Tribunal vindicates woman vilified for belief ‘people cannot change sex’

A woman who was humiliated and intimidated by her colleagues for defending the reality of biological sex has been vindicated at tribunal.

In a unanimous judgment, Leeds Employment Tribunal upheld the claim of Denise Fhamy, a former employee of Arts Council England (ACE), that she had been harassed at work over her gender critical beliefs.

The panel declared that Fhamy’s beliefs – that biological sex is fixed and that “‘trans women’ are men who think they are women” – were protected under the Equality Act 2010.

A violation of dignity

According to the judgment, Fhamy was subject to hostility and harassment at ACE after she publicly challenged a statement which labelled LGB Alliance ‘transphobic’.

Subsequent to Fhamy’s comments, which were made during an online meeting attended by over 400 staff, an email was circulated to all employees encouraging them to oppose recently announced ACE funding for LGB Alliance.

In an appended petition, some colleagues likened the gender critical views espoused by LGB Alliance to “bigotry” and “a cancer”, and described the organisation as “a cultural parasite and a glorified hate group”.

The Tribunal said that the email and comments “had the purpose and effect of violating the claimant’s dignity and creating an intimidating, hostile, degrading, humiliating or offensive environment”.

Ideological imposition

Responding to the judgement, Fahmy told The Times: “I feel vindicated, because it was quite clear I had been harassed and bullied by colleagues.”

She added: “You can live the way you want to live, but that doesn’t mean you can trample on the rights of other people.

“You can’t take, for example women’s rights, where there are protected rights for single-sex spaces, and adopt those spaces because of some idea that you can change sex. That’s a huge imposition on millions of women in this country.”

Last year, Maya Forstater, who lost her job for defending the reality of biological sex, was awarded more than £100,000 in compensation by an employment tribunal. Fahmy’s compensation award will be determined at a future hearing.