This week the judgment in Maria Kelly’s case was published. Seeing how awful it was took me back to December 2019 when I lost my employment tribunal at first instance. I am sure Maria has read and re-read it, wondering how the judge could get it so wrong.
I have written about some of the big problems with the judgment, and Fiona and I discussed it (together with the more positive news from Girlguiding and the Women’s Institute) on the second edition of Sex Matters’ new podcast.
What makes it even more infuriating is that Maria’s case was heard straight after the For Women Scotland judgment, and while the judge in her employment tribunal refers to the Supreme Court’s conclusions about sex, she discards them in favour of “gender identity” (a phrase that appears 36 times in her judgment).
Maria’s is a case about workplace toilets and whether her employer’s policy of allowing trans-identifying men into the women’s toilets amounted to unlawful harassment or discrimination against Maria and other women. The judge did not accept this.
I have met Maria several times when visiting Edinburgh, and when she came to the Battle of Ideas in London. She is one of many claimants I have talked to since I lost, and then won, my own employment-tribunal case. She is brave, smart and resilient.
Maria told me she intends to appeal, and is asking for the case to be expedited. If the first-instance ruling is overturned, it could be as significant as the Forstater ruling in the employment appeal tribunal. Hopefully her name will become a byword for clear rules for single-sex spaces, just as mine has become a byword for protection for freedom of belief.
Maya Forstater
Maya and Fiona discuss the Kelly judgment, Girlguiding and the Women’s Institute
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Updated case briefing for Kelly v Leonardo UK
We have updated our case briefing to include this week’s judgment.
Naomi Cunningham stands down as chair of Sex Matters
If you’re signed up for campaign and action emails as well as this memo, you’ll have heard from us on Monday with the news that Naomi Cunningham has stepped down as chair of Sex Matters due to the demands of her job as a barrister. Dr Emma Hilton will step in as interim chair.
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In the news
Media coverage this week was dominated by the news that Girlguiding UK and the Women’s Institute (WI) both revised their policies in line with the law by excluding boys and men who identify as female from their services. Maya Forstater’s comment that Girlguiding did the right and only thing for it to do was covered by James Melley for BBC News online. Helen Joyce was interviewed by Jeremy Vine on BBC Radio 2, in an interview that was clipped and ran in the hourly news bulletins across most BBC radio stations into the afternoon and evening.
On the WI, Helen’s comment that a group set up for women must be able to keep out all men was covered by Ben Hatton for BBC News, Sanchez Manning for The Times, Gabriella Swerling for The Telegraph and Martin Beckford for the Daily Mail (print only).
Naomi Cunningham’s departure as chair of Sex Matters was mentioned in coverage of the news that Sandie Peggie has lodged further claims against NHS Fife’s chief executive and other staff, as reported by Sarah Ward for PA Media, which ran in dozens of newspapers including the Scottish Sun, as well as Dan Sanderson for The Times and Jacob Freedland in The Telegraph (print only).
The news that engineer Maria Kelly lost her employment tribunal against defence giant Leonardo UK in relation to the company’s workplace toilet policy, and that she plans to appeal, was reported across the media. Articles by Sarah Ward for PA Media were published by The Standard among many media outlets, and others included Jacob Freedland for The Telegraph (print only), Andrew Learmonth for The Herald, Catriona Stewart for The Scotsman and Eleanor Pugsley for the Scottish Sun. Maya said that the judgment interprets the law as transactivists would wish it to be, and is incompatible with the Supreme Court ruling in For Women Scotland in several places.
The Sunday Telegraph reported that “cash-stapped” Bristol City Council has spent £1,500 decorating street-sweeping vehicles and bin carts with the so-called Progress Pride flag. Fiona McAnena said that the designs belong in the bin rather than being displayed on the outside of them, as the flag represents a movement that causes significant harm to women, children and gay people.
Maya did two broadcast interviews on the case of Ryan Haley, a trans-identifying male perpetrator of child sexual abuse who was referred to in court with female pronouns, with appearances on LBC with Nick Ferrari and Patrick Christy’s show on GB News.
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