GCHQ dumps Stonewall as Trump takes control of ‘deep state’
British spy agency GCHQ has cut ties with Stonewall as Donald Trump’s crusade against diversity triggers a funding crisis at the controversial LGBT charity.
GCHQ, which is responsible for the UK’s signals intelligence, is no longer a member of the group’s corporate diversity programme, it is understood, despite once being a vocal champion of the scheme.
A reference to the agency’s status as a “Stonewall Diversity Champion” on its careers website was removed after GCHQ was contacted by The Telegraph.
The decision has emerged as Stonewall faces a funding crisis triggered by Mr Trump, who has declared his intention to “destroy the deep state”. Elon Musk has gutted US overseas aid spending as part of his government efficiency drive. Stonewall’s largest funder in recent years has been the US state department.
As well as wholesale cuts to foreign aid, Mr Trump has also launched a crusade against what he has termed “radical and wasteful government DEI [diversity, equity and inclusion] programmes”. US security agencies including the FBI and CIA have been forced to close down their diversity functions as a result.
Stonewall has said the US government is pursuing an “agenda that will spread hate and fear”.
GCHQ’s decision to severe ties with the charity comes against a backdrop of strain on the relations between the “five eyes” intelligence alliance – made up of the UK, US, Canada, Australia and New Zealand. Peter Navarro, a senior adviser to Mr Trump, last week reportedly proposed kicking Canada out of the group as a trade war tactic.
Cheltenham-based GCHQ’s break from Stonewall is notable given the agency’s past ban on gay intelligence officers, which lasted until the 1990s.
The agency’s most celebrated member, the Second World War codebreaker Alan Turing, was convicted of gross indecency in 1952 for his homosexuality several years after he left the agency. Turing underwent chemical castration and was stripped of his security clearance. He took his own life two years later.
