College president told to donate same-sex case fees

OXFORD STUDENTS have renewed their angry campaign against Magdalen College’s president, Dinah Rose QC, for representing the Cayman Islands in their legal battle to uphold a ban on gay marriage.

The university’s LGBTQ+ society, which has claimed that the top Jewish barrister’s work for the Caribbean British overseas territory was a “stain” on the college, has now urged her to donate her fees to charity.

The Cayman authorities are fighting a challenge brought by a British woman and her partner, who argue that their ban on gay marriage is unconstitutional.

The case is now with the Privy Council, which has yet to announce its decision over whether same-sex couples already have the legal right to marry in Cayman Islands or, as its government argues, this should be a matter for its parliament to agree.

The Cayman Islands approved civil partnerships for same-sex couples last year.

In a statement on Facebook, Oxford’s LGBTQ+ society said it was “shocked and disappointed” to learn the amount Ms Rose was being paid for the case.

“Ms Rose is already receiving a substantial salary for her primary role as president and so we implore her to donate her fee to LGBTQ+ advocacy organisations and charities in the Cayman Islands who are working tirelessly

Oxford’s LGBTQ+ society was shocked at how much she was being paid

to support vulnerable LGBTQ+ people in the area,” the society said.

It also claimed there was a conflict between her role in the legal case and “her responsibility to protect the LGBTQ+ members of Magdalen”.

According to The Times, it emerged that she was paid £134,000 for her work after a Freedom of Information request by LGBT advocacy groups.

Ms Rose, who became president of Magdalen a year ago, told the student newspaper Cherwell that the OULGBTQ+ Society’s presentation of her fee had been “inaccurate and misleading” since it related to her work over a twoyear period; a “substantial majority” of the fee had been paid to her before she had become president.

In a statement earlier this year, she said, “The allegation that my participation in this case conflicts with my role as president of Magdalen College is based on the very identification of a lawyer with their client’s cause which international human rights law prohibits.

“A barrister’s personal opinions or values cannot be inferred from their representation of a particular party.”

She added: “As it happens, I have argued a number of cases that have advanced LGBTQ+ rights, including some pioneering trans rights cases in the 1990s.”