Donald Trump’s international assist clampdown may power controversial LGBTQ+ charity Stonewall to ‘reduce half of its employees’

British charity Stonewall could be forced to cut half of its staff after Donald Trump axed its foreign aid support, it has been reported.

The controversial LGBTQ+ lobbying group was told on Thursday that only roles with dedicated funding would remain following a ‘restructuring’ of the charity. 

The news was broken to Stonewall’s 114 ‘shellshocked’ staff by the organisation’s chief executive, Simon Blake, during an office-wide Teams call, reports The Times.   

Insiders told the newspaper that up to 50 per cent of the charity’s staff were now in the firing line, with the move being blamed on Mr Trump’s decision to axe foreign aid.

American funding to Stonewall came through the Global Equality Fund (GEF), which focuses on ‘advancing LGBTI rights around the world’ and is administered by the US state department.

Over the past three years, the US has provided Stonewall with more than half a million pound of aid.

However, Mr Trump has sought to clampdown on the cash being supplied to trans rights groups, as part of the US President’s crackdown against the ideological movement.

Mr Blake previously warned Trump’s decision would hit Stonewall’s work in eastern Europe and the Caucasus, where it ‘supports communities and law enforcement agencies to respond to anti-LGBTQ+ violence, often providing vital services to victims’. 

News of the reported cuts to Stonewall comes after it was revealed the group was becoming increasingly more reliant on taxpayers’ money as its overall finances suffer, prompting calls for public bodies to end their support for it

The group reported a deficit of more than £800,000 as its income fell while it was forced to use up half of its reserves, new accounts show.

Yet the amount the charity received in grants from public bodies increased, taking the total to more than £600,000, despite many severing their links with its controversial diversity ratings schemes.

Women’s rights campaigners said the turmoil at Stonewall showed it was wrong to have taken such a hardline approach to trans rights, which included trying to get Britain’s Equality and Human Rights Commission watchdog reprimanded for its support of single-sex spaces. 

John O’Connell, chief executive of the TaxPayers’ Alliance, said: ‘Taxpayers will be shocked that the state is effectively paying to prop up a charity that has gone increasingly rogue in its agenda.

‘For years Stonewall has been attempting to drag swathes of the public sector into uncharted waters which most of the British public want to go nowhere near, yet it’s been receiving taxpayers’ money to further its demands.

‘There needs to be far stricter rules about taxpayer-funding of charities who also engage in political lobbying.’

Stonewall’s annual report for 2023/24 admits it has endured ‘challenging operating conditions’ and incurred a deficit of £858,461, up from £574,269.

Its income fell from £7.7m the previous year to £6.9m while expenditure also dropped to £7.7m from £8.3m. Total reserves fell from £1.8m to just £998,173.

Money from donations and wills fell from £1.8m to £1.4m while fee income including from its Diversity Champions schemes dropped from £2.9m to £2.4m.

The report says ‘more than 200 schools and colleges’ were signed up to its programme for education which tells teachers to stop calling pupils boys and girls as part of efforts to make classrooms gender-neutral. But the previous year’s report put the figure at over 300.

Yet it also reveals that ‘total income from Government sources’ stood at £618,757, up from £572,868 the previous year.

Grants included £151,840 from the Foreign Office, £106,505 from the Scottish Government, £100,000 from the Welsh Government and £34,328 from Arts Council Wales.

Stonewall also got £233,583 from the Global Equality Fund run by the US State Department.

Stonewall was founded in 1989 by a small group of people who had been active in the struggle against the notorious Section 28 of the Local Government Act, which banned the ‘promotion’ of homosexuality. 

It grew into a powerful body advancing the cause of equality for disenfranchised groups.

Its campaign for equal rights helped to bring about the Civil Partnership Act of 2004, which allowed same-sex unions to be officially recognised for the first time and helped pave the way for gay marriage in 2014. Stonewall also secured the equalisation of the age of consent, lifted the ban on gay people serving in the military and secured legislation allowing same-sex couples to adopt.

In recent years, however – and in particular since 2015, when the charity extended its remit from fighting for the rights of gay and bisexual people to cover trans people – its fight has pivoted to more ideological territory.

And no more so than when it comes to gender identity, which disregards the immutability of biological sex to suggest that the gender a person ‘believes’ themselves to be is more important – and possibly different from the sex they were ‘assigned’ at birth.

The charity become a powerful political force for change, lobbying on more radical views on trans rights, as well as continuing to support other LGBTQ+ issues.  

But in 2021, it seemed as though Stonewall’s relentless march to conquer Britain’s public bodies had been halted.

Following a 10-part podcast by BBC broadcaster Stephen Nolan and his producer David Thompson, called Nolan Investigates: Stonewall, as well as a raft of negative press coverage, the precise nature of Stonewall’s dogmatic campaigning was laid bare.

In the ensuing furore, the BBC and Ofcom pulled out of the charity’s programme. The same year, Liz Truss, then the equalities minister, called for all government departments to withdraw. MP Miriam Cates wrote in 2022: ‘Stonewall’s decline now appears to be rapid and terminal.’

MailOnline has approached Stonewall about the redundancy claims, following the reported cutting of US aid. 

Speaking of the funding cuts, the charity previously said: ‘Many will be rightly fearful of the impact the US Government’s decision to suspend foreign aid will have, including for programmes supporting LGBTQ+ communities around the world. 

‘This latest decision signals a further rollback of rights and support for marginalised groups by the new administration and its impact will be detrimental to communities living in extremely challenging circumstances and environments across the globe. 

‘Stonewall’s work in eastern Europe and the Caucasus is enabled by many funders, including the US Government, and supports communities and law enforcement agencies to respond to anti-LGBTQ+ violence, often providing vital services to victims. 

‘Programmes like this are crucial given the anti-LGBTQ+ laws and rhetoric being increasingly enforced in the region, but they need continued and committed support and funding to succeed. 

‘We are working hard with our partners to mitigate the impact of the US government’s decision and ensure that the communities and individuals we support aren’t also victims of a political agenda thousands of miles away.’