Dear Friends, Supporters and Funders,

We have now reached an agreement with the claimant that neither party will pursue any further aspect of these proceedings. I am not allowed to give you any further details so if we meet up please do not ask me to explain further. Thank you for your generous donations, which have allowed me to see this process through to a conclusion.

As you may recall the case against me was struck down by the judge in 2022, however the claimant has submitted an appeal to the Employment Appeal Tribunal which has, initially, been found to have been submitted out of time and, therefore, rejected. The claimant has now applied to get his claim reinstated. Each of these steps of course raises more legal cost. I will keep you posted and we continue to be eternally grateful to everyone who has shown support in so many ways.Unfortunately this fundraiser is still necessarily open as we continue to seek money to cover these ongoing legal costs.

We have now received the Schedule of Costs from our Solicitor.

Our legal costs have substantially risen due to the continued action of the Claimant, which is ongoing despite the claim against us being dismissed by the Judge (decision 30th September 2022). 

We have had to raise our target figure from £30,000 to £50,000 for crowdfunding and appreciate any ongoing support you can give in sharing this cause with your contacts.

https://www.crowdjustice.com/case/help-fund-defence-for-an-lgbtq/

We cannot express enough our deep gratitude for people's ongoing support, morally and materially.

Dear Friend and Supporter,

Strike Out Achieved!

I am pleased to confirm the excellent news that the claim against me has now been dismissed following an Employment Tribunal Pre-Hearing where a judge heard our application for strike-out.

My solicitor had informed the claimant from the beginning of our defence that his claim against me had no reasonable prospects of success and that the Employment Tribunal did not have jurisdiction to hear the claim against me. Despite this the claimant continued his action against me. On 30th September my solicitor’s view was upheld by the decision of the Employment Tribunal to strike out the case and that it had little to no prospect of success.

These facts are a matter of public record and you may verify them using this link to the Employment Tribunal website: https://www.gov.uk/employment-tribunal-decisions/mr-j-esses-v-the-metanoia-institute-and-others-2206164-slash-2021-and-2206708-slash-2021

The decision by the claimant to continue with his claim against me, despite being put on notice of having no reasonable prospects of success, has resulted in me facing a year of stress and a large legal bill which has been partly met by your generous help to date in crowd-funding.

We have now been informed that the Claimant has asked the Tribunal to review its decision on strike-out which is going to incur even more costs for me to fight that application.

If you can share one more time with your contacts (or even donate) we would be very grateful. Here is the link again.

https://www.crowdjustice.com/case/help-fund-defence-for-an-lgbtq/

I cannot thank people enough for the continued help and support you have already given. We are keen to put this matter behind us, and are making this further request for donations to help us meet the outstanding legal fees and those required to defend against the claimant’s continued action despite the findings of the pre-hearing.

Throughout these deeply disturbing events, my partner and I, our family and our colleagues have been sustained by the kindness, generosity, support, faith and energy of so many people, some known to us and many unknown.

Contributors have come from LGBTQ communities and also many outstandingly generous contributions from cisgender heterosexual allies. Some people have told us that these events have made them newly aware and activated to support LGBTQ people in the face of the increasing persecutions they are facing daily. Colleagues have reached out to give support and healing when the stress of being targeted in this way has felt too much to bear. This experience of kindness has brought about deep personal learning and healing which I am determined to harvest and will endeavour to return the fruits of this to the community. I am now back at work and will continue to rebuild.

The pre-hearing of the case against me was heard over 3 days starting on 14^th June. We are now in the process of making the final written submissions and then we must await the decision of the Tribunal. I am hopeful that I have been successful in striking out the Claimant’s claim against me, however we will only know for certain when the decision of the Tribunal is received.

My strong and deeply committed legal representatives (solicitor: Ian Hurst for Duncan Lewis; barrister: Robin White) believed that the hearing would last less than 3 days, however this was not to be. The hearing was delayed by half a day because of the illness of the judge. The hearing was then further delayed by the Claimant’s insistence that a document that contained highly personal information regarding people who were not a party to the proceedings should be placed in the public domain. Both myself and the other Respondent were totally against that material being made public. We also argued that the document was neither agreed nor relevant. Although the Claimant argued, for a number of hours, that it was important that it should be in the public domain they eventually agreed that they did not rely on it. This unnecessary argument raised my legal fees substantially.

I continue to be humbled and grateful for the support that you and so many others have given to make possible my defence in the legal battle against me - and for the ever-growing support of my stance for a trans-inclusive ban on ineffective and deeply harmful conversion ‘therapy’ and practices.

As soon as I hear from the Tribunal I will release a statement which will include precise information regarding the legal costs incurred. At that point we will be able to release more information which will hopefully boost our fund-raising efforts to cover the costs that defending this case has incurred.

We have some words here from the therapist:

“Dear Friends and Supporters, I am overwhelmed with gratitude for peoples’ material and emotional support through this extraordinarily stressful time. I understand how giving to this appeal, when I have tried to remain fairly anonymous, has required trust and generosity in very unusual circumstances. There will come a time soon when my identity and that of the person making the claim against me cannot be kept discretely. For now, maintaining a low profile is part of trying to protect myself against harassment and other detriments to clients and colleagues. Also, we do not want to give extra publicity to the claimant and their views.

“We have a 3-Day hearing in June where we are attempting to get the Claimant’s claim struck out for want of Jurisdiction. It would appear that it is highly unlikely that a resolution can be reached before that so it is now almost certain that this matter can only be decided by the Tribunal and the legal costs that this will incur. It is essential that we meet the target of £30K to give full representation at the strike-out hearing. We are already more than half-way there.

“I have been advised by my legal team that I have strong grounds for defending the claim however the costs in doing so are high. My barrister, has helped keep my anxiety within manageable proportions by reminding me that I am a small part in a much bigger chapter in history. She is an inspiration to all of us who keep faith that, although we will always face terrifying set-backs and backlash, the struggles toward greater humanity, inclusion and civil harmony are overall forward-moving. We will get there.

“This all highlights the importance of the forthcoming hearing for strike-out of this case to prevent it going to a full merits hearing where, although I am confident that I would be able to defend it, the legal fees in doing so would be astronomical. There have already been considerable costs involved but we must still fund representation in the Strike Out Hearing (an estimated £30K in total). But, if we succeed in getting a strike-out, this will save us the eye-watering costs (and distress) of going to a full merits tribunal.

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“I have literally been sickened that I appear to have been made a target in the fights over the principles and issues of protecting gender and sexual diversities from conversion “therapy”. The past few months have brought such distress that at times I have been unable to work at all. I have also had to turn down numerous speaking and training engagements on these subjects out of fear. As a long-term supporter of trans, non-binary and asexual inclusions in a ban on conversion therapy I began to realise some time ago that I was in the cross-hairs of those who are opposed to the de-pathologising of gender and sexual diversity. I thought this would be limited to the ongoing misrepresentation and routine heckling at conferences that many have witnessed over the years. I never imagined that I would be subjected to the hostile action that I am now facing.

“My one consolation is that this nightmare experience gives me some better insight and empathy with my clients who have to face persecution every day of their lives. Allies should never forget that we can make a choice to walk away or take a break from these terrifying dynamics – trans and non-binary people face potential threat every day and have no option but to continue to try to live their lives authentically and in peace in the face of prejudice, discrimination and violence.

“Everyone has been asking what they can do to help me get through this time. Right now, the most helpful contribution from people outside of these proceedings is to help with the crowd funding efforts. This aspect of the situation is utterly unfamiliar and frightening to me, energy sapping and exposing me to more potential abuse. If you can help with this it really does make a difference.

Please Donate and Share This Page 

“Although the UK has been surveyed as over 60% in favour of protecting all gender and sexual minorities from conversion “therapy”, and over 20 psychological, medical and psychiatric bodies have for years backed a trans-inclusive ban, the government is taking advice from unknown sources and proposing numerous loopholes that will actually put especially young people at greater risk of harmful and ineffective conversion practices.

“In effect, the partial ban currently proposed by the government could be used to endorse conversion practices on any young person who is gender non-conforming, which would include many LGB children and young people. Further government proposed loopholes would actually protect conversion “therapists” to continue practicing as they could simply issue the client with a contract containing a waiver of consent despite the potential harms and ineffectiveness of such “treatment”. The professional bodies and legal specialists know how to legislate the complexities of an inclusive ban – why is the government not listening to them?

“Please help if you can by donating to the CrowdJustice page.

LGBTQIA people and their allies, who include ethical, competent, non-pathologising therapists, must be safe to respond to the real needs of gender and sexual diverse people and be a united force to end the horrors of all unjustified and cruel conversion practices with all gender and sexual diversities.”

Please Donate and Share This Page 

Please help us raise the fund total to £30,000 to cover costs of legal representation at the 3-day hearing for striking out the case. 

We need your further urgent support to fund the defence of this LGBTQ+ therapist in the UK, who has spoken out against unethical and harmful “conversion therapy” (gay or trans “cure”).

SHARE THIS LINK: https://www.crowdjustice.com/case/help-fund-defence-for-an-lgbtq/

Thank you so much

We need your further urgent support to fund the defence of this LGBTQ+ therapist in the UK, who has spoken out against unethical and harmful “conversion therapy” (gay or trans “cure”).

Please help us raise the fund total to £30,000 to cover costs of appropriately specialist legal representation at the 3-day hearing for striking out the case.

SHARE THIS LINK: https://www.crowdjustice.com/case/help-fund-defence-for-an-lgbtq/

Thanks to generous support so far we have been able to fund an application for this case to be struck out and to date we have raised over £12,000. We are so grateful and your generosity, materially and personally, has helped to get through this first stage of defending against the claim.

We would rather that money was available for better mental health support for LGBTQ people or for our friends in Ukraine but …this is a critical time in defending LGBTQ+ people and those who speak out in alliance with them.

A Gender Critical campaigner is bringing costly proceedings against a therapist because he claims it was him specifically who was being referred to when the therapist spoke in a small workshop of the general patterns over many years and in several states that have led to the UN calling for a worldwide ban on “conversion therapy”.

It is the therapist’s belief that this claim against her is vexatious and malicious and that it is the claimant’s intention to silence critics of his views. You can find out more on the Crowd Justice page here:

https://www.crowdjustice.com/case/help-fund-defence-for-an-lgbtq/

Now we must spread this fundraising effort even further to meet the costs of legal representation at the 3-day hearing of that application for strike-out. PLEASE - Help us get to £30,000 to defend against this deeply concerning action. All funds go directly towards legal costs and if there are any unused funds they will be donated to similar causes.

WAYS THAT YOU CAN HELP

1. YOU CAN DONATE HERE

https://www.crowdjustice.com/case/help-fund-defence-for-an-lgbtq/

2. INCREASE YOUR IMPACT – Share and share again

Even if you have already done so, please contact 10 people and let them know why it is important to you to support this defence and why you are asking for them to donate and share the link too.

3. RAISE AWARENESS OF THESE ISSUES

Say a few words through your social media and other communications and share this link as widely as you can.

This case is happening just as the UK government draws up legislation to ban “conversion therapy” (unethical and discredited practices which attempt to suppress or change people of sexual and gender diversities to heterosexual and cisgender).

The crowd-funding page also gives links to publications by the United Nations and other academic sources to inform understanding of some of the issues at stake. For more details of the case go to the Crowd Justice link:

https://www.crowdjustice.com/case/help-fund-defence-for-an-lgbtq/

Thank you so much for your support.

For now, we need your help to meet the next target of £30,000 by sharing the link to the page:

https://www.crowdjustice.com/case/help-fund-defence-for-an-lgbtq/

Please can you to help by doing three things - they will only take a couple of minutes:

1) Contribute again if you are able.

2) Email 10 friends with the link to the case page and tell them about the campaign. We know you may have already done this - we need to keep the momentum going. Please contact people again if you can and contact people who may not yet know about the case but who would care about the issues at stake.

3) Share the link to the CrowdJustice page on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram - LINK HERE:https://www.crowdjustice.com/case/help-fund-defence-for-an-lgbtq/

We can't do this without your help. Please take a minute to help with our push to reach £30,000 and make this critical legal defence possible.

Our initial target is All or Nothing - which means we have to reach our target of £10,000 or cards are not charged, and our lawyers do not get the money. 

We need your help to meet the target by sharing the link to the page: 

https://www.crowdjustice.com/case/help-fund-defence-for-an-lgbtq/

Please can you to help by doing  three things - they will only take a couple of minutes:

1) Contribute again if you are able.

2) Email 10 friends with the link to the case page and tell them about the campaign  

3) Share the link to the CrowdJustice page on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram - LINK HERE:https://www.crowdjustice.com/case/help-fund-defence-for-an-lgbtq/

We can't do this without your help. Please take a minute to help with our push to reach £10,000 and make this critical legal defence possible.