// Lush has handed Woman’s Place UK a £3000 grant
// The money is reported to have come from Lush’s “charity pot”
// WPUK is recognised for its campaigning efforts on anti-trans measures
Lush has reportedly admitted it has given a £3000 grant to anti-trans pressure group Woman’s Place UK (WPUK).
WPUK said in a financial statement that it received the grant from the cosmetics retailer for “events organisation”.
The money is reported to have come from Lush’s “charity pot”, despite WPUK belonging to a network of organisations set up in opposition to transgender rights, Pink News reported.
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WPUK is recognised for its campaigning efforts on anti-trans measures, with four of its “five demands” saying that “the principle of women-only spaces” should be “upheld and where necessary extended”.
Nevertheless, WPUK speakers have been reported to have referred to transgender people as “horrible, hateful misogynistic bastards” and demanded trans women’s exclusion from all women’s spaces, including refuges, toilets, locker rooms, prisons and hospital wards.
Lush has responded by saying it has a policy of not funding “campaigning work, discussion or lobbying on the specifics of the proposed changes to the Gender Recognition Act”.
However, the grant “predated our awareness of how toxic discussion around this issue had become and before we put rules in place around this subject”.
Lush has maintained that it does not believe that trans rights are a threat to women’s rights, and that over the last five years, Charity Pot has given grants to 514 LGBTQ+ groups totalling £1.6 million.
“Those who are on the margins should not have to fight other marginalised groups to get the protections they deserve,” Lush said.
Retail Gazette has approached Lush for comment.
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