Gay rights group was set up ‘to promote transphobic activity’, court told

Protestors outside the Elizabeth II Conference Centre in central London during the first LGB Alliance annual conference in October last year. Photograph: Kirsty O’Connor/PA

The gay rights organisation LGB Alliance was set up to “promote transphobic activity rather than pro-LGB activities”, the head of Consortium, an umbrella group of LGBT organisations told a court on Monday.

In the first full day of hearings in the appeal by the transgender rights charity Mermaids against the Charity Commission’s decision to award charitable status to LGB Alliance, Paul Roberts, the chief executive of Consortium, said that LGB Alliance was created to pursue an anti-trans agenda.