LGB Alliance founder defends working with anti-abortion, anti-LGBT+ Heritage Foundation in resurfaced tweets
The LGB Alliance is an ‘abusive and sinister’ group, says gay SNP MP John Nicolson
LGB Alliance founder Bev Jackson defended those who’ve worked with the anti-LGBT+ Heritage Foundation as “sometimes the only possible course of action” in a series of 2019 tweets.
Jackson founded the LGB Alliance – a group claiming to fight for lesbian, gay and bisexual rights in the UK that has faced immense backlash and was immediately branded “transphobic” by swathes of lesbian, gay and bisexual people – with Kate Harris in October 2019.
In the 10 months since it launched, the LGB Alliance has been plagued by fierce opposition from the LGBT+ community for its campaign against the rights of transgender people.
Criticism has grown more vocal as a string of revelations about the group in the first half of 2020 revealed its connections with neo-Nazis, homophobes, and anti-abortion organisations in the US.
Now, tweets posted by Bev Jackson in 2019 – which resurfaced on a Twitter account that “documents gender critical people being homophobic” – show the LGB Alliance founder defending working with the Heritage Foundation, an ultra-conservative think tank of anti-LGBT+ lobbyists that, according to the New York Times, has furthered its right-wing agenda by staffing the Trump administration.
“The leftwing silence on gender in the US is even worse than in the UK,” Jackson tweeted on 10 April 2019, linking to a Public Discourse article. “This story explains why working with the Heritage Foundation is sometimes the only possible course of action.”
The leftwing silence on gender in the US is even worse than in the UK. This story explains why working with the Heritage Foundation is sometimes the only possible course of action. https://t.co/xsn7Sc5ayt
— Bev Jackson (@BevJacksonAuth) April 10, 2019
Public Discourse is the journal of the Witherspoon Institute – another conservative US think tank that opposes abortion and same-sex marriage. The journal states on its website: “The second pillar of a decent society is the institution of the family, which is built upon the comprehensive sexual union of man and woman.”
Some UK-based gender-critical, or anti-trans, campaigners have previously appeared on Heritage Foundation panels in the US. But others have been heavily critical of those who’ve promoted their gender-critical views through working with the anti-abortion, anti-women’s rights and anti-LGBT+ group.
Jackson addressed this in another 2019 tweet, asking: “Are you disgusted with feminists who have appeared in events organised by the Heritage Foundation and other right-wing groups?”
She continued: “Perhaps you need to get informed as to the reasons they have for doing so.
“Please take the time to read the attached article before rushing to judgment.”
Are you disgusted with feminists who have appeared in events organized by the Heritage Foundation and other rightwing groups? Perhaps you need to get informed as to the reasons they have for doing so. Please take the time to read the attached article before rushing to judgement. https://t.co/gWgA4cpdVv— Bev Jackson (@BevJacksonAuth) May 9, 2019
The Public Discourse article Jackson linked to was the same one she tweeted a month earlier.
It was written by the unsupportive parent of a trans kid who founded the Kelsey Coalition – a Heritage Foundation-elevated group of anti-trans parents who commonly feature in evangelical media in the US.
Jackson later acknowledged that the links to the Heritage Foundation are “problematic”.
“Yet it was their [Heritage Foundation] publicity that made it possible to launch a gender-critical movement in the US,” she added.
Yes, my bad, I ran out of characters! ? But as a socialist feminist, I do find these alliances problematic. Take the Heritage Foundation. Many deeply anti-women policies. Yet it was their publicity that made it possible to launch a gender-critical movement in the US.
— Bev Jackson (@BevJacksonAuth) July 24, 2019
The LGB Alliance has been contacted for comment.
