Allison Bailey: Barrister awarded £22,000 in discrimination case

A barrister has been awarded £22,000 after winning part of a tribunal claim that she was discriminated against because of her gender-critical views.

Allison Bailey, a barrister at Garden Court Chambers (GCC) in London, said her views wrongly resulted in her being labelled as transphobic, in 2019.

GCC was found to have discriminated against her by tweeting it would investigate her tweets that rejected the idea biological sex can change.

She lost her case against Stonewall.

The LGBT charity worked with GCC, which had joined its "diversity champions" scheme. Ms Bailey accused Stonewall of "trans-extremism".

The barrister of 30 years told the hearing at the Central London Employment Tribunal that, as a result of her treatment, her income had been left "substantially reduced" in comparison to previous years.

She said she had been given a reduced quality of work, in order to "break" her spirit.

The tribunal upheld her complaint against GCC over her view that no-one can change their biological sex, with her take on this subject being found to be protected in law.

However, Ms Bailey, who is a lesbian, lost her discrimination claim against Stonewall. In response to the outcome, the barrister said it showed that she had been victimised.

In a statement following the ruling, Stonewall said it was pleased with the outcome of the tribunal.

"The case heard by the employment tribunal did not accurately reflect our intentions and our influence on organisations," the statement said.

"Leaders within organisations are responsible for the organisational culture and the behaviour of their employees and workers.

"Stonewall's resources, support and guidance is just one set of inputs they use to help them as they consider how best to meet the needs of their own organisation."

The tribunal also rejected Ms Bailey's claim against her chambers that she had lost work and income because of her beliefs.

GCC said the ruling had rejected the main claims against it, and that it was considering an appeal.

In 2019, Ms Bailey founded the LGB Alliance, a charity which argues there is a conflict between the rights of homosexual and bisexual people, and transgender people. The group opposes many Stonewall policies.

Ms Bailey said she had raised more than £500,000 from about 9,000 individual donors to fund her legal case.

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