Email from Ann Sinnott^
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^Update on Official sources provide unlawful guidance on the 2010 Equality Act!
Many thanks to all of you for making this happen and getting us over the line to our initial target!
I am so grateful to each and every one of you and your comments have humbled and heartened in equal measure.
Now we’re into stretch target territory, so I’m taking this opportunity to sketch out why this case is important and why I’m hoping that those who can will donate again.
Before I continue, a word to those who made small donations that you could ill-afford. One mother of a 5yr old brought me to tears. She said she doesn’t have much but gave what she could afford because “my daughter needs to live in a society that protects her rights”. This mother really understands the fundamental importance of this case. To her, and to those of you in similar situations, I say, “Thank you from the very bottom of my heart” and beg you not to donate again – there are others who will bear the weight that you cannot carry, because your daughters and your sons also matter to us.
This case isn’t about an individual woman who has undergone harassment and discrimination with whom we can identify and sympathise, who tugs our heart strings and opens our purses. This case is dry and technical. It’s about rectifying unlawful application and wrongful interpretation of the law. It appeals to our sense of justice, our intellect rather than our capacity for empathy. But, in reality, this case has many human faces. Unlawful guidance by those, once trusted, official sources enabled the dreadful situations in which women find themselves. Longstanding unlawful guidance - from the very entities that are responsible for overseeing equalities in the UK - both enabled and effectively justified harassment and discrimination.
Every female academic silenced and threatened with loss of tenure, every woman harassed in her workplace or sacked from her job, every author silenced or dropped by her publisher, every woman cheated of the trophy or award that was rightfully hers, every domestic violence refuge coercively threatened with loss of funding and forced into being ‘inclusive’, every woman insulted on social media for merely stating a belief in biological reality, every fear-filled woman silencing herself – all of these facilitated by unlawful guidance. Organisations instating ‘gender neutral’ toilets and changing rooms, schools doing the same despite rocketing rates of sexual assaults and rapes in schools (even at primary levels) and in our hospitals, psychiatric and medical, single-sex wards being changed to mixed-sex to the deep dismay of patients, men as well as women - all facilitated by unlawful guidance. Each and every one of the legal actions for which we have gladly dipped into our purses to support, was made necessary because of a misinterpretation and misapplication of the law, and each and every one of those cases was engineered by unlawful guidance. Unlawful guidance lies at the root of it all and that’s why this vital case is of fundamental importance.
I’ve lived with this for almost a year but I’m still astonished. I can still scarcely believe that this has happened. And I am so angry.
Before I go, let me tell you a little about AEA.
AEA is a Community Interest Company whose founding mission is to promote and further the interests of women and girls. Providing training on EA2010 and the single-sex exception is an important first project because EA2010 is potentially a good law for females, provided it is properly applied.
AEA became fully operational in Oct 2019 and quickly obtained a major national retailer as a client. Along with all other organisations we were stymied by Covid. Income to date has been minimal, but so are outgoings. We cut our cloth according to our means so, although we have little capital, we have no debts. We were lucky enough to receive a small government bounce-back loan and that is helping to keep us going for now. If energies had not been redirected into dealing with EHRC and GEO’s unlawful guidance - and finally, as a last resort, this legal action - AEA’s online training would be up and running by now – but it will be soon!
As you can see, AEA is not some lavish foundation needlessly begging for your cash! AEA is, effectively, a new start-up asking for your financial support for this crucial legal action. An action which aims to ensure that a law, which was in part designed to protect females, is correctly interpreted and properly applied.
Thank you again for your support so far. It’s unlikely that EHRC and GEO will capitulate, so this action is likely to go the distance – and that will take a good deal more money. If you can, please continue to support with cash and by publicising and, if possible, encourage family and friends to do the same. And if you happen to have a contact or two with deep pockets, please steer them our way!
I will continue to keep you updated.
Ann Sinnott
Director, AEA^