Update on I lost my job for talking about women’s rights
Dear all,
I was going to post this earlier this week, but I got COVID, so its a bit late.
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A year ago - on December 18 2019 - I learnt that I had lost at the employment tribunal.
I can’t remember much about that day. I know I had conversations with my legal team, and I know I read the awful judgment over and over: “unworthy of respect in a democratic society”. I know I posted an update. I know I cried.
The next day my world tipped again when JK Rowling tweeted #IStandWithMaya.
My case became an international story. Suddenly I was not just being called names on twitter in the UK, but on the pages of newspapers from the US to Australia, by celebrities, and across Youtube channels. There were journalists on my doorstep. I was receiving messages of abuse, and of support, from around the world.
And lies began to spread, such as that I had harassed a trans co-worker. My name was smeared in order to smear JK Rowling.
Nothing prepares you, or your family, for this.
So much has changed in the year since then. Thousands more women and men have stood up to say that sex matters; that we will not be silenced by fear and bullying.
JK Rowling speaking up broke the public silence. The vicious responses, and her courage and steadfastness in the face of that abuse shone more light. Each time this cycle played out more people paid attention and more resolved to speak up.
2020 was the year of “gender critical” legal cases
There have been legal actions (many still ongoing -my appeal is in April) across education, employment, healthcare, prisons, policing, and on the underlying guidance on equality law:
In January Keira Bell, a young woman who had been put on puberty blocking drugs as a teenager before going on to cross-sex hormones and surgery, joined together with Mrs A, the mother of an autistic girl to bring a case challenging the Tavistock and Portman NHS Foundation Trust. The case was about on whether a child under 18 can really consent to such an experimental and life changing course of treatment.
In February Harry Miller’s judicial review against Humberside Police and the College of Policing came to court. After someone reported tweets as transphobic Harry had been visited at work by a police officer who told him to ‘check his thinking’. Judge Julian Knowles emphasised the human right of freedom of expression, protected by Article 10 of the European Convention on Human Rights. He said the effect of the police turning up at your work because of your political opinions must not be underestimated. “To do so would be to undervalue a cardinal democratic freedom. In this country we have never had a Cheka, a Gestapo or a Stasi. We have never lived in an Orwellian society.” Harry won against Humberside Police, but lost against the College of Policing who tell police forces to record complaints of “non-hate crime incident” against people’s names. The case goes on with the appeal to be heard on March 10th and 11th.
On the same day in February, Kate Scottow was given a criminal conviction under the Communications Act, for using a public communications network to “cause annoyance, inconvenience and anxiety”. She had posted a handful of disrespectful tweets including one where she called a trans activist, who has sued or is suing several gender critical women as well as Mumsnet and Graham Linehan, a “pig in a wig”. I sat in court with 30 other women and heard with shock as the judge disregarded the protections of Article 10 and admonished Kate for her tweets and told her “we teach our children to be kind”.
In April a 13 year old girl started legal action to bring a case to judicial review (a judicial review is case in which a judge reviews the lawfulness of a decision or action made by a public body) challenging her local education authority, over their “trans toolkit” policy for schools. The guidance said that male pupils who identify as girls can use female toilets, changing rooms and dormitories on school trips, and take part in girls’ sport. The teenager said this gives her “no right to privacy from the opposite sex”. Oxfordshire County Council did not want to defend the guidance in court. In May they announced they had withdrawn it and would instead wait for national guidance.
Another teenage girl also started legal action about guidance given to schools, this time against the Crown Prosecution Service for their ‘LGBT+ hate crime guidance. The guidance reinforces sexist and homophobic stereotypes, curtais free speech and makes female students feel unsafe in schools by allowing male pupils to use female toilets and changing rooms. CPS did not want to defend it in court and withdrew the guidance “for review”. The claimant has challenged this further asking how the CPS can act impartially on this when they are part of the Stonewall Champions programme.
In May Raquel Rosario Sánchez, a PhD student from the Dominican Republic started a case against Bristol University for failing to protect her from bullying and harassment. After she chaired a meeting of Woman's Place UK in 2018 she has faced a sustained campaign of organised and aggressive bullying by student activists, with the university failing to apply its own disciplinary processes and instead protecting the bullies. Raquel says “My case is about how an elite university treats its students when nobody is watching”
In June Allison Bailey, a criminal defence barrister, a lesbian, a lifelong campaigner for equality, and a survivor of child sexual abuse launched a case against her legal chambers and against Stonewall after they had put her under investigation when she helped to create the LGB Alliance. Allison wrote about why it was important to retain clear language, rules and laws about the distinctions between men and women. She wrote about her concerns about children being treated with puberty blockers, about the threats women receive for speaking up, about the vilification, abuse, boycott, character assassination and cancellation used to shut down debate. After receiving complaints Crowd Justice said Allison's case page breached its terms and conditions and removed it. Nevertheless she raised over £100,000 in a few hours. Her case will be heard next year.
In July Sonia Appleby, a social worker and psychotherapist who is the Safeguarding Children Lead at the Tavistock and Portman NHS Foundation Trust announced that she had launched a whistle-blowing case against her employer. She alleges that because she raised safeguarding issues that health and safety of patients was being endangered she had been besmirched by the trust and that safeguarding concerns were kept from her. You can watch the newsnight report. As Sonia said “This is not an "anti-trans" case. I am supportive of the transgender community and their right to seek services that are both supportive and safe.”
In August Ann Sinnott launched a judicial review against the Equality and Human Rights Commission, the UK’s statutory equalities body whose job it is to sort all this out to protect everybody’s rights. Instead their guidance encourages employers and service providers to think that they cannot straightforwardly provide single sex services. As Ann says “This isn’t a case about an individual woman who has undergone harassment and discrimination ..but each and every one of the legal actions for which we have gladly dipped into our purses to support, was made necessary because of a misinterpretation and misapplication of the law. Longstanding unlawful guidance, from the very entities that are responsible for overseeing equalities in the UK, created the situations that led to all past and current legal actions.”
The same month For Women Scotland launched a judicial review over the definition of “woman” in the Gender Representation on Public Boards (Scotland) Act 2018. The act was aimed at improving the representation of women on the boards of Scottish public authorities, but during stage two of the legislative process, following representations from Scottish Trans Alliance, the definition of “woman” in the bill was altered to include people who have not changed their legal sex to ‘female’ using a gender recognition certificate (GRC) but to include anyone who adopts the pronouns she and her. FWS believes it sets a dangerous precedent.
In September James Caspian announced that he was taking his challenge against Bath Spa University’s refusal to the European Court of Human Rights. The university had refused to allow him to research people who reverse gender reassignment for fear of controversy.
In October a case came to court brought by a female prisoner who says she was sexually assaulted by a transwoman prisoner. Her case challenges the Ministry of Justice over its policy of placing some males who identify as women in women’s prisons. Karon Monaghan QC, for the prisoner, said that MoJ policies, seemed to use the terms “sex” and “gender” interchangeably. The prisoner with a GRC had convictions for serious sexual offences against women but was housed in the general population of a women’s prison.The hearing was adjourned to resolve the issue of how much of internal MoJ discussions about the policy should be disclosed. The case will come before the high court next year.
Katie Alcock continued to wait patiently for her day in court. Katie is a girl guide leader. She was expelled from Girlguiding after a lengthy and stressful investigation, because she expressing the view that Girlguiding had gone wrong on policies relating to transgender individuals.. She thought the policy needed rethinking to put safeguarding first. Her case is ‘stayed’ behind mine because of the precedent that my appeal will set on gender critical belief and the Equality Act.
Another teenager ‘Miss B’ has launched a case against the College of Policing because she says she must “self-censor” in the classroom in discussions about sex and gender for fear having a “non-hate crime incident” recorded against her name, if a teacher or fellow pupil report her as demonstrating hostility. Sarah Philimore, a barrister, has launched a case against the College of Policing for its recording of “non-crime hate incidents”
In November we learnt that the application for judicial review on the Labour Party’s policies of allowing male candidates who identify as women to take places on all-women-short-lists had been refused (although this is being challenged).