Stonewall faces tribunal after ‘trying to have barrister sacked’ over gender-critical views
Judge refuses to throw out Allison Bailey’s case against charity amid claims it collaborated with chambers to put her under investigation
Stonewall is facing a tribunal over
claims it tried to have a “gender critical” barrister sacked, after a judge refused to throw the case out.
Allison Bailey, a lesbian criminal barrister who helped to found the LGB Alliance, a charity that allegedly broke away from Stonewall over its stance on transgender inclusion - is currently suing Stonewall.
Ms Bailey claims that the charity collaborated with her chambers, because it was a fee-paying member of the charity’s embattled Diversity Champions scheme, to place her under investigation.
The barrister claims that as a result of a row over her views on transgender issues, she had lost work and income.
Judge Holly Stout, at the London Central Employment Tribunal, said: "Stonewall complained about her to chambers, her tweets were investigated by chambers and complaints about two of those tweets were upheld and the claimant asked to remove the tweets, which she did not do."
Ms Bailey set up a crowdfunding campaign to cover her legal bills and lodged a claim at the employment tribunal against Stonewall and Garden Court Chambers last year, alleging that she was silenced “because both my chambers and Stonewall treat people such as me, who hold gender-critical beliefs, as being bigoted and unworthy of respect”.
Stonewall had tried to get the case thrown out, claiming it was "unarguable" because conditions for liability were not fulfilled.
However, following Ms Bailey’s application to the tribunal “to add to her existing claim [against Stonewall and Garden Court Chambers], a claim of direct discrimination because of philosophical belief” - as opposed to “indirect discrimination” - it was granted by a judge.
In a decision published online on Monday, Judge Stout said the proposed amendment "reshapes the case in much more straightforward terms".
She added: “It is, in short, more likely to succeed than the indirect discrimination claim as presently pleaded. It also gets much closer to the ‘heart of the dispute’ than the current victimisation claim.”
The judge said that she accepted that by permitting this amendment, “the Garden Court respondents are facing stronger claims”, but added that it would not make “any real difference to the merits of the case against Stonewall”.
The next hearing regarding Ms Bailey’s case will now be held in June 2022.
In a previous hearing in February, Judge Stout had said: "It is plainly arguable Stonewall sought to induce Chambers to subject the claimant to a detriment because of her publicly expressed beliefs and the allegations she had made against Stonewall."
Organisations leave Stonewall schemes
Stonewall says its Diversity Champions programme aims to help firms "become more inclusive of LGBT people".
The Stonewall Diversity Champions scheme is a paid-for programme which advises and assesses on creating inclusive workplaces.
There is also a separate workplace equality index, in which Stonewall scores employers on their diversity efforts.
Last month, the
BBC said it would leave both schemes, because its participation had raised questions about whether it could be impartial on issues which the LGBTQ+ charity is campaigning on.
Other organisations including Channel 4, Ofcom,
the Equality and Human Rights Commission and the Cabinet Office have also made similar decisions.
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