Gender-critical barrister allowed to appeal Supreme Court discrimination ruling against Stonewall

A gender-critical barrister has been allowed to appeal a Supreme Court discrimination ruling after courts rejected her discrimination claims against the LGBT charity Stonewall.

Allison Bailey launched a discrimination action against the organisation that had been working with her former chambers, Garden Court Chambers.

While Ms Bailey secured a successful outcome and damages in her case against GCC, her claim against Stonewall was dismissed at the tribunal level and subsequently by both the Employment Appeal Tribunal and the Court of Appeal.

Stonewall set up a Diversity Champions scheme to promote workplace inclusion for LGBT people.

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GCC signed up to Stonewall’s Diversity Champions scheme in November 2018, and Ms Bailey claims to have lost work and income as a result.

The charity had recommended the chambers change the pronouns "she and he" to "they and their", Ms Bailey previously said.

She argued it was "exclusive" and "discriminatory" of her beliefs.

Ms Bailey objected to the changes in an email sent to all GCC members.

She 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.

She cited 11 of Ms Bailey's tweets dating from September that year.

The complaint was forwarded to an internal investigator on November 4, 2019.

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Following the examination, the investigator found that two of Ms Bailey's posts likely breached her professional obligations.

The GCC then asked Ms Bailey to delete the offending tweets, which she refused.

Ms 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, leading to her current Supreme Court application.

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

"After years of being told these issues had no wider significance, the highest court in the land has now decided they warrant full consideration."

The letter said: "After consideration of the application filed on behalf of the Appellant seeking permission to appeal the order made by the Court of Appeal on 19 December 2025 and of the notice of objection filed on behalf of the First Respondent, the court ordered that permission to appeal be granted."

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