Former SNP Shadow Home Secretary and Chair of Joint Committee on Human Rights brings unique legal and public affairs expertise to UK’s only charity exclusively for LGB people
As Chair of LGB Alliance, I am delighted to announce the appointment of Joanna Cherry KC to our Board as a Trustee.
The former MP for Edinburgh South West, former SNP Shadow Home Secretary and Justice Secretary, former chair of Westminster’s Joint Committee on Human Rights brings unique political experience to augment LGB Alliance’s public affairs capabilities. Meanwhile, her long career as an advocate and QC (now, KC) will provide invaluable weight to the charity’s legal interventions in support of LGB rights.
Joanna is one of the most high-profile politicians in Scottish and British public life, and has been a vocal champion of LGB and women’s rights throughout her career. She was an early opponent of experimental medical treatments for trans-identified youth — most of whom grow up to be happy gay, lesbian or bisexual adults — and consistently opposed the Gender Recognition Reform (GRR) bill. The proposed legislation would have undermined women’s and lesbians’ rights to single-sex spaces, including lesbian-only venues.
For standing up for LGB people, Joanna has suffered prolonged, targeted, and often vicious abuse from trans activists, leading to the cancellation of her events and speaking appearances — including at The Edinburgh Fringe in 2023 when Joanna took successful legal action against her cancellation.
No one in British politics has done more than Joanna to fight the rise of gender identity ideology, which has so seriously undermined LGB rights in the last decade. She stood up for lesbians and for LGB Alliance at a time when it was not only deeply unfashionable, but seriously detrimental to her career as a politician.
Joanna said, “LGB Alliance is a beacon of sense and sanity at a very dark time for lesbians, and I’ve always been a passionate supporter of its work. There are still many battles to fight, including the invasion and erosion of lesbian spaces by heterosexual men, the continued medicalisation of LGB youth through cross-sex hormones, and the horror of elective double mastectomies for young adult lesbians. The tide, however, is turning, and I look forward to contributing to many more victories for lesbian, gay and bisexual people in the years to come.”
Joanna’s new role is the next step in a long relationship. She has played a role in much we have already achieved, and we look forward to many more years of working closely together.
Eileen Gallagher OBE
Chair, LGB Alliance
