Simon Callow, the actor and veteran gay rights campaigner, has condemned the “strange turn to the tyrannical” taken by Stonewall on self-identification for transgender people.
Callow, who was involved in the anti-government protests that led to the foundation of Stonewall in 1989, said an “extraordinarily unproductive militancy” now surrounded its position. This uncompromising mood risked infringing women’s rights and could put pressure on young gay people to transition, he said, and it was a sign of the times that he felt nervous about the reaction he would stir up, simply for expressing his views.
“I shouldn’t have to fear in that way,” he said. “This is just tyranny and that’s what we’ve fought against all our lives, people saying, ‘this cannot be discussed’. Yes, it can be discussed. Everything can be discussed. I’ve always been perfectly prepared to discuss homosexuality with anyone on reasonable terms. I can form a conclusion about a person’s attitudes but I don’t for one second think they shouldn’t have them.”
Callow, 72, who is best known for his role as Gareth in the 1994 film Four Weddings and a Funeral, is in Edinburgh with a show about being an actor. His stage and screen career began in the city in 1973 and he has frequently returned with international festival and fringe productions.
In 1988, he was one of the most outspoken critics of Section 28 of Margaret Thatcher’s Local Government Act, which threatened regional theatres with prosecution if they staged plays that “promoted homosexuality”.
The next year Stonewall formed around a group including Simon Fanshawe, who quit the charity after 30 years, attacking its “intransigence” over self identification. This position, Fanshawe said, would mean that anyone “who self-IDs as the opposite sex could no longer be prevented from entering a woman-only space such as a refuge, changing room or dormitory”.
Callow agreed with Fanshawe. He went on: “They have taken a very strange turn towards the tyrannical, a dangerously prescriptive position on a complex issue. When it impinges on women’s rights, hard-won women’s rights, the right to exclusive spaces for women, away from any threat at all — I think that’s a very serious issue.
“The whole issue of when children can be deemed to know whether it’s time for them to transition, if they’re going to transition [is complex]. Obviously we know there are a number of cases of people who have regretted it deeply. The most dangerous thing is that it may well be that they are just gay and they’re being somehow lured into thinking that they are obviously in the wrong gender, which is not the case. It has created oppositions which should not be there at all.”
Stonewall has been accused of using a workplace equality scheme to “coerce” publicly funded organisations and companies to lobby for changes to the law. In June, The Times showed how the charity used its Top 100 Employers list to reward public sector organisations if they brought their policies in line with Stonewall’s agenda, including its contentious view on gender identity, but it dropped those that did not.
Stonewall said: ”We are working towards a world in which all lesbian, gay, bi, trans and queer people are able to thrive as themselves. We’re very proud of our work towards trans equality, as well as our work for all lesbian, gay, bi and queer people. From LGBTQ+ inclusive education to equity in healthcare, our work helps all LGBTQ+ people.”
•Simon Callow: Being An Actor – 50 Years On, shedinburgh.com
