I expect most of you have the same email but for anyone who hasn’t I’ll copy it:-
Today, Naomi Cunningham steps down from her role as chair of Sex Matters. Her legal brilliance and clarity helped us develop from an infant non-profit into an established charity. Our best wishes and gratitude go with her as she continues her vital work as a barrister defending sex-based rights.
This move has been under discussion for several months, as it became clear that it was becoming too difficult for Naomi to combine the duties of a trustee of Sex Matters with the demands of her increasingly busy practice as a barrister in the same areas in which the charity operates and campaigns.
Dr Emma Hilton will now be interim chair and will work in partnership with the board, with me and with the team to continue our work, with the same single-minded focus.
Naomi says: “I am immensely sad to resign, but will always feel proud to have played a part in an extraordinarily effective organisation, and privileged to have worked with such a talented and inspiring group of people.”
Sex Matters is an extremely productive organisation. The credit for that is shared by the founders, trustees and team, as well as by the supporters who have put their confidence in us. I am hugely grateful to Naomi for the work that she has done as the first chair of Sex Matters, and for her equally important role as a barrister representing claimants using the law to fight for justice.
From the first day when we met around Anya Palmer’s kitchen table in May 2021 and sketched out the idea for the organisation, to late-night arguments by WhatsApp, to sitting on the front row of the Supreme Court earlier this year, as we listened to Lord Hodge give the judgment that sex means biological sex (and always has), Naomi has been a powerful partner and a source of constructive challenge, ideas and insight.
Together with the rest of the Sex Matters team and board, I wish her all the best in her future endeavours and count her as a woman I am lucky to know