I’ve read Maya’s judgment today, and this declaration by the council violates the equality act. You can’t get people to “affirm” that trans women are women, just like you can’t get people in a council to affirm that Jesus Christ is our lord and savour.
As for the part which says gender critical views can be held but not expressed, this is incorrect. The judgment held that gender critical beliefs themselves (such as a belief that trans women are not women and are male) is not inherently offensive or bigoted and may be expressed so long as it is not done in a harassing fashion. (To give an example , there was a case where an evangelical Christian was permitted to say that she thought gay sex was a sin so long as her discussion was respectful and it didn’t turn into a targetted harassment of saying to a particular gay person they were a sinner).
this means that gender critical beliefs are protected and may be expressed. A person may freely say they don’t believe a trans woman is a woman, because that in essence is the very core of gender critical belief. This whole “you can believe it but not express it” point is specious bullshit… the entire point of having free beliefs is the ability to express them.
I think there is going to be much wailing and gnashing of teeth when the full implications of this are realised. We are no longer forced to go along with the idea that a man is a woman because he believes it is so, and we have the full right to politely express that we don’t believe trans women are women. We are just going to have to learn to live together !