Ruth Hunt took over as acting chief executive of the charity Stonewall in January 2014, following the resignation of executive Ben Summerskill. Talking at Stonewall’s Education for All conference this week, she spoke about when she was first appointed to the role people were resistant to the idea of a lesbian leading the movement.
“What I was really struck by, was – this is somebody who was on Twitter, highlighting that experience [of women being marginalised in the LGB movement] – was [the criticism] ‘how can a lesbian represent gay people?’ And I was really struck by that, as an idea. Not, ‘how can a lesbian represent gay men?’, but ‘gay people’. And I think that’s certainly something which is still a re-occurring theme.”
Ruth Hunt
Late speaking to Pink News Paper, she went on to discuss her achievement in her new role…
In the last six months? That’s not a big time period, but I guess I’m really proud that Stonewall has continued to deliver everything that we said we were going to deliver. It’s hard when you’ve got a change in regime to do that. But I’m also really proud of the new conversations we’re having with the trans communities, and I think that’s incredibly important.
We’ll be holding a roundtable with fifty of the leading trans activists about what they want from the future of the trans movement, and Stonewall’s role in that. We are also having an open consultation at stonewall.org.uk/trans, where people can tell us whatever they’re thinking about these things; and there will be more conversations going forward.
Ruth Hunt