Stonewall dropped a huge clanger yesterday by issuing a graphic on its Facebook page that gave Labour a tick for all the policies it had featured and gave only two to the Liberal Democrats. Thing is, anyone who had read the Liberal Democrat manifesto would know that all these things were in fact there.

Pink News has a wonderfully sarcastic quote from LGBT+ Chair Dave Page:

It is surprising that an organisation with Stonewall’s resources, if it seeks to appear nonpartisan, did not seem to have taken the time to quickly search through the Liberal Democrats’ main party manifesto (rather than the separate documents published by some other parties).

If they had, they would have found the commitment to tackle hate crime in section 9.3: ‘Change sentencing guidelines to increase sentences available for hate crimes.’

They would have also found the following on overseas aid in section 11.6: ‘Liberal Democrats believe British foreign policy and international aid should seek to advance human rights and democracy throughout the world. We believe all people – regardless of ethnicity, disability, age, belief, gender or sexual orientation – deserve a freer, fairer and more prosperous world.’

Under Ruth Hunt’s excellent leadership, Stonewall have done a lot of work to build bridges and listen to a wider array of voices.

We hope that the days of Lib Dem MPs having to lobby Stonewall to support equality rather than the opposite are behind us all. Unfortunately their rush to issue this ill-researched graphic undermines their reputation for being even-handed advocates of equality.

Lib Dem Peer Liz Barker also took Stonewall to task on Twitter. In a series of tweets parodying Stonewall’s “Some people are gay/trans, get over it” phrase, she outlined the Liberal Democrat record on LGBT rights:

Some people @LibDems @swilliamsmp @lfeatherstone support LGBT equality longer + stronger than Labour @stonewalluk #GetOverIt

— Liz Barker (@LizBarkerLords) April 28, 2015

Some people @LibDems @swilliamsmp @lfeatherstone @zoeimogen stood up for trans rights long before @stonewalluk #GetOverIt

— Liz Barker (@LizBarkerLords) April 28, 2015

First party to tackle homophobic bullying in schools? @LibDems @LibDemLords Graham Tope in 1999. @stonewalluk #GetOverIt

— Liz Barker (@LizBarkerLords) April 28, 2015

I liked former Euro candidate Giles Goodall’s rainbow timeline:

#LibDems: Supporting #LGBT rights since 1967. Making LGBT rights a reality in government since 2010 #equalmarriage pic.twitter.com/4c6M9WInSa

— Giles Goodall (@GoodallGiles) April 27, 2015

The prize for my very favourite thing, though, probably of the entire election, goes to the wonderful Richard Flowers and Alex Wilcock who look back over the last 40 years and show who it is who has been at the forefront of pushing for LGBT rights. And they do have a scarf each, but that’s just one. If you read their blogs, you might realise that they are just a tiny bit interested in Doctor Who. Enjoy.

* Caron Lindsay is Editor of Liberal Democrat Voice and blogs at Caron's Musings