Forgive Stephen Fry for supporting Stonewall

There has been much indignation at the roll-call of those ennobled in the New Year Honours. There’s been bewilderment that Gareth Southgate, England’s failed football coach, has been given a knighthood. There’s been anger that Sadiq Khan, who has presided over an escalation of knife crime in the capital, has been similarly honoured. There’s been puzzlement that Emily Thornberry, whose foremost distinction has been sneering at working-class displays of patriotism, has been made a dame. And there’s been gnashing of teeth that Stephen Fry, that ubiquitous and often grating luvvie, has been given the title ‘Sir’.

Much of the vehemence directed towards Fry has focused on his longstanding support for Stonewall, and echoing its stance on trans ideology. In 2018, for instance, he referred to women protesting at Pride about the erasure of lesbians as ‘pretty damned sick’, judging their claims as ‘some screwed up contempt for the rights of trans and intersex people.