LGB Alliance claims it ‘led’ law change years before it even existed
LGB Alliance CEO Kate Barker. (YouTube/LGB Alliance)
Trans-exclusionary activist group LGB Alliance has continued its staunch charity work by claiming to have amended a law before the organisation was even founded.
In a statement published on Wednesday (13 December), the controversial group posted that it had “successfully achieved an amendment” to a discriminatory same-sex pension law.
In actuality, not only did the LGB Alliance not represent the case that spawned the amendment, but the charity did not even exist when the amendment was approved.
The case it is referring to saw former cavalry officer John Walker petition the Supreme Court to repeal a law implemented in 2005 which would have undercut the amount that his same-sex partner would receive under a pension scheme should Walker die first – simply because he is gay.
Walker initially won his case, with an employment tribunal ruling that he was discriminated against, but it was later partially repealed after defendants Innospec Ltd appealed the decision.
The appeal was heavily criticised by King’s College London professor Robert Wintemute, who would later become a trustee for the LGB Alliance. His criticisms were cited by Lord Kerr in the subsequent Supreme Court case.
The unanimous decision, in which Kerr said that Walker’s husband is entitled to a pension “calculated on all the years of his service with Innospec” was handed down in 2017 – several years before the LGB Alliance was founded.
Aside from the glaring issue that LGB Alliance did not even exist when the ruling was handed down, Wintemute was not directly involved in the case for the amendments as LGB Alliance suggests, nor did he lead a campaign with the charity – he was simply cited by the court.
The amendment that is coming into effect on 31 December 2023 is a retained EU law that was filed to “ensure legislative continuity after the UK left the EU”, according to an explanatory memorandum on the bill.
Despite this, the LGB Alliance seems to imply in its statement that the law is coming into effect for the first time, saying: “From 31 December 2023, the surviving same-sex spouse or civil partner of a deceased member of an occupational pension scheme must receive the same survivor benefits as an opposite-sex spouse.”
CEO Kate Barker said in a statement that she was delighted “to be striking down the last piece of discriminatory legislation” and that “[LGB Alliance’s] efforts have helped to achieve full equality of pensions provision”.
PinkNews has reached out to Prof. Robert Wintemute for comment.
