Wednesday 30 May 2007

Stonewall are at it again

Stonewall's newly published "Living Together" report into British attitudes to lesbians and gay men is drawing lots of flak on one of the LGBT email lists I read, due to the lack of trans inclusion in their research.

Now, Stonewall are an LGB organisation not LGBT so to my mind it's quite right that covering trans in their reports, except incidentally, is not something any of us should expect. However, just as with their "Tuned Out" report last year, this is not an LGB document; it's a lesbian and gay one. The "b" word appears twice in one paragraph and that is all, which seems to me a missed opportunity given that (I suspect) perceptions of and attitudes towards bisexual people may well be different than those toward lesbians and gay men, and in particular may show marked gender differences.

Tuned Out at least noted in passing that Stonewall's media monitoring did not spot any representation of bisexuality at all. "Living Together" doesn't go that far, and just as with Tuned Out, in this report the recommendations are entirely in terms of lesbians and gay men.

Stonewall has developed a reputation in bi circles over many years as only including the "B" on the bit where they ask you for money. That's not entirely true: lobbying work from the bi community has got some bi content onto their website recently for example -- but they do seem to lapse back into LG terribly often.

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