for all people and that LGB Christians still faced discrimination. It was a reminder to all conference attendees of the importance of LGB Christians’s work, with a welcome name-check from the panel.
Language
The final panel, ‘Why language matters in the fight for equality’ featured Holly Lawford-Smith, Andrew Doyle, Jo Bartosch, Jo Phoenix and LGB Alliance co-founder Bev Jackson.
The conference helped to confirm our belief in the role that LGB Christians will play in the battle against indiscriminate gender identity beliefs. We received considerable interest at the stall. People of all ages and backgrounds came, some Christians, some not, and some of other faiths. All showed goodwill. Hundreds of our first flyers were taken and new supporters enrolled.
Be Kind?
In a prevailing culture that demands for us to “be kind”, “A Question of Courage” – the title of the conference – called for a different, more noble virtue – one that provides room for truth and reality to be upheld. A conviction in the importance of biological reality had come at considerable personal cost to many at the conference. In spite of differences between people’s interests at the conference – not least between lesbians and gay men – there was a strong sense of compassion and togetherness between those attending. Let’s hope that our work, helping to clarify important distinctions between sexual orientation and gender identity can help to restore compassion and build trust with our transgender siblings.
Huge thanks goes to all those at the LGB Alliance especially co founder Kate Harris for leading the proceedings and CEO, Kate Barker for the brilliant organisation and rousing final speech.
We will be at the 4th Conference next year.