Stonewall

Stonewall (officially Stonewall Equality Limited) is a lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) rights charity in the United Kingdom, named after the 1969 Stonewall riots in New York City's Greenwich Village.Now the largest LGBT rights organisation not only in the UK but in Europe, it was formed in 1989 by political activists and others lobbying against section 28 of the Local Government Act.Its founders include Sir Ian McKellen, Lisa Power MBE and Lord Cashman (CBE). Stonewall diversified into policy development for the rights of lesbian, gay and bisexual people after Labour came to power in 1997.It remains a lobbying organisation rather than a membership organisation.Former Chief Executive Ben Summerskill has commented: "We are not a 'democratic' organisation ... We seek to develop all our work, and policy positions where appropriate, by building as wide a consensus as possible among lesbian, gay and bisexual people." Stonewall has regional offices for all of Great Britain: Stonewall in GB is based in London, Stonewall Scotland has headquarters in Edinburgh, and Stonewall Cymru (Stonewall Wales) is in Cardiff and north Wales., Stonewall does not have any regional headquarters in Northern Ireland. Stonewall's accounts for 2015 show that in that year its highest paid member of staff earned "£100,000 to £109,999".