Charity Commission urges tolerance of opposing views after tribunal ruling

The Charity Commission has warned that there must be respect and tolerance of opposing views after a transgender rights group lost its case to have a gay rights organisation stripped of its charitable status.

Mermaids, in what is believed to be the first case of its kind in the UK, challenged a decision by the commission to grant LGB Alliance charitable status in 2021.

The alliance group, which represents lesbian, gay and bisexual people, said it was “absolutely delighted” with the judgment and insisted organisations must “be free to disagree”.

Mermaids, which supports transgender, non-binary and gender diverse children and their families, said it was disappointed by the ruling and is taking legal advice on a possible appeal.

Welcoming the tribunal ruling on Thursday, the Charity Commission warned that charities with opposing views must be respectful and tolerant of other organisations.

The case, heard last year by the General Regulatory Chamber in London, is thought to be the first time in the UK that a charity has sought to have the charitable status of another removed.

Mermaids had argued that LGB Alliance had been “concerned with promoting ‘anti-trans ‘gender critical’ beliefs’, lobbying for legal change in favour of their views and pushing back against organisations who advocate for ‘trans-equality'”.

LGB Alliance described itself as a charity which promotes the rights of lesbian, gay and bisexual people “on the basis of sex rather than gender and believes that gender transition is largely driven by homophobia”.

The tribunal’s two-judge panel said it had decided Mermaids did not have a legal right to challenge the commission’s decision to register LGB Alliance as a charity.

During a brief online hearing, Judge Lynn Griffin said: “We have dismissed this appeal because we have decided that the law does not permit Mermaids to challenge the decision made by the Charity Commission to register LGB Alliance as a charity.”

But the judges, in their written ruling, said they had been unable to agree on the further issue of whether LGB Alliance is a charity within the meaning of the Charities Act.

They deemed it “inappropriate to set out our individual reasons on a hypothetical issue”, having decided on the first issue regarding the right to challenge the commission’s registration decision.

The judges said the case was focused on the Charities Act rather than the rights of gender-diverse or gay people.

They wrote: “The topics on which we have heard evidence, and the broader implications both for individuals and society, are important matters of public interest on which strong views are held and publicly expressed.”

LGB Alliance chief executive Kate Barker said the “sometimes bruising” process had cost their organisation more than £250,000 in legal fees and added that “in a free society we must be free to disagree and we hold fiercely to that view”.

In a statement, Mermaids said: “While we are disappointed by the finding that we did not have standing to bring the appeal, Mermaids is proud to have been able to speak up authentically for the trans community in court, and to have demonstrated that the LGBT+ sector is united in its trans-inclusive approach, which we believe to be a victory in itself.”

The ruling also stated that the judges believed concerns from Mermaids and the commission that LGB Alliance had at times “gone beyond the boundaries of civilised debate” were “well-founded”.

But the ruling added that it was important to recognise “where those actions were taken by LGBA, rather than by those who support or concur with their beliefs but do not speak on its behalf; and where those actions were taken before the decision (to register the group as a charity) was taken, and have since ceased”.

The Charity Commission said it welcomed the ruling and said the judges had confirmed that it is not the commission’s role to regulate public debate “on sensitive issues on which there are deeply held, sincere beliefs on all sides”.

“Our role is to apply the law, and we consider that we did so in registering LGB Alliance as a charity.

“We understand both charities hold opposing views, but when engaging in public debate and campaigning, they should do so with respect and tolerance.

“Demonising and undermining those who think differently is not acceptable behaviour from any charity on our register.”

During the hearings last year LGB Alliance co-founder Bev Jackson said the organisation shared the view of Harry Potter author JK Rowling that “without sex there is no same-sex attraction”.

Dr Belinda Bell, chair of trustees at Mermaids, accused LGB Alliance of trying to “undermine” the work of charities such as Mermaids and Stonewall, saying the group had “repeatedly stated in public forums that Mermaids seeks to inappropriately push LGB children into identifying as trans”, allegations it said are “false and harmful to Mermaids’ ongoing work”.

Separately, a Charity Commission inquiry into Mermaids – opened in December last year after new concerns were identified about the organisation’s governance and management – is ongoing.