Trans groups have launched an appeal against the Charity Commission over its decision to make a controversial lesbian, gay and bisexual organisation a charity.
The LGB Alliance was made a charity in April after the commission decided the group was beneficial to the public through its educational and awareness-raising activities about discrimination based on sexual orientation.
However, the move caused fury among some groups who took exception to the LGB Alliance’s transgender policies.
On Tuesday, transgender children’s charity Mermaids launched an appeal against the decision, with the move supported by other charities and groups including Stonewall, Gendered Intelligence, and the Good Law Project.
The LGB Alliance has previously said there is a conflict between the rights of LGB people and transgender people.
Allison Bailey, a lesbian barrister who helped set up the LGB Alliance, is currently suing Stonewall for allegedly trying to ‘silence’ her for her stance on transgender issues.
Allison Bailey, a lesbian barrister who helped set up the LGB Alliance, is currently suing Stonewall for ‘trying to silence her’
Susie Green, CEO of Mermaids, has accused the LGB Alliance of trying to undermine and isolate trans people
Ms Bailey claims she was ‘indirectly discriminated against because both my chambers and Stonewall treat people who hold gender critical beliefs as being bigoted and unworthy of respect.’
The action came after she helped set up the LGB Alliance.
In court documents, Mermaids has now argued that the Charity Commission was wrong to make the LGB Alliance a charity, as it does not offer a positive benefit to the public.
The charities also argue that one of the LGB Alliance’s aims is to oppose changes to the law or lobby government bodies to restrict transgender people’s legal rights and protections.
‘In reality, LGB Alliance seeks only to operate for the benefit of lesbian and gay people who are both not transgender and share LGBA’s beliefs,’ the charity’s appeal said.
Susie Green, CEO of Mermaids, said: ‘Mermaids supports trans young people, children and their families who face overwhelming hostility simply because of who they are.
‘The work of the LGB Alliance is clearly designed to divide the LGBTQ+ community in an attempt to undermine and isolate trans people.
‘Mermaids is proud to stand up for the rights of trans people in court, with the unbreakable support of our LGBTQ+ charity family.’
Following its decision in April, the Charity Commission said the LGB Alliance’s purposes were to ‘promote equality and diversity and human rights’.
In a statement, the body continued: ‘It is not the commission’s role to make value judgements about the aims or ideas put forward by any organisation.
‘Instead, its role is to decide whether an organisation’s purposes fall within the legal definition of charity.’
The commission added it had ‘carefully considered’ objections it received about registering the LGB Alliance as a charity.
LGB Alliance, which rivals Stonewall, has been accused of transphobia. Stonewall is one of the groups supporting the appeal
It is the latest chapter in an increasingly-bitter row between charities on transgender issues.
LGB Alliance, which rivals Stonewall, has been accused of transphobia.
Ms Bailey, however, denies this, claiming ‘I have always been an advocate for transgender rights’.
The barrister, a self-proclaimed feminist and lesbian, is among a group who believe making it simple for people to self-identify as women is a threat to feminism, Legal Cheek said.
She says ‘if the new trans activism is not brought to heel, women will disappear as a political class.’
Ms Bailey launched a CrowdJustice campaign to fund legal action against Stonewall last year, writing on the page: ‘The case that I am bringing is that I have been subjected to victimisation because of the concerns I raised about Stonewall’s actions.
‘It alleges that I have been indirectly discriminated against because both my chambers and Stonewall treat people such as me who hold gender critical beliefs as being bigoted and unworthy of respect.
‘Those people are overwhelmingly women. This treatment is therefore indirectly discriminatory against women.
‘I am suing both my chambers and Stonewall because Stonewall caused and induced the treatment to which I was subjected by my chambers.’