Greens discriminated against gender-critical member, tribunal rules

A member of the Green Party of England and Wales was subjected to unlawful discrimination for expressing his belief that biological sex is real, an employment tribunal has found.

County Court Judge Stephen Hellman awarded £9,100 in damages to Dr Shahrar Ali, upholding his “core complaint” that he was sacked because of his gender-critical beliefs.

The judge declared that Dr Ali’s beliefs – that a woman is “commonly defined as an adult human female” and that “conflating biological sex with gender identity” threatened women’s sex-based rights – are protected under the Equality Act 2010.

‘Unfair’

Dr Ali was sacked as the Party’s Policing and Domestic Safety spokesman following complaints by activists over his criticism of radical gender ideology.

According to the Mayor’s and City of London Court judgment, the Green Party acted in a “discriminatory” way towards Dr Ali because of his “protected belief” and his “removal was procedurally unfair”.

Welcoming the judgment, Dr Ali said: “Parties are not beyond the law when it comes to seeking to discipline their representatives in accordance with their own rules for alleged misconduct.”

He also said: “This is about women’s and children’s rights, and our right, within politics, to be able to articulate, ventilate and foster genuine debate on matters of great consequence without fear of disproportionate consequence.”

Activists cry foul

In a statement, the Green Party acknowledged there were “procedural shortfalls in how we deselected one of our spokespeople” and it apologised “for failing in this instance to live up to the standards that both we and the court expect”.

Commenting on the ruling, co-chair of the LGBTQIA+ Greens Cade Hatton said “We hope that everyone involved feels they have gotten what they needed out of this case, but sadly under our judicial system and with the complexities of this issue, this is rarely possible.”

Last year, the activist group branded party members who affirm the reality of biological sex as “transphobic” and scorned referring to gender-confused people as “biological” men or women.

Indisputable facts

In 2020, Dr Ali said in a social media post: “A woman is commonly defined as an adult human female and, genetically, typified by two XX chromosomes. These facts are not in dispute nor should they be in any political party.”

He subsequently initiated a party motion on social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter, calling for young people confused about their gender to be protected from private clinics exploiting an “NHS Moratoria on the Prescription of Puberty Blockers”.

He has also posted comments online in defence of JK Rowling and Professor Kathleen Stock after they were bullied for expressing the view that men cannot become women.

Maya Forstater, who lost her job in 2019 for defending the reality of biological sex, was subsequently awarded more than £100,000 in compensation by an employment tribunal.