Mermaids, Gendered Intelligence & Fox killer launch appeal against Charity Commission over LGB Alliance charity status

[FindTheTruth]

www.scotsman.com/news/people/lgbt-charities-launch-appeal-against-charity-commission-over-controversial-groups-status-3257923

"In April, the LGB Alliance was made a charity after the commission decided the group benefitted the public through its educational and awareness-raising activities about discrimination based on sexual orientation."

"On Tuesday, transgender children’s charity Mermaids launched an appeal against the decision at the first tier tribunal, supported by other charities and groups including Stonewall, Gendered Intelligence, and the Good Law Project."

I think Alice Roberts was quite rude about Christianity at Easter. According to Maugham presumably that means that Humanists U.K. should be stripped of their charitable status.

And didn't Nancy Kelley say just a few days ago that Stonewall doesn't claim to represent everyone?

Yes, and she said that in response to a question about whether Stonewall represented lesbians who don't believe that people can change sex. So why object to a group of LGB people who don't believe that people can change sex setting up their own charity, when Stonewall have said that they don't support this group of people?

The Good Law Project is pretty much stymied as far as reputation is concerned?

Probably stymied anyway. Maugham got a lot of support because of his work on Brexit (with, ironically, J Cherry), but he seems to struggle to work with others or see the wood for the trees.

His expertise is finding loopholes, but that doesn’t necessarily translate into a good understanding of wider law.

@RedDogsBeg

This quote in the article from Mermaids is interesting:

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

and the problem with that is what exactly?

exactly - I'm involved with a health charity, and we absolutely seek to operate just for the benefit of people with a particular medical condition, and who share our belief that properly evidenced expert medical advice is the way to go.

Don't see any issues with that, nor with what LGBA are doing. Have made a (sadly small) donation to them in support.

This is kerrr-ching time for lawyers, isn't it?

I seem to remember Jolyon Maugham writing an article a while back on the ethical aspect of crowd-funding and potential mis-selling issues. And here we have a crowdfunder for an appeal that can't possibly succeed, so is being launched as a PR exercise. And the lawyers earn themselves another £20,000.

Just when you think they couldn't go any lower...

I suspect this is more about trying to sue a small charity with limited resources out of existence, to make it so difficult for LGBA’s day-to-day operations that they fold, even if this action by GLP et al fails.

JM has skin in the game. Not sure what I'm allowed to say but hasn't there been reference to a relative for whom this is relevant. So it's not a legal campaign for him but an emotional one based on the perceived threat to the rights of a family member.

I think Stonewall likening people who disagree with them to anti-Semites was pretty demeaning.

I question the wisdom of SW going after the LGBA given the ongoing Allison Bailey case. Their barrister has previously inserted themselves into AB’s Twitter timeline and now this case.

Are they trying to drain the LGBA of funds to neutralise it? They can’t really think this case will succeed.

Are they also trying to distract Allison from her own case? So, Stonewall is joining this suite that surely must amount to harassment instead of getting the appropriate documents to Allison while targeting a group she is part of?

Have they done this under the guise of 'Mermaids' leading as further obfuscation?

The cynic in me sees this less as an expectation of stripping LGB Alliance of their charitable status, and more of a spiteful tying their time and resources up in answering the petition.

Of course, I could be wrong. They could just be so, so far into their echo chamber that they truly cannot see what everyone else can. And then there's narcissism, so like I say, I could be wrong.

Agreed @WhereYouLeftIt. If this suit fails, I suspect there will be another, in the hope that LGBA will just give up.

JM has skin in the game it has struck me that men of a certain age in positions of power and influence find the ability to express behaviours they say they had to suppress for many years.

Some even wear kimonos.

This tactic won't win. The Charity commission will act, and the law can hopefully do something to prevent malicious law suits. And I will double my donations.

This shit just takes us further and further away from workable solutions for women gay people and the trans community.

@thepuredrop

Agreed *@WhereYouLeftIt*. If this suit fails, I suspect there will be another, in the hope that LGBA will just give up.

Crikey, they really don't get it, if that's the case.

All of this, every last bit of it, just strengthens people's resolve.

They must have seen it, time, after time, after time. Absolutely no one has given up.

Is it the LGB Alliance that is being challenged or the Charity Commission? I read it as the latter, so I don't see why it should cost the LGB Alliance anything except time and stress. Stonewall wants to break anyone who stands up to them.

In a way this is good. It allows a few more people to see what a bullying, cynical organisations Stonewall is. What could the LGB Alliance, run by volunteers, unfunded by the state and big business, possibly say that could be so dangerous to the mighty Stonewall?

And furthermore, it just gains traction. More and more people See the problems.

more of a spiteful tying their time and resources up in answering the petition.

This is the Gender Alliance versus the Charity Commission though, right? I wouldn't have thought LGB Alliance themselves would necessarily need to be that deeply involved?

Another question - what sort of precedent is there for this? Anyone, let alone other charities, successfully challenging a charity's charity status via the law? Presumably normal challenges would be to the commision themselves?

Wow, their really saying the quiet part out loud arn't they.

I dont have much spare cash at all, but going full steam ahead with this brazen homophobia just so they can remove the rights of women is sickening.
How can we support LGBA? Where is the best place to send donations?

I would expect the LGBA would want to intervene in the case.

It is my understanding that LGBA will be able to defend themselves?

So how is it going to look when the charity Mermaids is shown to be encouraging use of a GP banned from practice, and encouraging experimental medical treatment on children. How is it going to look when it is shown that Stonewall does.not recognise same purely sex attraction as legitimate, or actively campaigns for sex by deception to be allowed, or for women's rights to be removed from the equality act. Are these legitimate aims for a charity?

Is there any possibility this could backfire on them massively?

It's hard to figure out the reasoning. If the case is lost it will bring a lot of publicity and will open a lot of people's eyes. If the case is won, then this will achieve the same result.

The only tactic I can imagine is that bringing the case is a kind of loss leader. The expectation is to lose and this will achieve two goals, to more firmly embed the victim narrative "look, both the Establishment and the courts deny the existence of trans people" and to employ that to draw in more closely the true believers.

Someone posted this on twitter. It’s enlightening…

@nauticant

It's hard to figure out the reasoning. If the case is lost it will bring a lot of publicity and will open a lot of people's eyes. If the case is won, then this will achieve the same result.

The only tactic I can imagine is that bringing the case is a kind of loss leader. The expectation is to lose and this will achieve two goals, to more firmly embed the victim narrative "look, both the Establishment and the courts deny the existence of trans people" and to employ that to draw in more closely the true believers.

I honestly think it's a complete inability to read the room. JM had no idea that his fox bashing tweet would go down like a lead balloon.

And as for comparing trans people to Jews, and those who have gender critical beliefs to ante semites, words fail me.

I would also have thought that much more of this and the usual suspects are going to have a harrassment case to answer.

The fact they are using public money to harrass womens and gay rights campaigners must surely count as an agravating factor.