Ann Sinnott is asking for clarity on guidance for the Equality Act

[MilleniumHallsWalledGarden]

around the guidance for the Equality Act 2010, and is crowdfunding for a judicial review. Thought I ought to spread the word.

[title edited by MNHQ at OP's request]

"Responses from EHRC and GEO received.

Will update in a few days."

twitter.com/AnnMSinnott/status/1309063337095946244

I think it'll go to the next stage.

Her lawyers need time to go through everything. Given their is a delay in announcing anything. The responses from the EHRC & GEO must have some meat on it, otherwise it would be a simple yes or no and a statement from Ann

Absolutely.

I would like to contribute but I need to do it through PayPal and not through my account/card. Does anyone know how I can do that?

@Jux

I would like to contribute but I need to do it through PayPal and not through my account/card. Does anyone know how I can do that?

just had a quick look and saw this:

What payment methods do you accept?
Maeve Storey avatar
Written by Maeve Storey
Updated over a week ago
You can pledge securely to a CrowdJustice case using any major credit or debit card.

We cannot accept pledges by check or through PayPal at this time.

They do have this
Got questions? Drop us an email at [email protected]
We’re here to help
and a live chat though

Thanks EyesOpening.

Another update from Ann.

More digging required fellow gardeners...

*Update on Official sources provide unlawful guidance on the 2010 Equality Act!

We are in the final throes of preparing documents to bolster our argument as to why we should be given permission to proceed to Judicial Review - we are quietly confident.

This second stage has once again entailed a lot of hard work for our lawyers, and for me. Among other things, it has involved the time-consuming tasks of scrutinising hundreds of documents and websites to gather additional evidence of dissemination, of official unlawful guidance, by external organisations and compilation into consequent write-ups.

I come free, lawyers do not. Legal costs in this case are unavoidably high. Legal costs for this stage are not yet met, so I’m asking you to donate again, if you can possibly do so. And, if you can do so safely, please draw to the attention of your family members, friends, acquaintances and work colleagues.

We have changed strategy!
We are now only taking action against the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC). Why? Because, if we win the case, the Government Equalities Office (GEO) must fall into line with the judgement. But what if the GEO doesn’t fall into line? Then we will move to seek a separate JR against them! The benefits of the changed strategy are (i) the legal action, with a focus on the main promulgator of unlawful guidance (EHRC), is clearer and (ii) legal costs will be reduced.

Recent news
Jeremy Hyam QC is AEA’s barrister. I already knew I’d chosen well but that has now been confirmed.

Outcomes to legal cases can rarely be predicted but if the case of Keira Bell and Mrs A. v GIDS/Tavistock Clinic is lost (I pray not), it won’t be due to poor representation!

Jeremy represented Claimants Keira Bell and Mrs A. against the Defendant GIDS/Tavistock in the high court on Thurs and Fri. Did any of you attend court or follow the live tweeting? If so, you’ll know how spectacular Jeremy was! He spoke for 2.5 hrs non-stop, without a single interruption from the judges – unlike the Defendant’s QC, who was constantly interrupted by the judges asking questions and for clarifications.

Masterfully, Jeremy used two cases from the Defendant’s evidence against the Defendants. And - calling a spade a spade! - instead of the usual ‘loss of sexual function’, Jeremy referred to ‘inability to orgasm’ as a result of cross-sex hormones, which really drove the negative consequences home. Jeremy’s closing (killer) remark re hormone treatment, as opposed to a watchful waiting approach: “Anticipated consequence of failure to treat being desistance”. I haven’t been able to track down all the live-tweeting, but these will give you a flavour:

threadreaderapp.com/thread/1314141438746202112.html

threadreaderapp.com/thread/1313773642464010240.html

threadreaderapp.com/thread/1314190292124393472.html

More recent news
This took me completely by surprise and shocked me to my core!

I have been shortlisted for the Emma Humphreys Memorial Prize. One of eleven nominees – read about them, and you will understand why I’m convinced that I won’t, and shouldn’t, win a prize. BUT being shortlisted is, in and of itself - as those of you familiar with EHMP will know - a HUGE honour, for which I am deeply grateful. I can still scarcely believe it!
emmahumphreys.org/2020/10/07/2020-shortlist-announced/amp/?__twitter_impression=true

You can join in the award celebrations here:
emmahumphreys.org/2020/10/07/register-now-for-our-2020-celebrations/

For those of you not familiar with Emma Humphreys, read about her here:
emmahumphreys.org/emma-humphreys/emma-biography/

And read Emma’s writings here – make sure you have tissues to hand.
emmahumphreys.org/emma-humphreys/emmas-poems/

The CJ funder is attracting a lot of attention!

To date, there have been 20,414 views, even factoring-in repeat viewings, that’s a lot of visits and, without doubt, a lot of people learning about EHRC’s unlawful guidance for the first time! Hopefully, some have gone away to scrutinise their equality policies.

Once again, thank you so much for your support and for your incredible comments. At present, there are 1,266 of you standing shoulder-to-shoulder with me – I can’t tell you how comforting and inspiring that is! Thank you to each and every one of you.*

I was looking for a thread on this but only found the deleted one.
I was having another look at the case and saw another huge shovelful!

Diggety dig.

Thanks for the reminder - have dug again :-))

Dug

Jeremy Hyam has been spectacular. Well worth getting my spade out for.

Thanks for the bump. I’ve dug for Ann before and I have just done so again. Go Ann, we’re all behind you

This is so important. Have dug.

Bump

I've dug

Late to the party but just donated

Bump. Dig.

A bit more digging done. Must now look at who I can get to support. I don't have a real social media presence, so I might go do a delve into my address book. Any ideas?

🛸 I was looking for a spade emoji And there wasn’t one (nor a trowel or digger) but found a cute little spaceship instead.

Just had an email update from Ann. The foxy one and the GLP are trying to intervene in her case.

She has also launched another campaign to address the misinformation put out across the country. Please note this campaign is not on the same site as her court case campaign.

We now turn our attention to the other side of the equation and a related vital task for which we need to raise funds.

The other side, is the organisations on the receiving end of that misguidance. AEA called on the EHRC to make a public statement about the corrections and for selective organisations to be individually informed. Instead, the changes were made quietly. The EHRC didn’t even post a notice on its website. No organisation, apart from AEA, was informed.

EHRC’s incorrect guidance stood for almost 10yrs. During that time, the guidance was accessed by many hundreds, probably many thousands, of organisations. The misguidance was further disseminated by management consultancies, training agencies and lobby groups. Misinformation has thus been spread far and wide and is replicated in the equality policies of all types of organisations throughout the country.

That needs to be redressed!

AEA stopped EHRC from promulgating incorrect guidance. We now want to let organisations know that they have been misled. Organisations need to be given accurate information about the Equality Act and the single-sex exception, so that they understand how to bring their policies and practices into compliance with the law.

Please help AEA deal with both sides of the equation!

I saw that good law project are applying to intervene. Jolyan is very keen on this new focus for his activist lawyering isn't he - jolyan the scourge of gender critical crowd funded judicial reviews (and foxes). I wonder what glp will bring to the defence that ehrc don't already provide?
I really hope Anne gets permission to bring a juducial review on this.

Can somebody explain the gardening metaphor for me? I missed whatever started it off, and I keep seeing it!