Barrister with gender-critical beliefs wins employment case against chambers - Scottish Legal News
A barrister who tweeted criticism of LGBTQ+ charity Stonewall’s position on trans rights suffered unlawful discrimination and was victimised, according to an employment tribunal.
Allison Bailey, a founder of the gender-critical group LGB Alliance, sued Garden Court Chambers (GCC) and Stonewall on the basis the latter had instructed or induced discrimination by her chambers.
A panel agreed that Ms Bailey had been subjected to direct discrimination by GCC because of her gender-critical views, which were previously found to be a protected philosophical belief under the Equality Act in the case of Maya Forstater.
Employment judge Sarah Goodman said GCC was wrong to publish a statement that said Ms Bailey was being investigated and that her tweets were transphobic. Her claim against Stonewall, however, was rejected.
The panel stated in its judgment: “We concluded that her beliefs, not just about gender self-identity but about the pernicious effect of Stonewall’s campaign promoting gender self-identity, were genuine. We also found that these amounted to beliefs, not just opinions which might change with further evidence.”
Ms Bailey was awarded 22,000 in compensation for injury to feelings. In one tweet she had thanked The Times for “fairly & accurately reporting on the appalling levels of intimidation, fear & coercion that are driving the @stonewalluk trans selfid agenda”. In another she said the charity had recruited “a male-bodied person who ran workshops with the...
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