Court cases/Judicial Reviews/ET/ETAs

[ArabellaScott]

A thread of court cases involving people with 'gender critical' beliefs. So they are all in one place. I'll try and add links to court judgements where I can find them.

I'll add cases as I have time but please feel free to add others and/or remind me of any I've missed!

1. Maria McLachlan, Tara Wolf. Assault by beating/battery.

https://www.feministcurrent.com/2018/04/27/trans-identified-male-tara-wolf-charged-assault-hyde-park-attack/

'Tara Wolf (also known as Tara Flik Wood), a trans-identified male, stood trial for striking 60-year-old Maria MacLachlan three times in Hyde Park on September 13th 2017, where women had gathered to attend a meeting called “We Need to Talk About Gender” at a yet-to-be-disclosed location. Wolf was found guilty of “assault by beating,” more commonly known as “battery.”'

Plaid Cymru Admit Unlawfully Discriminating Against FiLiA

“In February of this year, grassroots feminist charity FiLiA signed a contract with Plaid Cymru to have a stand at their March Spring Conference. However, this was cancelled by the Party with less than a week to go.

“Plaid Cymru representative Elin Jones, chair of Plaid Cymru’s steering committee for its Spring Conference, emailed the organisation on 19th March 2024 – less than 48 hours before the conference was due to start – to cancel the booking, it was stated that this was due to the following: ''some of FiLiA’s positions are potentially contrary to the party’s values – for instance on trans rights'' and indicating that the presence of the stall would prevent the conference from being a ‘safe space’.

“This week, after previously accepting the cancellation amounted to a breach of the contract with FiLiA and offering partial compensation for FiLiA’s costs, Plaid Cymru have accepted that the decision to cancel this booking on the basis of FiLiA’s protected beliefs amounted to an act of discrimination under the Equality Act 2010.”

https://www.filia.org.uk/latest-news/2024/9/20/plaid-cymru-admit-unlawfully-discriminating-against-filianbsp

Deeming v Pesutto

December 2024

A defiant John Pesutto says he won’t resign as Victoria’s opposition leader after a damning court judgment found he defamed ousted Liberal MP Moira Deeming and will need to pay her $300,000 in damages.

Federal court justice David O’Callaghan on Thursday found Pesutto defamed Deeming on five separate occasions after the Let Women Speak rally she helped organise on 18 March 2023, which was gatecrashed by neo-Nazis.

https://amp.theguardian.com/australia-news/2024/dec/12/moira-deeming-wins-defamation-case-victorian-liberal-leader-john-pesutto-over-neo-nazi-comments-ntwnfb

Judgment…

https://www.judgments.fedcourt.gov.au/judgments/Judgments/fca/single/2024/2024fca1430

Placemarking this very excellent thread. Thank you @ArabellaScott and all contributors.

Thanks, I forgot to add this one:

https://tribunaltweets.substack.com/p/cps-v-ben-lindsay-assault-against

Ben Lindsay guilty of assault against Kellie Jay Keen

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cvg748nj42lo.amp

December 2024

A mother who is trying to stop her teenager being given cross-sex hormones to change their gender has won her fight to keep the courts involved in the case.

The Court of Appeal has ruled it is "appropriate" for it to "keep an eye" on the case at a time of rapid change in gender services and regulation.

It said the 16-year-old has the capacity and competence to consent to taking hormones which develop male physical characteristics. But it added that in future, the court may need to decide whether or not that is in their best interests.

[…]

Today's judgement said with agreement between the parents in the case unlikely, it would be wiser to keep the proceedings alive as "there is sufficient current doubt as to what is proper and appropriate in this area".

It concluded that the judge in the earlier case "did not place enough weight on the possibility of genuine future disagreement, the rapidly changing regulatory environment and the fact that services provided by private hormone clinics seem already to be in a somewhat different position from the same services provided by the NHS".

Nathalie Bird v Lib Dems
Jan 2025

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c6272x8q1x3o

Is there a judgment posted? Didn't see a link in the BBC article. But maybe that will be after costs have been agreed.

An employment tribunal in Edinburgh has rejected a plea by Fife Health Board and a trans-identifying doctor for an employment tribunal case to be heard in private, and for the doctor’s identity to be anonymised.

https://sex-matters.org/posts/updates/edinburgh-employment-tribunal-says-no-to-trans-anonymity-order/

Eleanor Frances v DCMS and DSIT (departments of the Civil Service)

https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1878164412139184162.html

“My lawyers quantified the value of my claim as £116,749. In settlement, DCMS and DSIT have agreed to pay this amount in full, plus the associated taxes.”

[…]

“DCMS and DSIT have jointly agreed to issue the following statement, signed by their respective Permanent Secretaries, Susannah Storey CB and Sarah Munby:

“We are committed to fostering a tolerant and respectful working culture. As such, our departments are working together to introduce a revised Gender Reassignment policy, informed by a new central model policy which we anticipate will be available by the end of the year. In accordance with the Equality Act 2010, the revised policy will balance the rights of staff with different protected characteristics, including but not limited to gender reassignment, religion and belief, and sex. It will also build on the work both our departments have been doing in consultation with our staff in recent years.”

Brilliant! Well done Eleanor

Kristie Higgs wins her appeal 👏

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cn017ydwnr1o.amp

Sex Matters analysis…

https://sex-matters.org/posts/updates/kristie-higgs-wins/

Oh wow, that's excellent. I have followed that case from the start. She's really been put through the wringer and it could have happened to any of us as it was about her Facebook reposts.

Almut Gadow has received a payout after reaching a settlement with the Open University.

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2025/02/22/law-lecturer-sacked-gender-critical-beliefs-payout/

Archive…

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2025/02/22/law-lecturer-sacked-gender-critical-beliefs-payout/

Thanks for setting up this thread, Arabella. A very valuable and necessary resource. And, increasingly, a source of comfort and encouragement as the genderist bullies lose case after case.

https://www.artsprofessional.co.uk/news/breaking-news-ace-loses-second-gender-beliefs-tribunal-case

Arts Council England v Afreena Islam-Wright

ACE lose against employee who claimed constructive dismissal for her support for 'trans rights'.

Judgement:

www.gov.uk/employment-tribunal-decisions/mrs-a-islam-wright-v-arts-council-england-and-c-ashcroft-2408555-slash-2022

I read the judgement. They didn't handle the disciplinary process well at all, and she just comes across as a bit of a dimwit virtue signalling on behalf of her friends and what she personally thought was progressive, there were people who said much worse things. I think it was probably the right decision.

What I think it shows is that all these issues where possible should not be encouraged to create divisiveness in the workplace.

Denise Fahmy is urging ACE to appeal.

I'm not sure they will.

My reading of that is encouraging for Peggie v Fife NHS. Both the explanation of what constitutes a protected act, and the importance of always following process.

dimwit virtue signalling on behalf of her friends and what she personally thought was progressive

I agree. Under the range of disciplinary options they set out, the proportionate response would have been a chat with her line manager and some EA training.

I don't see what grounds they'd have for appeal. The judgement is that they didn't follow process, and it's very clear that they didn't.

Exactly. Most of these cases hinge on processes not being followed fairly.

'This judgement wrongly accepts Afreena Islam-Wright’s claim that she was not aiming her written comment, comparing being gender critical to racism, at anyone in particular. The evidence speaks for itself. She was aiming it at me, her colleague.
...
Afreena's comment was not, as the Judgement states, a 'hasty, ill-informed and ill-thought through' comment, 'not intended to cause the hurt and upset which it did'. Afreena quoted my words deliberately and with purpose, and was referring to me as equivalent to a racist.
...
The judgement in Afreena’s favour substantially rests on a belief that she was sincere in claiming she did not target anyone. But she did – she was targeting me and that’s why she used my words, written weeks earlier.'

From Denise Fahmy, on X.

x.com/DeniseFahmy/status/1892630255443054660

I don't think the judgement does substantially rest on that. It rests on steps being skipped in the process, and questionable reasons for involving certain members of staff (or for them involving themselves).

The ET is not a continuation of the disciplinary process. The claimant is not on trial, so the content of the comment isn't really material to the unfair dismissal part of the judgement - which was the only part upheld.

I agree Afreena was awful, and if they'd followed a reasonable and fair procedure to discipline her she probably wouldn't have had a case. But they mismanaged it in a similar way to ones which have been mismanaged on our side of the equation. ACE look really awful here, they managed to lose on both sides.