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Hello and welcome to Political Thinking.

The rout about how and why a rapist called Adam ended up in a women's prison has shone

a spotlight on a debate which in truth has been raging not just for months but for years.

At the centre of that debate is the charity and campaigning organisation Stonewall.

My guest on Political Thinking this week is the new chair of Stonewall. He's Ian Anderson

and he's got a CV that might surprise you. He's a lifelong Conservative who went to school

with Michael Gove in Aberdeen and he ended up running a leadership campaign for Ken Clark.

He's also a Westminster insider who's operated behind the scenes at very high level with

ministers of all political parties. He's set up and he now runs one of the largest lobbying

firms in Britain, Cicero. He now fears that we are entering an American style culture

war and we might in Britain be going back to the future in a way that makes him as a gay

man deeply uncomfortable. Ian Anderson, welcome to Political Thinking.

Thanks, Nick. Good to be with you.

Now, after years of operating behind the scenes in Westminster, you and I have come across

each other over decades of our mind years, why on earth did you want to walk into this

minefield? Well, firstly, you're making me feel very old up front. Yeah, I've been doing this

for a long time. Quite simply, Stonewall changed my life. The reason Debtra, the creation of Stonewall,

was when a government was passing a piece of legislation, a Tory government was passing a

piece of legislation which pulled really well. You said it, it was called Section 28. What did it do?

It banned the promotion of, as I think I remember, pretend family relationships in school.

My life is not a pretend relationship and Stonewall has gone on to not just help repel that legislation,

...