Gender-Critical Barrister Wins Permission to Appeal Discrimination Ruling

A gender-critical barrister has been granted permission to appeal a ruling that dismissed her discrimination claims against the LGBT charity Stonewall. Allison Bailey launched the action against the organisation after it worked with her former chambers, Garden Court Chambers.

Stonewall operates a Diversity Champions scheme to promote workplace inclusion for LGBT people. Garden Court Chambers signed up to the scheme in November 2018. Bailey said she lost work and income as a result of the arrangement.

The charity had recommended the chambers change the pronouns "she and he" to "they and their". Bailey previously said the change was exclusive and discriminatory of her beliefs. She objected to the changes in an email sent to all chambers members.

Bailey then published numerous posts on social media expressing her gender-critical stance and criticising Stonewall's transgender rights advocacy in 2019. Kirrin Medcalf, who led trans inclusion efforts at Stonewall, lodged a formal complaint with the chambers via email in October 2019. The complaint cited 11 of Bailey's tweets dating from September that year.

The complaint was forwarded to an internal investigator on November 4, 2019. Following the examination, the investigator found that two of Bailey's posts likely breached her professional obligations. The chambers then asked Bailey to delete the offending tweets, which she refused.

Bailey subsequently initiated discrimination proceedings against both Garden Court Chambers and Stonewall before the Employment Tribunal. Having failed at the initial hearing against Stonewall, she appealed unsuccessfully to the Employment Appeal Tribunal and then to the Court of Appeal. This led to her current application to the highest court.

Bailey wrote on social media: "The overwhelming majority of applications are refused.