A UK-based bank is reportedly refusing to open a business account for a parental rights group that vocally opposes the transgender mutilation of children. A spokesman for the bank has stated that any “decision to close or review any account is made for commercial reasons.”
The seventh-largest bank in Britain boasting some 2.5 million customers, High Street retail and commercial institution Metro Bank last month joined most major UK banks in allying itself with controversial pro-LGBT charity Stonewall, which advocates for adherence to transgender ideology and the obliteration of gendered language.
Non-profit parental rights group Our Duty, composed of some 2,000 parents who oppose the chemical and surgical transgender mutilation of children, said Tuesday that it attempted to launch a business account through Metro Bank but was denied after an “in-depth review” because of the content of the group’s website.
The group states on its site that it “is an international support network for parents who wish to protect their children from gender ideology.”
In a Tuesday Twitter thread, Our Duty said it had “received a phone call” that morning “from our bankers declining to open a Business account for Our Duty International Limited (ODIL),” adding it was also told its separate “Community Account” was “under review.”
According to the thread, Metro Bank informed Our Duty that the content of the group’s website “conflicts” with the “culture and ideas we are pushing.”
Our Duty said it was also informed that Metro Bank “has staff networks for diversity and inclusion including for LGBTQ staff,” and said an employee spoke about having attended a “Pride” march over the weekend.
“The bank was making it patently clear that they consider only one worldview to be valid,” the parental rights organization said.
The Telegraph reported that it had viewed emails from a Metro Bank manager who told Our Duty that the group’s community account for the financing of member meetings ran afoul of bank guidelines that prohibit organizations that are “linked to or influence political policies or legislations.” The email said that, for the community account to facilitate donations, it would need to be a registered charity.
“People are starting to call this debanking and it really is frightening and it should be frightening, for everybody,” said Our Duty founder Keith Jordan, according to The Telegraph. “The withdrawal of such a basic service is in itself coercion.”
Our Duty added it’s “now seeking a UK bank to support our critically important work providing help and advice to parents with a child who thinks of themselves as transgender,” since it “seems that Our Duty is the latest casualty in the LGBTQ+ staff networks’ war on differing views.”
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Metro Bank has denied rejecting Our Duty’s accounts over political differences.
In comments to The Telegraph, a spokesman for Metro Bank said the “decision to close or review any account is made for commercial reasons.” The bank states that it “is and will remain politically neutral.”
However, despite affirmations of political neutrality, Metro Bank recently announced it was “joining forces with the London LGBTQ+ community to celebrate Pride” on July 1.
“As a community bank, we celebrate diversity and inclusion and look forward to joining the Pride celebrations in London,” said Emma Sutton, Metro Bank’s head of events. “The LGBTQ+ community really knows how to stage a joyful, positive event and we are looking forward to marching together.”
And Our Duty isn’t alone in reportedly being blocked by banks over its conservative views.
Prominent Brexit proponent Nigel Farage, an ally of former U.S. President Donald Trump, made headlines late last month after claiming that he had been debanked in an effort by the “establishment” to “force me out of the UK,” LifeSiteNews reported.
“I have been given no explanation or recourse as to why this is happening to me,” Farage wrote on social media. “This is serious political persecution at the very highest level of our system.”
The Telegraph reported that elite bank Coutts, owned by NatWest, had closed Farage’s account because of insufficient funds and would therefore transfer his savings to another NatWest account.
Farage has called the explanation “absolute cobblers.”
Banking, commie style:
You.
Not you.
Step aside.
.