JK Rowling tweets image of ‘white, bearded, Stonewall-approved lesbian’ after facing fury for sharing snap of ‘inspirational’ black lesbian lawyer friend Allison Bailey as she begins court battle with controversial LGBT charity
- JK Rowling posted a picture of Allison Bailey to mark Lesbian Visibility Week
- The image showed Ms Bailey, a lesbian, marching for LGB rights in San Francisco
- She is suing Stonewall over claims she was silenced over her transgender views
- Linda Riley, Lesbian Visibility Week founder, accused Rowling of ‘stirring up hate’
- Rowling replied with a picture of ‘Stonewall approved lesbian’ Alex Drummond
JK Rowling has tweeted an image of a ‘white, bearded, Stonewall-approved lesbian’ after facing fury for sharing a picture of her friend Allison Bailey who is suing the controversial LGBT charity.
The Harry Potter writer, 56, posted a picture of her ‘inspirational’ friend Ms Bailey, who is a lesbian, to mark Lesbian Visibility Week which started in the UK today.
The image, which showed Ms Bailey marching for LGB rights in San Francisco in 1991, sparked fury within the trans community because the barrister is currently suing the LGBTQ+ charity Stonewall and her London chambers over claims she was ‘silenced’ for her views on transgender issues.
Linda Riley, the founder of Lesbian Visibility Week, accused Ms Rowling of using the week as ‘a vehicle to stir up more hate within our community’, adding that she ‘stands with Stonewall’.
In response, Ms Rowling tweeted a picture of Alex Drummond, who she called a ‘white, bearded, Stonewall-approved lesbian’, after claiming she had ‘stirred up hate’ for posting pictures of ‘black lesbians marching for their rights’.
JK Rowling with Allison Bailey, the barrister suing LGBTQ+ charity Stonewell and her chamber
Ms Bailey alleges she was victimised for ‘raising concerns about Stonewall’s actions’ with its Diversity Champions scheme and ‘trans women are women’ philosophy.
She is a founding figure in the controversial LGB Alliance, an LGB charity and action group which has repeatedly clashed with Stonewall over its views on gender.
The barrister claims she was ‘indirectly discriminated against’ because the charity and her chambers ‘hold gender critical beliefs as being bigoted and unworthy of respect’.
And she says she has lost work and income over the row.
Ms Bailey’s chambers, Garden Court Chambers, say they ‘strongly refute’ any claims they have acted unlawfully and are contesting her appeal to the Employment Tribunal service.
Meanwhile, Stonewall says its Diversity Champions programme aims to help firms ‘become more inclusive of LGBT people’.
Ms Bailey was among some of the country’s most prominent feminists and women’s activists hosted by Ms Rowling for a self-confessed boozy lunch to support the ‘Respect My Sex’ campaign earlier this month.
The prominent feminists and women’s activists hosted by Ms Rowling for a self-confessed boozy lunch to support the ‘Respect My Sex’ campaign earlier this month
Other guests at The River Cafe, in Fulham, included Professor Kathleen Stock, who resigned from her University of Sussex job after being accused of ‘transphobia’ and Helen Joyce, who penned Trans: When Ideology Meets Reality.
The co-founder of Sex Matters – which has united with other causes under the slogan ‘Respect my Sex if you want my X’ banner – Maya Forstater was also there.
They were joined by MP Rosie Duffield and veteran activist and campaigner at Get The L Out- Lesbian NOT queer campaign group Lianne Timmermann.
Many of those attending the meal have been subjected to death threats over their opinions or cancelled by woke zealots.
Ms Bailey, who describes herself as a feminist, is among a group who believe making it simple for people to self-identify as women is a threat to feminism.
She says ‘if the new trans activism is not brought to heel, women will disappear as a political class’.
Her LGB Alliance is a rival of Stonewall – the largest LGBT rights organisation in Europe – but has been accused of transphobia over its gender critical beliefs.
Ms Bailey is currently suing the LGBTQ+ charity Stonewall and her London chambers over claims she was ‘silenced’ for her views on transgender issues
Earlier this year the trans charity Mermaids launched an appeal against the Charity Commission’s decision to allow the group charity status.
The commission decided the group was beneficial to the public through its educational and awareness-raising activities about discrimination based on sexual orientation.
Ms Bailey, denies being transphobic, claiming ‘I have always been an advocate for transgender rights’.
In May, Ms Bailey became involved in a Twitter row with Robin White, a transgender barrister at Old Square Chambers, who acted for Stonewall in an unsuccessful bid by the charity and the chambers to have her claim struck out.
Ms Bailey had tweeted in support of a guide entitled ‘Boys and Girls and the Equality Act’, produced by Transgender Trend – an organisation that describes itself as ‘calling for evidence-based care for gender dysphoric children’.
Ms White replied, describing the guide as ‘partisan, incomplete and misleading’.
She also said that if followed the guide ‘would cause schools to act unlawfully towards trans children’.
After a series of responses Ms Bailey wrote: ‘Robin, you have chosen to insert yourself into my timeline. It’s for you to reflect on the ethics of this.’
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