Westminster city council and Social Work England last week became the latest to join a list of organisations – including Arts Council England, a barristers’ chambers and a thinktank – found to have discriminated against a female worker because of their gender-critical beliefs.
The social worker Rachel Meade’s win against the council and her profession’s regulator means she joins a select but growing group of gender-critical feminists who have successfully brought discrimination claims on the basis of their beliefs.
Gender-critical feminists believe sex is biological and cannot be changed, and disagree with trans rights activists who say gender identity should be given priority in terms of law-making and policy. Clashes in workplaces – in some cases with those who regard the focus on biological sex as transphobic – have led to a string of employment tribunals.
On Monday, a tribunal began hearing a constructive dismissal claim from Roz Adams against Edinburgh Rape Crisis Centre. Next month, Kenny McBride’s case against the Scottish government is due to be heard in Glasgow, while judgments are pending in a claim from Prof Jo Phoenix against the Open University and that of the Green party’s former deputy leader Shahrar Ali against the party.
In all four cases – and more in the pipeline – the claimants argue they were discriminated against because they hold gender-critical beliefs.
Source: ‘A politically toxic issue’: the legal battles over gender-critical beliefs | Gender | The Guardian
Is science a question of belief/opinion or of fact?
If we’re forced to believe that a mortal can transcend the laws of nature, that’s religion. It is possible to support gender expression and science at the same time. I can’t and won’t be forced to deny my most fundamental, human, primal, instincts, that were developed over millennia.