Up date from Jo Phoenix today
Academic Freedom should not be used as a justification for harassment against Gender Critical academics
JO PHOENIX
DEC 2
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A year ago today I left a job and a university I once loved because my colleagues and my employer made it impossible for me to continue to work there. Their harassment and discrimination of me, the indirect sex discrimination that I experienced and my eventual constructive dismissal were a result of my insistence that academics must be able to talk about the importance of sex over gender identity without being cancelled, silenced, harassed, and discriminated against.
It shouldn’t take an employment tribunal to confirm that and yet this is what is now required to protect GC academics.
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The countdown to my court date has started properly. The legal battle has a shape and structure, and I can better predict the total cost. Thousands of people have supported my case, but we are not yet at the finishing line, and I need to ask again for your help. Thanks to Maya Forstater's, Allison Bailey's and LGB Alliance cases (all of which cost more than £200,000) I can better predict the overall costs of mine. Thus, I am increasing the target of this CrowdJustice Fund to £180,000. If 4000 people can donate £15.00 each, we will hit the increased target with plenty of time to spare. The court date is only forty-three weeks away and that feels like a long time, but when you receive legal bills for costly work every month, 43 weeks is only 11 more bills away.
What happened to me?
On December 2, 2021 I resigned my post as Professor of Criminology at The Open University because the University’s behaviour had made it impossible for me to remain.
I have spent 25 years of my professional career analysing the intended and unintended consequences of criminal justice policies that seek to protect the vulnerable and punish offenders. I have researched and written about sexual violence and women’s unequal access to justice for all that time. Yet, I was branded a transphobe for doing things like: criticising Stonewall, believing its guidance has produced a chilling effect on academic freedom (by signing two Letters to the Editor here and here); saying that male prisoners who identify as women have different needs than females in prison (here and here) and
starting a research network dedicated to exploring the circumstances in which sex matters more than gender identity (here).
I attended meetings where it was made clear that anyone who held GC beliefs was not welcome. I experienced - for the first time in my life - that unique quality of silence that says very loudly "you are not part of our community of the good and progressive". I listened on as my union colleagues likened people who shared GC beliefs to holocaust deniers and our beliefs as responsible for genocide. I was told by a colleague that sharing the story of the Reindorf Report (exonerating me of transphobia and confirming that my cancellation by the University of Essex 18 months previously was unlawful) was not appropriate for ‘the good news’ section of a School-wide newsletter to all staff because it might upset some people and had already been covered in the news.
I have written about why the attacks and the open letters and statements that were posted by more than 360 of my colleagues after I formed The Open University Gender Critical Research network was so wrong here. When I asked my university to do something about them, the University declined stating that the letters and statements fell within the remit of academic freedom – even though they were making utterly vexatious claims about transphobia, attacking me and my reputation, encouraging mobbing behaviour against me and creating an extraordinarily hostile environment. Those that created that environment did so with impunity and ultimately, their hostility made me unwell.
I know what it is to be silenced, directly and indirectly and gaslit in an environment where colleagues claimed they supported academic freedom at the same time as arguing that cancelling an academic and denouncing people as transphobic for holding gender critical beliefs were legitimate, indeed, necessary actions within a university.
I also know only too well that working in a university where it is repeatedly stated that your beliefs are transphobic or anti-trans does limit academic freedom and is degrading. It makes someone, even someone with years of experience like me, worried and fearful about speaking freely at work.
Why is winning this legal case so important?
Winning this case is very important because it will show that universities have a responsibility to protect staff with gender critical beliefs from harassment.
It will (hopefully) mean that going forward, not sharing the beliefs of some (or even many) of your colleagues on the issues of sex and gender does not mean that you must endure name-calling and other hostilities or that this type of conduct falls within academic freedom: it doesn’t.
If we win, it will show that many of the tactics used to silence GC academics are unlawful.
Winning this case will also get justice for me: an academic, a lesbian who was hounded out of a university I loved, doing a job I was very good at.
The legal team I have that will help secure this win is:
Annie Powell
Elizabeth George
Naomi Cunningham
Ben Cooper KC
What questions will the Tribunal consider?
On 2 October 2023, the case will be tried in Watford Employment Tribunal. I am claiming harassment, discrimination, victimisation, and constructive dismissal. The Open University are claiming that my interpretation of what happened to me is incorrect and that some of the things I said happened, did not. The tribunal will hear evidence and decide whether The Open University has acted unlawfully. I will be cross-examined for 2 days and The Open University has said it will call up to 18 witnesses.
Broadly the questions the Tribunal will consider are:
Harassment Relating to Belief
Did The Open University or employees of the OU:
Call me a racist uncle; act in a discriminatory way in departmental meetings; tell me not to speak about my research, my treatment by the University of Essex or accusations that I am transphobic; compare me to a discredited criminologist; withhold work opportunities; sign or publish various online letters, tweets, retweets or issue a variety of statements about the OUGCRN or published by LSE Gender Studies Department? Did OU employees and moderators fail to remove harassing material from OU staff forums? Did the OU fail to produce an outcome or date for the outcome of my grievance? And if all these things took place, were their actions related to my GC beliefs? Did they violate my dignity? Did they create a hostile environment? Was it connected to my employment relationship?
Direct Discrimination
If those things did happen, did I receive less favourable treatment than people who do not hold GC views?
Indirect Sex Discrimination
Did The OU treat my complaint less seriously than they would treat other complaints of harassment and because more women than men are likely to hold GC beliefs, does this amount to indirect discrimination of women.
Victimisation
Was suspending the grievance once I resigned a form of victimisation and did I suffer as a result?
Constructive Dismissal
If found, was the treatment I received a form of constructive dismissal?
What can you do to help?
My original estimate of the total cost of this case was based on a 10-day hearing. We already know it will be 15 days minimum, with more to hear the losses if I win. Right now, we are deep in the process of disclosure (the part of the case when both sides must list and exchange all the documents they have that are relevant to the case).
For their work, CrowdJustice takes a commission and there is also VAT to cover. The financial cost of taking these cases – particularly ones that set a line in the sand – is enormous. Frankly, good legal teams are expensive and the amount of work that needs to be done is huge.
It is in this context – a top-notch legal team, an extended time, and previous cases by which we can measure likely cost – that I have decided to increase my target to £180,000. This case is very important to the future of our universities. My legal team has already processed several thousand pages of evidence and will need to agree the bundle before December 2022. I get legal bills once a month.
3862 of you have already made 4572 pledges (the average of which was £27). If 4000 people give £15 each (which I appreciate will be too much for many people at the moment) we will raise the additional £58,000 I think I am going to need. So far, your generosity has meant that the bills are paid as they come in. We are on the countdown. Only 43 weeks and 11 more bills to come before I sit in Watford Employment Tribunal and face my harassers and former employer.
Academics need to be able to discuss where sex might matter more than gender identity. Will you support me (once again) by pledging £15.00 so that we can establish this in case law?