Sent: 30 October 2019 11:36
To: David Renton
Subject: Allison Bailey
Dear Dave,
I’m writing to protest at the treatment of your colleague, Allison Bailey, by Garden Court chambers.
Allison is a lesbian who defends the rights of gay people to define themselves as same-sex attracted. For this, she has been subjected to a co-ordinated campaign of abuse. As you must know, Garden Court have responded by subjecting her to an investigation. Campaigns of vexatious complaints to employers are a familiar tool of transactivists. The people they target are overwhelmingly women and disproportionately lesbian. By treating these vexatious complaints as valid, Garden Court is facilitating anti-lesbian, misogynistic and racist bullying.
Why is the reaction to individual women like Allison speaking out so vicious, so extreme? Because they must be made an example of, to silence the rest. Anyone who believes that, in a democracy, it matters that people are not in fear of losing their livelihoods for taking part in political debate, should be troubled by this. Anyone who claims to support women’s right to freedom of association and expression must speak out against these witch hunts.
All of us women who speak out in our own names are subjected to frightening abuse. I have had to report death threats to the police, and have been subject to sickening defamatory smears. I know many colleagues who have suffered far worse, and do not feel safe in their workplaces. Have you ever questioned why genderism relies so heavily on intimidation, threats and violence against women?
Those of us who continue to speak out, despite the cost, do so because we feel a responsibility to the many who have been silenced. As a professor, with security of employment, I have to speak for all the women who have told me they don’t dare to speak their own minds. The women of colour who can’t bring themselves to deal with the inevitable torrent of racialized abuse, the women in insecure employment (and this is the vast majority of younger colleagues of course) who cannot risk their jobs, the students who are terrified of being denounced if they express their views in class.
This debate has allowed men on the left to display their misogyny, their lesbophobia and even their racism towards black women, while feeling righteously progressive. It has allowed them to refuse to allow women’s voices to be heard. It has allowed them to avoid any evidence-based analysis of sex and sexism. The contempt for women that has been unleashed and exposed by the genderist movement is breath taking.
I would ask you to show solidarity with Allison. As her colleague, you have the opportunity to offer her support both privately and publicly, and to make your voice heard in her support within your chambers. This does not require you to agree with her, but simply to respect her right, and the right of women in general, to freedom of association, and participation in public debate.
Best wishes,
Alice
Postscript
Dave Renton replied only to say that it would be inappropriate to discuss this with me.
Dave Renton’s Testimony in Court 25th May 2022 (extract from my notes)
Ben Cooper (BC) asks about email from AS, who is a “respectable and influential person”
DR: I didn’t just read email, printed it out and put it on my desk. 4.5 hours before responding. I took the email very seriously.
BC reads from AS email. “Allison is a lesbian who defends the rights of gay people to define themselves as same-sex attracted. For this, she has been subjected to a coordinated campaign of abuse. As you must know, Garden Court have responded by subjecting her to an investigation. Campaigns of vexatious complaints to employers are a familiar tool of transactivists. The people they target are overwhelmingly women and disproportionately lesbian. By treating these vexatious complaints as valid, Garden Court is facilitating anti-lesbian, misogynistic and racist bullying… This debate has allowed men on the left to display their misogyny, their lesbophobia and even their racism towards black women, while feeling righteously progressive. It has allowed them to refuse to allow women’s voices to be heard. It has allowed them to avoid any evidence-based analysis of sex and sexism. The contempt for women that has been unleashed and exposed by the genderist movement is breath taking.
I would ask you to show solidarity with Allison. As her colleague, you have the opportunity to offer her support both privately and publicly, and to make your voice heard in her support within your chambers. This does not require you to agree with her, but simply to respect her right, and the right of women in general, to freedom of association, and participation in public debate.”
DR: What I understood AS to believe…to be telling me that AB was in fear of losing her livelihood, was about to be thrown out of chambers…I knew that simply wasn’t true. So it seemed to me that AS was asking me to believe that something was taking place which I was absolutely certain was not taking place…I thought she assumed a chambers meeting would vote on kicking Allison out of chambers and she was asking me to turn up and vote against. I knew her understanding of what was going on was just completely wrong…That’s why I did not do as she asked.”
BC “Mr Renton, that is entirely your inference as to what Ms Sullivan is saying, and let me suggest it’s an unjustified one…She is inviting you to support AB privately and publicly. You didn’t did you?”
DR ”…That wasn’t on the table to me”