Sibyl Ruth - Gender critical woman wins damages

[fromorbit]

Another important win. The Gender Inquisition are completely losing their grip thanks to Maya's precedent. They folded before even going to tribunal this time.

An editor dropped by a literary consultancy for saying that the idea of someone with “heavy five o’clock shadow” being a woman “blows my mind” has received an apology and substantial damages.

Sibyl Ruth, 63, sued Cornerstones after her work with the consultancy was abruptly stopped in the wake of a post on Twitter in May last year.

Prior to an employment tribunal hearing due to take place later this month, Cornerstones settled the case with an apology and the payment of compensation.

That sum is understood to be substantial.

Ms Ruth told the Telegraph she was relieved her ordeal was over but remained “shell shocked” 15 months after she had been dropped by Cornerstones “out of the blue”...

Cornerstones said it had removed Ms Ruth from its website while it investigated her social media posts over concerns “about the potential for negative reaction towards her comments from the wider publishing industry”.
But Cornerstones also said it acknowledged “that Sibyl holds gender critical feminist beliefs which are worthy of respect in a democratic society”.
The company added: “We acknowledge and accept that the way in which her work was brought to an end could have been handled less abruptly. Cornerstones ought to have more firmly encouraged an open dialogue with her before taking any action. It is a matter of regret to us that we advised a client whose manuscript she had begun to work on that she had become unavailable.
“We regret that we did not encourage the opportunity to subsequently engage in dialogue with her. We accept that our actions must have been distressing to Sibyl. We accept that we were wrong in this regard, and apologise for our actions.”

Telegraph article with full details:
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/09/07/cornerstones-transgender-literary-editor-tribunal/

Archive:
https://archive.ph/fAKeM

This is the original thread on Mumsnet. Congrats to everyone who backed Ruth. You helped move us forward and to the Free Speech Union who gave legal advice:
https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/womens_rights/4843978-gardening-for-et-loss-of-work-in-art-for-gc-views 

Anyone worried about coming out as a person who believes women exist take heart. There is going to be social ostracism, but standing up for women's rights has always meant that. They can't however get you fired anymore in the UK. Even trying means you can sue them and you will win - cash money.

The Green Party should be really scared. They have three cases based on biology denial coming up. They are going to lose.

Absolutely

Whilst I'm really pleased for Sibyl (and thank god for Maya) I still think there is a long way to go before women can feel secure being openly GC in many, many workplaces.

The thing is, being fired isn't always the worst thing they can do to you.

Being quietly sidelined, frozen out and isolated over a period of time (under the guise of "reasonable" excuses) can often be harder to prove is the result of belief.

Similarly losing out on promotions to "better" candidates or losing out on the more interesting projects etc

I think that yes, some companies are going to rethink their approach to "dealing" with GC belief's but I'm far too cynical to think the culture will do a 180 and treat them as worthy to hold.

Just read the transcript of the Meade tribunal . Even post Maya it was very clear that a number of witnesses clearly felt absolutely no remorse about how she was treated and HR stated they had zero awareness of anyone in the LA holding GC beliefs (yeah cos everyone is hiding their views).

Sadly true, Bread. Plus worth reading the thread on the CIPD guidelines, which seem to hugely misrepresent the law.

https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/womens_rights/4888364-cipd-new-transnb-inclusion-guide?reply=129062324

Just read the transcript of the Meade tribunal

Which one is that?

Brilliant

The only way we can get ahead is through law

Rachel Meade a social worker she's gone to tribunal against Social Work England and her LA after she was sanctioned by the former and suspended by the latter over GC views she expressed on her private (locked down) FB page.

She was reported to SWE by a former colleague who spent two years copying and filing away her private posts.

There's a thread with the tribunal tweets on this topics if you do a search.

www.mumsnet.com/talk/womens_rights/4681492-ms-rachel-meade-v-westminster-cc-social-work-england-employment-tribunal-hearing?page=1

Great result. Congratulations, Sybil. The cornerstones apology is mealy-mouthed, half-hearted and ridiculous. But I'm sure it was the right thing to settle, rather than continuing with the apalling stress of having to take legal action to defend your right to see and acknowledge reality.

This is a terrific outcome. Thank you, Sibyl!

But the apology is a bit half-hearted. I hope the damages really are substantial. The firm were cowards.

Thanks @BreadInCaptivity I take it there's not been a judgment handed down yet? I misread your post to think you were reading a judgment.

No, no judgement as yet.

This HR person is. We are not all woke you know!

Actually I find her remark inaccurate and offensive. I am a woman with PCOS - if I didn't shave every morning I could make a living as a bearded lady. If I am going on a evening out I shave again - I get a distinct five o'clock shadow, though now I am older it's not quite as obvious as much of the hair is white.

She didn't mean a woman with PCOS, she meant a man.

She was commenting on a photo of an obviously male person dressed as a woman
and the double standards compared with the treatment of “biological women who are derided for one or two chin hairs”.

I've just started shaving post menopause. I can't pluck. How can a black hair 1cm long appear overnight?

Excellent news. Very pleased for Ruth. “Substantial sum” 👍

Congratulations to Sybil 🥂

It amazes me that more employers aren't cottoning onto the fact that discriminating against women in this way is potentially extremely expensive for them. I'm in awe of the women who have the strength to fight these injustices because this is the only way the companies and organisations will learn this.

Sibyl - sorry 😣

She talks about the case here.

The 'we reserve the right to get rid of anyone not in accord with our values' is surely discriminatory? What if their values are racist?

Sex is a protected characteristic, being GC is a WORIAD. People have human rights to free speech outside of their jobs - this is restriction of workers human rights, surely?

It's the fucking opposite of DIVERSITY and INCLUSION if you're EXCLUDING everyone who doesn't have the exact same identikit set of values. Who is the judge and jury on this? It's discrimination, mostly against women.

I mean their books are going to be dull, dull dull if they only contain the one gold standard 'approved' world view. Their whole business model is based on people being able to express themselves freely.

Have finished watching the whole interview now - what a fantastic woman. Thank you Sibyl for taking this on for all of us and thank you for making the important point in your interview that a lot of women can't afford to go through what you have gone through so are being bullied into silence i.e. do not have free speech if they want employment.

The cognitive dissonance is so huge - this is the OPPOSITE of diversity and inclusion when you dump all the women who believe in women having the right to free speech and want to protect children. Orwellian.

Richard Dawkins had a feature in London's Evening Standard recently, starting from the same premise; that he's had to argue about many things in his career but he never thought that as a biologist he'd have to clarify that sexual reproduction requires two sexes.

The PR person who wrote the "apology" clearly wanted to say " we are so sorry our HR dept didn't find a sneaky and inventive reason to sack this awful old woman".