Bullying and threats

Stonewall even worse than we already thought surprise surprise.

Stonewall “threatened” to silence a gender-critical barrister they deemed “transphobic” by having her sacked, court documents have revealed.

Allison Bailey, a lesbian criminal barrister who helped to set up the LGB Alliance, is currently suing the embattled charity, claiming it collaborated with her chambers to put her under investigation.

Ms Bailey, who set up a crowdfunder to cover her legal bills, 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”. 

The Telegraph has seen damning court documents and emails.

In a hearing in February at the London Central Employment Tribunal, Judge Stout refers to a “threat” from Stonewall to “remove” the barrister from Garden Court Chambers – which is a fee-paying member of the charity’s embattled Diversity Champions Scheme.

Rejecting the charity’s legal bid to strike out the barrister’s claim, Judge Stout said: “[It] plainly seeks to put pressure on Chambers to take action against the Claimant, indeed to the extent of urging Chambers to remove the Claimant from Chambers, and accompanies that with a threat about the ongoing relationship between Chambers and Stonewall itself if Chambers does not take action.”

What a good thing that more and more institutions are waking up to the reality that a relationship with Stonewall is not a relationship they want.

Separately, Ms Bailey released a leaked email from Stonewall’s Head of Trans Inclusion to her Heads of Chambers. The email accuses the barrister of: “targeting a woman who works for us (our trans empowerment manager) and calling her a man”, “calling our work on LGBT equality ‘gender extremism’” and “accusing Stonewall of ‘appalling levels of intimidation, fear and coercion’”.

Stonewall says, trying to ruin the career of a woman who disagrees with them.

The email continues: “These actions and their link to Garden Court Chambers, threatens the positive relationship yourselves have built with the trans community through holding events, round tables and meetings for trans people on trans equality and rights.[…] “

Yourselves have built? So they’re illiterate on top of everything else.

“However, for Garden Court Chambers to continue associating with a barrister who is actively campaigning for a reduction in trans rights and equality, while also specifically targeting members of our staff with transphobic abuse on a public platform, puts us in a difficult position with yourselves: the safety of our staff and community will always be Stonewall’s first priority.”

The email also contained a list of tweets that Ms Bailey had “liked” and “retweeted” questioning whether male-born people identifying as women are the same as biological women. 

So they spend their time checking on the likes and retweets of people who disagree with them. Much diversity champions.

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