A woman who lost her job after claiming people cannot change their biological sex, has won two claims in a fresh employment tribunal following an appeal. Maya Forstater’s contract at the Centre for Global Development (CGD) was not renewed in March 2019 after she said biological sex could not be changed.
In a judgment handed down on Wednesday, Employment Judge Andrew Glennie said the “complaints of direct discrimination because of belief are well founded” over the decision to not offer Ms Forstater a contract or review a fellowship following her tweets.
Judge Glennie added that her complaint that she was victimised after being removed from a company website was “well founded”.
However, he also said Ms Forstater’s complaints of direct discrimination of belief, victimisation over a withdrawal of an offer to engage her as a consultant and harassment and indirect discrimination over sex and belief were dismissed.
The tax expert was told by her boss that she would not be hired full-time after “antagonising” senior executives with her tweets about transgender people, an earlier employment tribunal heard.
Maya Forstater’s contract at the Centre for Global Development (CGD) was not renewed in March 2019 after she posted tweets opposing proposed reforms to the Gender Recognition Act that would make it easier to change a person’s legal gender.
Ms Forstater took her case to an employment tribunal on the grounds that her dismissal constituted discrimination against her beliefs.
Employment judge James Tayler originally dismissed her claim but High Court judge Justice Choudhury later ruled that the judgment had “erred in law”.
Finding in her favour in June, the High Court judge said her views “may well be profoundly offensive and even distressing”, but said they “must be tolerated in a pluralist society”.
CGD described the ruling as “a step backwards for inclusivity and equality for all”.
The organisation said it accepted that gender critical beliefs may be protected in law, but that it would be bringing the case back to the lower Employment Tribunal “to dispute Maya Forstater’s version of events”.
The lower tribunal heard how Ms Forstater had understood that she would be made a full-time employee – rather than just a contractor – after funding for one of her projects was confirmed in late 2018.
However, she said Mark Plant, chief executive of the European branch of CDG, told her she would not be made a senior fellow because she had “antagonised” senior executives in the US.
By this point, concerns had been raised by some of her colleagues about her social media activity.
On hearing that the funding for the project had been granted, she said: “It was announced without any mention of my name and then I found out I would not be employed.
“It was humiliating.”
She later added: “What (Mr Plant) said to me was that I would not be made an employee because I had antagonised people in Washington with my tweets.”
Olivia-Faith Dobbie, representing CDG, rebutted this, suggesting that Mr Plant told her it was because her work was not a “core part” of the organisation and was “too narrow”.
Ms Forstater replied: “No, that is not what he said. He did not say anything about the breadth of my work.
“What he said was that I had antagonised people in Washington with my tweets and there wasn’t enough support to bring me on.”
Ms Forstater also told the tribunal that she saw nothing wrong with sharing a pamphlet in the office that advanced views against proposed changes to the Gender Recognition act.
The document said that “self sex-ID” would “destroy” the legal rights of “those born female”.
While she was being probed about the arguments in the pamphlet, Ms Forstater said: “I do not think there is anything wrong with writing them out or sharing them in the office where people have lots of partisan views.”
Ms Dobbie also pointed to a paragraph on safeguarding children, which read: “Laws or policies that dictate a male must be accepted as female while being allowed to conceal his birth sex, contravene basic rules of safeguarding and informed consent.”
She asked Ms Forstater: “This is nothing else than saying that transwomen are dangerous to children, is it not?”
Ms Forstater disagreed, adding: “It is a safeguarding matter for children to be able to tell the truth.”
Ms Dobbie pressed: “You do not think there is anything objectionable in that paragraph?” to which Ms Forstater indicated she did not.
Commenting on the start of the tribunal, Amanda Glassman, executive vice president of CGD, said: “The Centre for Global Development always aims to maintain a workplace and an environment that is welcoming, safe, and inclusive to all, including trans people. As these proceedings will make clear, the decision to not renew Maya Forstater’s unpaid affiliation was the result of a lengthy and carefully considered process, and allowed us to remain true to our commitment to an inclusive workplace.
“The Centre for Global Development values and has always fostered an environment of intellectual debate and differences of view, but we strongly believe that this debate must be grounded in mutual respect and that all people must be treated with dignity.
“The Centre for Global Development’s mission is to reduce global poverty and inequality through economic research that drives better policy and practice by the world’s top decision makers, and we continue to focus on this important agenda.”
Amanda Glassman, Chief Executive Officer of Center for Global Development (CGD) Europe and Executive Vice President of the Center for Global Development, said: “We are reviewing today’s judgment, which found in favor of Ms. Forstater on some claims, and dismissed others.
“CGD’s primary aim has always been to uphold our values and maintain a workplace and an environment that is welcoming, safe, and inclusive to all, including trans people.
“As we consider our next steps in this case, CGD remains focused on our mission: reducing global poverty and inequality through economic research that drives better policy and practice by the world's top decision makers.”
