London Daily

Focus on the big picture.
Tuesday, Oct 07, 2025

Britons puzzled how dropping word 'mother' from policy doc made Scotland a darling of top LGBT+ group whose own site uses the word

Britons puzzled how dropping word 'mother' from policy doc made Scotland a darling of top LGBT+ group whose own site uses the word

The pro-LGBT+ advocacy group Stonewall reportedly bumped the Government of Scotland up its controversial Diversity Champions list after it dropped the word 'mother' from its maternity-leave policy, and some people are puzzled.

The influence of Stonewall, the powerful British LGBT+ charity, was the focus of an investigation by BBC reporter Stephen Nolan, who released his findings in a series of podcasts last week. One particular detail has caught the public attention after being highlighted by some media outlets. To be in the good graces of the group, a government needs to erase motherhood – or at least not use the word 'mother' in documents even as relevant as a state maternity-leave policy.

According to Nolan, that's how the Scottish government managed to "score points" with Stonewall. The gendered word got excluded from the documents in favour of the more inclusive terms like "spouse" or "partner." The move is presumably supposed to make the policy more friendly to trans people, who retain capacity for child birthing while identifying as male, and to non-binary persons.

The news angered many readers, who took it as one of many attacks on femininity by trans rights activists. One woman said there would be "consequences" for anyone who would dare call her anything but a mother. Another commenter said the aggressive push of non-gendered terms into the English language was making it "turned upside down to the point of being offensive to the majority."



Some people were perplexed as to why 'demothering' a government guideline would be viewed as progress by Stonewall. After all, its Scottish chapter doesn't shy away from the word "mother" when describing the benefits that young parents are entitled to.


In his podcasts, Nolan argued how Stonewall exerted undue influence on politics in the UK, while ironically receiving public money to champion its causes. One of the main tools it uses is the Diversity Champions list, which ranks employers according to their endorsement of minority rights, as decided by Stonewall experts. The Scottish government made it to the top-100 in 2019, below organizations like the British Army, MI5 and the Welsh government.


The latter made similar adjustments to the wording of Wales' maternity and adoption policy, compared to the 2018 version, though oddly the word "father" was kept in it. The 2019 variant stressed that gendered terms "should be taken as applying equally to trans or non-binary parents."

Nolan's exposé was dismissed by defenders of Stonewall as a bigoted attack on a charity that has decades of proud history of promoting minority rights. Human rights campaigner Peter Tatchell said it was a continuation of a "sustained attack" by a small minority of transphobic individuals.

"The current hue and cry against Stonewall has a whiff of conscious or subconscious bias," he told the morning newspaper i. "Similar criticism would not dare be made about organisations challenging racism and anti-Semitism. This dispute is a manufactured culture war that is doing the whole LGBT+ community great harm. We feel under attack."

If true, one of Stonewall's own founders, Matthew Parris, is part of that vocal minority. In a May column in The Times, he said the advocacy group had been "cornered into an extremist stance" on trans rights. Nancy Kelly, the current head of Stonewall, responded that she was "comfortable" with the direction of the organisation and likened critics to Jew-haters.

"With all beliefs including controversial beliefs there is a right to express those beliefs publicly and where they're harmful or damaging – whether it's anti-Semitic beliefs, gender critical beliefs, beliefs about disability – we have legal systems that are put in place for people who are harmed by that," she said at the time.

Stonewall and its allies insist that their current fight for trans rights is no different from the fight for gay rights decades ago. The charity started championing trans rights in 2015.

Newsletter

Related Articles

0:00
0:00
Close
Three Scientists Awarded Nobel Prize in Medicine for Discovery of Immune Self-Tolerance Mechanism
OpenAI and AMD Forge Landmark AI-Chip Alliance with Equity Option
Munich Airport Reopens After Second Drone Shutdown
France Names New Government Amid Political Crisis
Trump Stands Firm in Shutdown Showdown and Declares War on Drug Cartels — Turning Crisis into Opportunity
Surge of U.S. Billionaires Transforms London’s Peninsula Apartments into Ultra-Luxury Stronghold
Pro Europe and Anti-War Babiš Poised to Return to Power After Czech Parliamentary Vote
Jeff Bezos Calls AI Surge a ‘Good’ Bubble, Urges Focus on Lasting Innovation
Japan’s Ruling Party Chooses Sanae Takaichi, Clearing Path to First Female Prime Minister
Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs Sentenced to Fifty Months in Prison Following Prostitution Conviction
Taylor Swift’s ‘Showgirl’ Launch Extends Billion-Dollar Empire
Trump Administration Launches “TrumpRx” Plan to Enable Direct Drug Sales at Deep Discounts
Trump Announces Intention to Impose 100 Percent Tariff on Foreign-Made Films
Altman Says GPT-5 Already Outpaces Him, Warns AI Could Automate 40% of Work
Singapore and Hong Kong Vie to Dominate Asia’s Rising Gold Trade
Trump Organization Teams with Saudi Developer on $1 Billion Trump Plaza in Jeddah
Manhattan Sees Surge in Office-to-Housing Conversions, Highest Since 2008
Switzerland and U.S. Issue Joint Assurance Against Currency Manipulation
Electronic Arts to Be Taken Private in Historic $55 Billion Buyout
Thomas Jacob Sanford Named as Suspect in Deadly Michigan Church Shooting and Arson
Russian Research Vessel 'Yantar' Tracked Mapping Europe’s Subsea Cables, Raising Security Alarms
New York Man Arrested After On-Air Confession to 2017 Parents’ Murders
U.S. Defense Chief Orders Sudden Summit of Hundreds of Generals and Admirals
Global Cruise Industry Posts Dramatic Comeback with 34.6 Million Passengers in 2024
Trump Claims FBI Planted 274 Agents at Capitol Riot, Citing Unverified Reports
India: Internet Suspended in Bareilly Amid Communal Clashes Between Muslims and Hindus
Supreme Court Extends Freeze on Nearly $5 Billion in U.S. Foreign Aid at Trump’s Request
Archaeologists Recover Statues and Temples from 2,000-Year-Old Sunken City off Alexandria
China Deploys 2,000 Workers to Spain to Build Major EV Battery Factory, Raising European Dependence
Speed Takes Over: How Drive-Through Coffee Chains Are Rewriting U.S. Coffee Culture
U.S. Demands Brussels Scrutinize Digital Rules to Prevent Bias Against American Tech
Ringo Starr Champions Enduring Beatles Legacy While Debuting Las Vegas Art Show
Private Equity’s Fundraising Surge Triggers Concern of European Market Shake-Out
Colombian President Petro Vows to Mobilize Volunteers for Gaza and Joins List of Fighters
FBI Removes Agents Who Kneeled at 2020 Protest, Citing Breach of Professional Conduct
Trump Alleges ‘Triple Sabotage’ at United Nations After Escalator and Teleprompter Failures
Shock in France: 5 Years in Prison for Former President Nicolas Sarkozy
Tokyo’s Jimbōchō Named World’s Coolest Neighbourhood for 2025
European Officials Fear Trump May Shift Blame for Ukraine War onto EU
BNP Paribas Abandons Ban on 'Controversial Weapons' Financing Amid Europe’s Defence Push
Typhoon Ragasa Leaves Trail of Destruction Across East Asia Before Making Landfall in China
The Personality Rights Challenge in India’s AI Era
Big Banks Rebuild in Hong Kong as Deal Volume Surges
Italy Considers Freezing Retirement Age at 67 to Avert Scheduled Hike
Italian City to Impose Tax on Visiting Dogs Starting in 2026
Arnault Denounces Proposed Wealth Tax as Threat to French Economy
Study Finds No Safe Level of Alcohol for Dementia Risk
Denmark Investigates Drone Incursion, Does Not Rule Out Russian Involvement
Lilly CEO Warns UK Is ‘Worst Country in Europe’ for Drug Prices, Pulls Back Investment
Nigel Farage Emerges as Central Force in British Politics with Reform UK Surge
×