Zarah ChoudharyA group of senior lesbian, gay, and bisexual executives has launched the LGB Alliance Business Forum to work with business leaders and HR departments in re-establishing workplace policies that allow for free speech around gender-critical beliefs.
The initiative responded to concerns that corporate diversity, equality and inclusion (DEI) programmes have been influenced by lobby groups misrepresenting the law, leading to compelled speech, loss of single-sex spaces, and discrimination against employees with gender-critical beliefs.
The Business Forum aims to protect freedom of speech, ensure fair treatment for all employees, and help businesses avoid reputational and legal risks while fostering inclusive workplaces.
The group was formed in response to the increasing influence of external organisations promoting ‘equality index’ schemes.
These schemes were criticised for encouraging businesses to implement policies that replace women’s lavatories with ‘gender-neutral’ facilities and enforce pronoun usage.
According to the LGB Alliance, such policies have had a negative impact on LGB employees who do not support gender identity ideology, with reports of workers facing bullying or dismissal for stating their belief in biological sex.
The Business Forum will work with HR departments to establish protections for freedom of speech and conscience, while sharing best practices to uphold the rights of LGB employees.
It will also focus on helping businesses navigate legal risks, referencing cases such as Maya Forstater’s employment tribunal, which established legal protection for gender-critical beliefs.
The initiative is part of LGB Alliance, the UK’s only registered charity exclusively for same-sex attracted people.
Led by senior LGB executives, including HR leaders, the Business Forum will also monitor DEI practices in workplaces through an ambassador programme, aiming to place representatives in UK businesses with more than 250 employees.
Ambassadors will have access to networking events and webinars on employment law and workplace regulations.
Simon White, a representative of the Business Forum, said: “We believe EDI initiatives can be a force for good, but they have been corrupted by powerful lobby groups that present the law as they’d like it to be rather than how it actually is.
“Denying the right of LGB workers to state who they are, and smearing them as ‘genital fetishists’ for being same-sex attracted, turns workplaces into battlegrounds in the culture war.
“Worst of all, the internal staff networks which should stand up for LGB people have been co-opted by extremists focused on advancing a narrow, misogynistic, and homophobic interpretation of ‘trans rights’.”
Employee complaints and lawsuits related to workplace policies have increased in recent years.
Cases have ranged from employees being disciplined or dismissed for expressing gender-critical views to Civil Service guidelines allowing self-identification to access single-sex spaces.
A 2023 report by the Inclusion at Work panel found that many employers implement DEI initiatives without an evidence base and fail to evaluate their impact.
Kate Barker, CEO of LGB Alliance, said: “Fighting for diversity and inclusion is part of LGB people’s shared heritage, but these noble aims have been corrupted by the infiltration of ‘progressive’ lobby groups into the workplace.
“LGB Alliance Business Forum will play a crucial role in returning EDI to its founding principles, ensuring every business is a welcoming place for all staff, gay or straight, by supporting diversity of thought and rejecting divisive activist orthodoxy.”
