Lesbian barrister to sue LGBT charity and her chambers for silencing her
A barrister has lodged a claim at the Employment Tribunal against LGBT charity Stonewall and her chambers, Garden Court Chambers, for allegedly trying to 'silence' her for her stance on transgender issues.
Allison Bailey helped set up LGB Alliance, an action group that criticises Stonewall's approach to transgender rights. She launched a CrowdJustice campaign to fund the legal action, commenting:
“The case that I am bringing is that I have been subjected to victimisation because of the concerns I raised about Stonewall's actions. I have been indirectly discriminated against because both my chambers and Stonewall treat people such as me who hold gender-critical beliefs as being bigoted and unworthy of respect.
“Those people are overwhelmingly women. This treatment is therefore indirectly discriminatory against women. I am suing both my chambers and Stonewall because Stonewall caused and induced the treatment to which I was subjected by my chambers.”
Garden Court Chambers found the allegations to be “groundless” and the claim to be “without merit”.
A Stonewall spokesperson said:
“We work with a diverse range of organisations through our Diversity Champions programme to give advice on tackling homophobic, biphobic and transphobic discrimination and how they can be more inclusive of LGBT people.
“While we aren't able to comment on individual cases, we know it's vital businesses take active steps in creating equality for all lesbian, gay, bi and trans people.”
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