A lesbian barrister was awarded £22,000 in damages after an employment tribunal ruled she faced discrimation over her "gender-critical belief". Allison Bailey sued her employers Garden Court Chambers and the LGBTQ+ charity Stonewall after a backlash against her view that sex cannot change.
In October 2019, Ms Bailey had been involved in setting up the LGB Alliance advocacy group to resist "gender extremism". Tweets she made led to complaints being sent to her employer, alleging her opinions were transphobic.
GCC tweeted a statement that it would investigate those allegations under a complaints procedure. In doing so, the tribunal found the firm discriminated against her and ordered them to pay £22,000 compensation for injury to feelings, plus interest of £4,693.33.
Reacting to the outcome on Twitter, Ms Bailey wrote: "The Employment Tribunal found that Garden Court Chambers discriminated against me because of my gender critical belief when it published a statement that I was under investigation & in upholding Stonewall's complaint against me."
Kate Barker, managing director of LGB Alliance, praised "Allison's bravery and steadfast focus on truth and justice".
Ms Bailey had accused Garden Court Chambers of withholding work from her in 2019 but the tribunal did not accept this complaint. A separate allegation that the charity Stonewall instructed or induced discrimination by GCC, or attempted to do so, was also rejected.
A Stonewall spokesperson said: "We are pleased that the tribunal ruled that Stonewall has not been found to have instructed, caused or induced (GCC) to discriminate against Allison Bailey."
And a GCC spokesperson said the judgement had "dismissed Ms Bailey's claim against Stonewall and most of her claims against Garden Court Chambers including all her claims for indirect discrimination".
They added: "We note that her primary claim (for loss of earnings on the grounds of victimisation) was dismissed, the tribunal finding that 'We could not conclude that it was shown that the fall in income was in any way influenced (let alone significantly influenced)' by Ms Bailey's complaint to colleagues about Garden Court becoming a Stonewall Diversity Champion or by her beliefs.
"The tribunal found that it 'could not conclude that (GCC) as a whole had a practice of treating gender-critical beliefs as bigoted'. This confirms our stance we have maintained throughout that our members, quite reasonably, hold differing views in the complex debate around trans and sex-based rights."
They said the judgement was being reviewed with a “view to appeal”.
