"Be braver today than you were yesterday."
Maya Forstater, who was let go from her position at think tank Center for Global Development (CGD) for tweets asserting the reality of biological sex, and who had originally lost her case in 2019, has now won her appeal.
View the full ruling here.
Maya’s case drew the attention of J.K. Rowling in 2019, when she tweeted out her support.
In June of 2020, she published an an essay clarifying her views about the importance of biological sex, saying:
“We’re living through the most misogynistic period I’ve experienced. Back in the 80s, I imagined that my future daughters, should I have any, would have it far better than I ever did, but between the backlash against feminism and a porn-saturated online culture, I believe things have got significantly worse for girls. Never have I seen women denigrated and dehumanised to the extent they are now. From the leader of the free world’s long history of sexual assault accusations and his proud boast of ‘grabbing them by the pussy’, to the incel (‘involuntarily celibate’) movement that rages against women who won’t give them sex, to the trans activists who declare that TERFs need punching and re-educating, men across the political spectrum seem to agree: women are asking for trouble. Everywhere, women are being told to shut up and sit down, or else.”
Fortunately, women are not shutting up or sitting down, and thanks to the courage of women like J.K. Rowling and Maya Forstater, among many others, a sea-change is brewing.
Maya has released statement calling for others to join her and her new organization, Sex Matters. Women around the world are losing the right to define themselves on their own terms, and they are losing the protections from male violence afforded to them by single sex spaces. Whether it’s violent males being housed in women’s prisons, or girls being forced to compete against males in sports, the feelings and entitlement of a few boys and men are being prioritized over the safety and dignity of women and girls. There is a war going on against the female sex, and its aim is the removal of women’s boundaries and rights — which is why the judgement in Maya Forstater’s case is a crucial turning point for the public dialogue around women’s rights going forward.
Maya released the following statement to her YouTube channel today:
“A year ago today, JK Rowling published her essay about sex and gender and why she spoke up. She wrote about me, and my employment tribunal, where it was judged that the belief that sex is real, immutable, and important was unworthy of respect in a democratic society. She wrote about the culture of fear in organizations, and she said the one thing that gave her hope was that more and more people are speaking up.
Thousands of ordinary people supported my case, and today, I'm pleased and proud to say that we have been vindicated.
In a landmark judgement handed down this morning by Justice Choudhury in the employment appeal tribunal, the previous judgement was overturned. Gender critical beliefs are protected under the Equality Act, and people who hold those beliefs are protected against discrimination and harassment. Under the European Convention on human rights, only the most extreme views, akin to totalitarianism or Nazism are excluded from protection, and the judge said that my belief, which is widely shared, and does not seek to destroy the rights of trans people, clearly did not fall into that category.
He said, ‘A person is free in a democratic society to hold any belief they wish, subject only to some modest, objective minimum requirements.’ Being free to hold a belief means the freedom from being harassed, discriminated against, or having your livelihood taken away from you if you express that belief. It doesn't mean the freedom to harass others. That was never what my case was about. Gender critical beliefs, and gender identity beliefs, are both protected under the Equality Act, and so too, is lack of belief. No one can be forced to profess a belief that they do not hold, like 'trans women are women, trans men are men,' and punished if they refuse.
My judgement means that organizations now need to consider whether their policies, encouraged by trans rights organizations, discriminate against people with gender critical views.
I'm proud of the role that I've played in clarifying the law and inspiring more people to speak up. But we can't leave the burden on individuals to put this right. We have to tackle institutional capture. That's why I've co-founded a new organization, Sex Matters. We have a singular mission: to re-establish clarity about sex in law, policy, and language. This is about single-sex services. It's about women's refuges, women's prisons, women's sports. It's also about doctors, parents, teachers, and young people themselves being able to question the narrative about being born in the wrong body. Fundamentally it's about people being able to talk about the material reality of sex.
Be braver today than you were yesterday.
We invite you to join Sex Matters. We want to protect everybody's rights. We think this is worthy of respect in a democratic society and we hope you will join us.”
Thank you to Maya, and to J.K. Rowling, and to all who have been doing the emotionally taxing work of speaking out against this dangerous and predatory ideology.
BBC Radio 2 news at 5pm. Last item - again, headline from the surprised/bemused newsreader followed by a woke spokesfolk for transfolk saying how "worried" the poor Ts were but, rest assured, their rights haven't changed and all the moon-genders & vapo-genders & blue-haired woman-haters can still crybully people out of their jobs. Ish. Fuppin' disgrace.
BBC Radio 2 news at 4pm. Last item -announcer (surprised voice) - "woman who lost ... has now won ..." and proceeds to quote the original judge's "not worthy of respect in a democratic society" (no surprised voice). The end. No comeback from Maya. Again, listeners are left with the wrong impression.