Whistleblowers at EHRC say that Kishwer Falkner is the victim of a 'witch-hunt by trans lobby'

[IwantToRetire]

Relations are said to have soured after she backed legal reforms guarding the rights of biological women in single-sex spaces such as hospital wards and toilets.

The employees at the Equality and Human Rights Commission are said to have compiled a dossier, setting out more than 40 complaints aimed at Baroness Falkner by a dozen current and former colleagues. A source said: 'People within the organisation are deeply concerned that this is a witch-hunt.

'The timing is extremely questionable. There is no doubt in my mind that this is ideologically motivated and is a way to take a scalp in revenge. ...

Baroness Falkner is said to have been left 'heartbroken' by the allegations but those close to her said her 'conscience was clear'. They branded the move by EHRC staff a 'failed coup d'etat'.

Members of the commission's board, which is headed by Baroness Falkner, have called for an overhaul of the 2010 Equality Act, which refers to gender and sex interchangeably.

They argue it should be amended to explicitly define sex as 'biological sex' to bring legal clarity in areas including sport and ensure only 'biological women' can use single-sex spaces.

Staff from the executive team were said to having been pushing to allow for gender self-identification, allowing trans people to state their chosen gender without any medical diagnosis.

A second source said: 'The executive just refused to accept the board's decision. There were strenuous efforts to reject it and it was around this time allegations were starting to be made.

'There is a very progressive, activist-inclined staff who are influenced by organisations and groups like Stonewall.'

The source said senior executives had grown accustomed to calling the shots at the commission but this changed when Baroness Falkner took over to provide 'real leadership'.

They said the complaints felt like a move to 'get her', adding: 'This process of finding fault with Kishwer is clearly political.' The dossier is said to have made claims of discrimination, including transphobia, bullying and harassment. ...

Full story (sorry!) at DM https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12112707/Whistleblowers-human-rights-commission-say-boss-facing-witch-hunt-trans-lobby.html

(My DD's going to UCL. Sorry, that wasn't clear at all!)

You can always find experts in any field that reject common understanding

"Reject common understanding" like understand the importance of biological sex? Ho ho ho.

”Honestly, no-one at the top is indoctrinated. We would rather you all stop fighting each other but we accept this is a by product of free speech and activism amongst staff and students.”

Hmm, sounds a bit “both sides are as bad as each other” to me. Is that what you believe?

Now this:

Rights body ‘captured’ by gender ideology

EHRC watchdog told school to transition pupils to their ‘true identity’ or face discrimination claims

"Staff at the equalities watchdog told a school that they had to socially transition a pupil, it has emerged, amid warnings that the organisation has been “captured” by gender ideology.
The Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) warned a school that if it did not allow pupils to use single-sex facilities, which matched their “true gender identity”, it “would constitute an act of discrimination”.
The letter has emerged after Baroness Falkner, its chairmann, successfully faced down a coup by activist stafff as she tried to rebalance the commission’s approach to trans rights. Her allies said the “shocking” letter was the kind of behaviour at the “captured” organisation that she was attempting to changee_.
A source at the EHRC said: “Ideologues had captured the EHRC before Baroness Falkner took over, we know now from the Cass Review [on gender identity] that socially transitioning a child is not a neutral act.”
Complained to Mermaids
The school’s head teacher received the letter in 2016 after a girl in year 10, who identified as a boy, complained to Mermaids, the trans lobby group, that teachers were not letting her use the boys’ changing rooms or play rugby.
After Mermaids passed the complaint to the EHRC, the watchdog’s solicitor wrote to the head teacher urging them to support the child’s gender transition.
The solicitor sent passages from guidance used in Brighton and Hove, which was not the area that the school was based in, stating that trans pupils should be able to take part in PE, competitions, and sports days “in a manner consistent with their gender identity”.
The EHRC employee then asked the school to confirm what they were doing to “support” the students’ transition.
Documents seen by this newspaper show that in the same year EHRC staff met with Mermaids as part of a “scoping exercise” to see if there were any test cases on trans discrimination that they could take to court.
Any legal action could have set a precedent, though it is understood that none of the cases that Mermaids proposed were deemed suitable to pursue."

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/05/31/baroness-falkner-equality-human-rights-commission-timeline/

What the ever loving fuck?????

Holy fuckin moly.

"Any legal action could have set a precedent, though it is understood that none of the cases that Mermaids proposed were deemed suitable to pursue."

One can only imagine what Mermaids proposed that even the captured EHRC wouldn't go there.

Full article here

twitter.com/cforwomenuk/status/1664018537269305344?s=46&t=WHoOZ_3Kv5G6-FyQuvE0LQ

M

Fuck that is grim .

Can we all pass our complaints to the EHRC and have them acted on, then?

The Telegraph is going in with all guns blazing on this and rightly so.

The EHRC has had a caveat on their website about their Technical Guidance for Schools since Nov 2022, saying it is out of date and undergoing revision.

Lets hope the revised version is more sensible.

It's on their front page at the bottom in the middle:

twitter.com/tmorrowspapers/status/1664023014445395970?s=46&t=WHoOZ_3Kv5G6-FyQuvE0LQ

“A year later, the EHRC, attempted to produce its own schools guidance. It enlisted Mermaids and Gendered Intelligence, another trans lobby group.”

Can people finally see it though? If they hadn’t before, do they now? That mermaids was enlisted to form schools guidance when they have such a poor safeguarding record and the over reach, is shocking in how far their influence has gone. Mermaids are the experts that advise law interpreters? How the fuck did that happen? Not sure they have interpreted a law correctly yet!! But the EHRC team had them in to ‘advise’! When the EHRC team are supposed to be the fucking experts in discrimination law!!!!

If you cannot see it yet, not sure how much lower mermaids can sink before the obvious is flashing in ten storey high neon signs.

But the EHRC team had them in to ‘advise’! When the EHRC team are supposed to be the fucking experts in discrimination law!!!!

And not only that, mermaids and Stonewall persuaded them that not allowing men to do what the fuck they liked was discriminatory.

it's absolutely bloody criminal.

The 'search for cases that could set a precedent' seems familiar. Oh for my younger self's memory!

I am not sure if it is the same version of the story here School told to transition pupils to their ‘true identity’ or face discrimination claims (yahoo.com)

And yes I know it is terrible, but the point of the story is to say this is what was happening in the past (2016) and this is why the appointment of Baroness Falkner is important to try and stop the one sided view that (appeared) to have taken over the EHRC.

I imagine there will be any number of leaks to the Telegraph and Times in the months to come.

See also Whitehall ‘blob’ blocked me from meeting Kathleen Stock, says Boris’s ‘free speech’ minister (yahoo.com)

It’s very worrying

An organisation has been captured and they could wield damage

Denton's?

There was also this about the EHRC appearing to seek test cases before Falkner arrived:

Parents’ anger as child sex change charity puts private emails online

www.thetimes.co.uk/article/c7abd38e-8fa0-11e9-9b18-a1967b748a67?shareToken=cb378c0d565bd5188a99cd2c6f44c1a2

"The emails also show co-operation with the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC), another official body with a public stance of neutrality in the transgender debate. In the correspondence, the EHRC appeared to seek trans test cases against schools and service providers."

Found it.

https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/womens_rights/3398737-We-re-Still-Here-Conference-8th-September-A-report-from-the-inside

'James Morton (Scottish Trans Alliance) said to be “strategic about test cases to ensure strong case law”.

Edward Lord agreed. He also said that the City of London Corp city solicitor and the Chief Exec are “strong allies”.'

And more:

'The group deliberately targeted prisons as a means of persuading other public bodies to follow its agenda, the then Director of the Alliance, James Morton, wrote in the 2018 book Trans Britain.'

https://www.c4m.org.uk/how-extreme-trans-ideology-captured-scottish-public-sector/

At least, I think that was what was on my mind! You may have been thinking of something else, of course, Tallisker.

Jonathan Gullis, a Tory MP and former education minister, said: “The police should stand up for women’s rights, for the protection of women and for the belief that people shouldn’t be cancelled just because some trans extremists wanting to push their own political agenda through intimidation and bullying.”
I found this quote from the article @IwantToRetire posted really heartening

I think I might have been thinking about what ResisterRex posted, Arabella, but I was also aware of that bit in Denton's that targeted getting trans people into prisons. Once that wall has been breached, other places can't really maintain single sex spaces. Shocking tactics with no thought for incarcerated women.

That relied on prisoners being the set of people that the rest of us care about the least because of them having "deserved" incarceration by committing a crime. I'm glad it has seen pushback. Even ignoring the arguments about miscarriages of justice and remanded defendants, incarcerating women alongside people who have penises is psychological torture because those women fear rape every waking moment, even if it never actually happens, because we don't know who is a rapist and who isn't. Torture is always wrong. When we treat prisoners without humanity, we lose our own.