the times | Saturday May 28 2022 2GM 9
News
Critics accusing Ricky Gervais of
fuelling transphobia through his stand-
up comedy have “nothing to say” but
are being amplified by social media,
Anthony Horowitz has said.
The television screenwriter and
children’s author, 67, commented on
Gervais’ new Netflix comedy special as
he discussed censorship and a “culture
of fear” at the Hay Festival.
Horowitz said children’s book pub-
lishers were the people most scared
about “cancel culture”, adding he was
shocked to be told what he could not say
in his latest book for younger readers.
He advocated watching Gervais, who
London lawyers have been transfixed
this spring by a humble employment
tribunal — one that goes to the heart of
both the trans debate and the ethics of
the legal profession.
Garden Court, one of the country’s
most prominent chambers of human
rights and civil liberties barristers, is in
a bitter battle over allegations involving
transphobia and claims that it was in
the pocket of Stonewall, the UK’s
leading LGBT rights organisation.
The chambers and the charity are
being sued by Allison Bailey, a lesbian
criminal law barrister, who claims that
senior lawyers at Garden Court dis-
criminated against her — to the point
where she lost a significant amount of
earnings — because she had said
publicly that sex was immutable and
that men could not become women.
Wider evidence has emerged during
the four-week hearing that some
female barristers at the chambers
Want to fight cancel culture? Watch Gervais, says author
David Sanderson Arts Correspondent was criticised this week after
making jokes about transgender
people.
“I’m very, very scared by what
you’re calling cancel culture,” he
said. “I think what is happening
to writers is extremely dan-
gerous, where certain
words are hidden, where
certain thoughts are not
allowed any more, where
certain activities [are not
allowed], obviously to do
with gender or to do with
ethnicity or to do with try-
ing to share the experiences
of others.”
Horowitz has become the
latest artist to denounce the spread
of “cancel culture”, which has led to
numerous public figures, such as his
fellow writer JK Rowling, being
ostracised for giving their opinion
on subjects such as transgender
rights.
Writers have also been
cancelled if they have
written from the point of
view of characters whose
experiences are differ-
ent from their own life,
such as a white writer in-
cluding a black character.Horowitz said he had “suffered”
while writing his latest book, Where
Seagulls Dare: A Diamond Brothers
Case, due to be published next month,
aimed at 8 to 12-year-olds. “I have just
suffered from my last book notes from
my publisher, which absolutely
shocked me about things which I could
or couldn’t say, which is a children’s
book, not an adult book,” he told the
festival.
Horowitz said he had needed to re-
write the book, which is about “the
world’s worst detectives”, extensively
although he declined to specify the
requests from the publishers. He said
they were “the usual -isms”.
Horowitz added: “Children’s bookpublishers are more scared than any-
body.” Social media, he added, had
thrown up stark contrasts whereby
things are either very good or very bad
“but there’s nothing in between”.
“This is leading to a culture of fear
and that is the bigger problem. It’s not
about cancellation, it’s not about anger,
it is about the fear that all creative
people must now feel if they’re going to
dare to write. I believe that writers
should not be cowed, we should not be
made to do things because we’re so
scared of starting a storm on Twitter.
“We’re all going to be left nudging
each other in the dark, too afraid to
search for the light. That is sort of
where we’re heading,” Horowitz added.Anthony Horowitz had to
rewrite his latest bookPerformed with passion Carmen, directed by the choreographer Didy Veldman, is at the Southbank Centre, London, tonightThe travel company Tui has told pilots
and cabin crew not to refer to passen-
gers as “ladies and gentlemen” but to
use gender-neutral terms.
Flyers can now expect to hear: “Good
morning, passengers, this is your cap-
tain speaking.” Lufthansa, Air Canada
and easyJet have already implemented
gender-neutral language.
Tui said it was committed to ensuring
that staff and customers “always feel
welcome”. Andrew Allison, the chief
executive of the Freedom Association,
a right-wing campaign group, said: “Tui
have their head in the clouds. There is
no need to change this in order to pla-
cate a tiny minority who feel offended.”
Toby Young, the general secretary of
the Free Speech Union, said: “Most sur-
veys put the percentage of the trans
people in the population at around
0.5 per cent and I cannot imagine more
than 10 per cent of them object.”
This month Tui warned holiday-
makers not to expect last-minute deals.
Bookings this summer are already at
85 per cent of 2019 levels.
The company said that in the second
quarter to the end of March, the num-
ber of customers had risen almost ten-
fold year-on-year to 1.9 million, with
turnover at €2.13 billion.
Tui ditches
‘ladies and
gentlemen’
James Callery
Stonewall tribunal captivates the Bar
claimed that, quite apart from its pro-
gressive and diverse image, Garden
Court was rife with sex discrimination
that put them on lower earnings than
their male counterparts. Further evi-
dence showed that senior barristers at
the chambers routinely posted inflam-
matory comments on social media.
Arguably most damaging, it has been
alleged that Garden Court is a funda-
mentally badly managed chambers
with its QC heads and other senior law-
yers having told the tribunal they were
on holiday, too busy, looking after their
children — or even based abroad — at
crucial times in the dispute with Bailey.
As one lawyer said as the main evi-
dence session finished this week: “The
trial has been reputationally appalling
for both Garden Court and Stonewall.”
Garden Court and Stonewall have
denied any wrongdoing and are de-
fending the claims.
Evidence during the hearing, which
finished on Thursday, has been lurid
and fractious, with barristers who are
used to asking questions in court beingforced into the uncomfortable position
of facing a grilling in the witness box.
There have also been moments when
the hearing slipped into the realm of the
bizarre. One witness, Kirrin Medcalf,
Stonewall’s head of trans inclusion, told
Sarah Goodman, the tribunal judge,
that he required a support worker, his
mother and a support dog to be with
him while giving evidence.
On another occasion Ben Cooper,
QC, Bailey’s lawyer, questioned a
former senior figure at the Bar Council,
which represents the profession in En-
gland and Wales, who supported the
principle of a training session in which
trans women who self-identified as
lesbians were “coached” on how to
“coerce” female lesbians into having
sex with transpeople with penises.
Bailey says that she will not comment
on the case until a ruling is given. The
parties are expected to return, re-
motely, to the Central London tribunal
on June 20 for closing statements and
judgment is likely to be reserved to a
later date.Sarah Phillimore, a family law barris-
ter in Bristol, who has been following
the hearing, described it as “a reputa-
tional car crash” for Garden Court,
which until now was held in high re-
gard. “They talk the talk,” Phillimore
said of the chambers, adding: “They
give a picture of being a respectable,
well-run, ethical establishment, but
when the rubber hit the road, they
crumbled.”
More generally, Phillimore said the
case offered salutary lessons for the
barristers’ profession. “If you leave the
management to a group of self-
employed people who are doing their
demanding day jobs, inevitably things
are going to crack — no one had time to
consider things properly,” she said.
Several outcomes are possible when
the tribunal panel gives its ruling. The
case is legally interesting because
despite Bailey being a self-employed
barrister, she has been allowed to bring
a claim in the employment tribunal
since under equality law, chambers are
viewed as trade associations.Bailey is also able to sue Stonewall
because the Equality Act 2010 states
that it is unlawful to induce, cause or
influence prohibited conduct. In this
case, it is alleged that Stonewall put
pressure on Garden Court to discipline
Bailey over her gender-critical com-
ments.
Bailey could triumph over both
Garden Court and Stonewall or only
one, with damages awarded. Or she
could lose the claim entirely.
Regardless of which way the ruling
goes, the case has illustrated that the
culture wars in the supposedly sedate
Inns of Court over the fraught issue of
transgenderism are only beginning.
A spokesman for Garden Court said
that the chambers “strongly refute the
claims made against us”. He added: “We
have a professional obligation to
investigate any complaints received by
our chambers. Following an investi-
gation in 2019 into complaints made
about Ms Bailey’s social media posts, it
was concluded that no action was
necessary.”Jonathan Ames Legal Editor
Catherine Baksi
The makers of Barbie have launched
the brand’s first transgender doll in the
image of the actress and activist
Laverne Cox.
The star of the Netflix prison comedy
Orange is the New Black said she hoped
the doll would inspire children as she
unveiled it. Cox, an outspoken advocate
for transgender rights, said that she was
shamed as a child for wanting a Barbie.“I hope that kids of all
gender identities can
look at this Barbie and
dream,” she added.
In recent years the
company has sold a line of
gender neutral dolls, as
well as “role model” Bar-
bies celebrating inspiring
women such as the ten-
nis player Naomi Osaka
and the civil rights activ-
ist Rosa Parks.The doll is based
on the actress
Laverne CoxTransgender
Barbie doll
goes on sale
James CalleryELLIOTT FRANKS