The link between the EHRC & Alliance Defending Freedom.
Updated 3/3/24
It’s been a long slog over the last few years exposing the tactics at play in the UK’s discredited ‘Equality and Human Rights Commission’, which has secured the dubious honour of being the first major nation to be subjected to a special review of their NHRI accreditation by the United Nations, announced barely a year after they retained their coveted ‘A’ rating at their five-yearly appraisal by GANHRI.
This special review could see them downgraded to a ‘B’ rating, meaning that they would no longer be able to participate in UN human rights discussions, committees, etc., but would be relegated to the role of bystander.
It would be a major international embarrassment for the UK Government for the UK to be treated like a naughty child sent to stand in the corner of the room.
So here’s a little more evidence to add to the pile, showing that not all is as it seems in the EHRC.
TransLucent have previously highlighted the work of Alasdair Henderson, the board member of the EHRC who appeared to originally suggest that the EHRC should intervene in Forstater vs CGD, the lynchpin case which enshrined a very limited subset of so-called ‘Gender Critical Beliefs’ as protected under EA2010?
The same Alasdair Henderson who was also heavily involved in Bell vs Tavistock, the case brought by ‘Christian’ lawyer Paul Conrathe that initially saw the NHS remove puberty blockers from the healthcare of trans young people and was later completely overturned.
The same Henderson who was likely promoted to EHRC Joint Deputy Chair for his services in promoting, in my view, transphobia by the trans-hostile Minister for Women & Equalities, Kemi Badenoch?
Yes, that Alasdair Henderson.
Well, back while he was doing all of this, he was also a Trustee of the ‘charity’ Lawyers Christian Fellowship, a position he resigned from in June 2021, not long after we revealed his connections to the ‘Gender Critical’ movement and the conflicts of interest involved.
Digging further revealed this little gem from the annual report of this ‘charity in August 2020.
On page 3, it quite clearly states that representatives of the Lawyers Christian Fellowship attended a European symposium hosted by the ADF. This would have been in either 2019 or 2020.
Yes, the secretive Alliance Defending Freedom – the US Christian religious extremist anti-LGBT, anti-abortion, anti-women’s rights organisation named a hate group by SPLC.
The same ADF who are at the forefront of the fight to remove trans rights & medical care in the USA and in Europe, and who, under the guise of the OCCA were at the heart of a sex scandal in Oxford in 2021.
The same organisation called out by the Good Law Project because of “Dark Money” in November in 2023, and by Open Democracy called out in 2019.
Did Henderson attend this symposium? We have no idea, but we think he should come clean about it, as it represents another clear conflict of interest.
This ‘charity’ also happily promoted the work of the ADF in targeting UK companies to promote hostile and extremist ‘Christian’ views in the workplace – and these videos are still available and directly linked from the LCF website alongside an ADF booklet.
Did they ‘just promote’ this ADF work?
No, they did not. The LCF actively worked with the ADF to produce these videos and booklet. That’s the LCF logo right there at the bottom right of the front page of the booklet.
It also turns out that Alasdair Henderson was more than just a Trustee – he was Vice Chair of the Board of Trustees of this ‘charity’ for almost a year.
And as anyone who knows anything about being a charity trustee will tell you, there is nothing that goes on in the operation of a charity that the Board of Trustees does not know about or doesn’t fully endorse.
This means that this ‘charity’ that he was heavily involved in, has been, and is still currently working hand in hand with an internationally recognised anti-LGBT religious extremist named hate group.
With Henderson’s direct involvement, the Alliance Defending Freedom’s malign influence extended directly into the heart of the UK’s National Human Rights Institution, and likely still does.
It’s the sort of relationship that doesn’t end just because he resigned as a trustee; it’s a massive conflict of interest, and it’s undeclared.
Looking further, the address of 8 Marshalsea Rd is the home of the “Coalition For Marriage” described by Pink News as “A Creeping Rhizome of religious extremism”. Headed by Colin Hart, a Director of the Christian Institute; Rod Badams, a former administrator of Fellowship of Independent Evangelical Churches; Don Horrocks, Head of Public Affairs Evangelical Alliance; and Andrea Minichiello Williams of Christian Concern and Christian Legal Centre.
Still, in seconds, I found that Christian Concern is defending a Derbyshire lecturer who got sacked for tweeting: Homosexuality is invading the Church. Evangelicals no longer see the severity of this b/c they’re busy apologising for their apparently barbaric homophobia, whether or not it’s true. This *is* a “Gospel issue”, by the way. If sin is no longer sin, we no longer need a Saviour.”
This information also strengthens the likelihood that Henderson’s involvement in Bell vs Tavistock, the anti-trans case that attempted to remove puberty blockers for trans young people in the UK was not purely a result of ‘cab rank rule‘, as both Paul Conrathe and Alasdair Henderson are both directly linked to Christian Concern.
There is also a link between Peter Daly, the trans hostile ‘lawyer’ who has been almost exclusively leading work on ‘gender critical’ cases in the UK, and Henderson. As mentioned at the beginning of this article, it appeared to be Henderson who was the instigator in the EHRC to intervene in Forstater vs CGD, the case led by Peter Daly.
More disturbingly, Henderson was appointed to the UK Government’s biased ‘advisory panel’ on Relationships, Sex, Health Education guidance, alongside Isabelle Trowler, who is married to another of the EHRCs resident openly ‘gender critical’ commissioners, Akua Reindorf.
As if that wasnt enough, Henderson is also involved with a group called Faith in Public, promoting ‘faith in public life’. He has been involved since 2020 according to the EHRCs board minutes for Sept 2023 (2.1), however it has taken him 3 years to declare this as a conflict of interest.
It’s little wonder that the EHRC has been so thoroughly corrupted when the dark tentacles of UK & American religious extremism extend right into its heart?
The EHRC will be subjected to a special review by the United Nations in the session held between 29 April and 3 May 2024.
