LGB Alliance founder Allison Bailey to appeal after losing legal fight against Stonewall
Allison Bailey has announced she will appeal after losing her legal fight against LGBTQ+ charity Stonewall. (Twitter/Allison Bailey)
LGB Alliance founder Allison Bailey has announced that she will appeal after losing her legal fight against LGBTQ+ charity Stonewall.
Bailey, a lesbian barrister, co-founder of the anti-trans lobby group LGB Alliance and “JK Rowling’s friend”, sued LGBTQ+ rights charity Stonewall and Garden Court Chambers, of which she is a member, at an employment tribunal earlier this year.
Despite Bailey’s claims that her case was a “success”, and headlines in several major media outlets announcing that she “won”, she actually lost in all aspects of her case against Stonewall, and announced on Tuesday (20 September) that she would be appealing the judgement.
“I have appealed the decision of the [employment tribunal] dismissing my claim against Stonewall for causing a basic contravention of the Equality Act 2010,” she tweeted.
“The appeal has been lodged at the [employment appeal tribunal] within the deadline. It will almost certainly be heard in the new year. The EAT will be asked to order that my claim against Stonewall succeeds.”
https://twitter.com/AidanCTweets/status/1572154116390154241
“Stonewall is not off the hook,” she added. “Far from it.”
In her case, which was heard in April, Bailey accused the chambers of victimisation and discrimination on the basis of her sex and sexual orientation, claiming it launched an investigation and withheld work from her because of her anti-trans views and involvement with LGB Alliance.
She also said that Stonewall was responsible for any discrimination because Garden Court Chambers was a part of the charity’s Diversity Champions scheme.
Allison Bailey’s claims against Stonewall are a ‘conspiracy theory’, the tribunal ruled
Handing down a judgement in July, the employment tribunal partly ruled in Bailey’s favour – agreeing that the chambers had discriminated against her when it tweeted that she would be investigated for transphobia when it found that two of Bailey’s tweets opposing trans rights were likely to have breached her duties as a barrister – but for the most part, ruled against her.
The tribunal did not accept any of her claims against Stonewall, writing in the judgement: “We concluded there was no evidence whatsoever that Stonewall directed Garden Court’s investigation process.”
