Legal system • Page 4
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Sex and the law – share our short guide
What does intersex mean? Are you allowed to mention someone’s sex if they don’t want you to? Has someone with a gender recognition certificate changed their sex? Do you have the right to privacy when you’re taking your clothes off? Is it discrimination to keep male people out of...
4th August 2022
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Sex and the law
A short guide to your human rights in everyday life.
Speaking about the two sexes, male and female, should not be difficult. This guide uses ordinary language, and is based on science, universal human rights and UK law -
Equal Treatment Bench Book – interim revision July 2022
A revision of the February 2021 edition.
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Forstater discrimination ruling will have profound effect
Rhona Darbyshire for The TImes
Trans people will still be protected against harassment, but must share that protection with those who disagree with them.
Rhona Darbyshire is an employment law partner at the law firm Cripps -
Maya Forstater wins three claims in employment tribunal following trans row
Andrew Doyle talks to Maya Forstater on Free Speech Nation.
17:54 on YouTube. -
What does the Forstater judgment mean for employers?
On 6th July 2022 an employment tribunal found that Maya Forstater had been directly discriminated against by the Center for Global Development because of her beliefs. This follows on from the precedent-setting judgment of the Employment Appeal Tribunal in June 2021, which found that the “gender critical” belief “that...
8th July 2022
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Campaigner was discriminated against over gender critical beliefs
Law Society Gazette by Michael Cross
A ‘gender-critical’ campaigner suffered direct discrimination by a non-governmental organisation when it decided not to offer her a contract of employment, an employment tribunal ruled today in a high-profile case. Employment experts said the ruling will clarify the law on what amounts... -
Maya Forstater: Woman discriminated against over trans tweets, tribunal rules
BBC News
A woman who said people cannot change their biological sex was discriminated against by her employers, an employment tribunal has ruled. Tax expert Maya Forstater did not have her contract renewed after posting a series of tweets about gender and sex. -
A win for free speech and sex-based rights
Sex Matters’ Executive Director, Maya Forstater, has won her employment tribunal case against her former employer. Here is her press statement: Maya Forstater, who took a claim for belief discrimination against her former employer, the Center for Global Development, has been vindicated by a ruling that she was unlawfully...
6th July 2022
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Forstater v CGD Europe & Others: Maya Forstater succeeds in Employment Tribunal
Press release from Doyle Clayton, workplace lawyers.
Gender critical beliefs are protected in the workplace. -
![Trans rights activist recused: “The evidence of the lay member’s position [...] must again lead that observer to conclude that there would remain a real possibility of unconscious bias.”](https://sex-matters.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/Lord-recused.png)
Edward Lord recused from hearing gender-critical belief case
A recent hearing of the Employment Appeal Tribunal considered whether trans rights activist Edward Lord was a suitable person to hear a case of gender-critical belief discrimination. The case of Kristie Higgs v Farmor’s School concerns whether restrictions of the free-speech rights of critics of the transgender movement are...
5th July 2022
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Groups defending sex-based rights
Overview of groups opposing sex self-ID in the UK, set up by individuals and collectives concerned by the failure of established third-sector organisations to defend women’s sex-based rights, child safeguarding and evidence-based policymaking. Also listed on our website.
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Male and female in the Equality Act
Last week Old Square Chambers hosted a seminar about single-sex services and the law. Barristers Nicola Newbegin and Robin Moira White argued that biological sex is something that “popped up” recently in relation to the Equality Act. The meaning of the protected characteristic of “sex”, they said, is ambiguous and...
21st June 2022
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Who is Edward Lord?
Can a person who accuses everyone who disagrees with radical gender ideology of “transphobia” be the right person to hear a case about discrimination for gender-critical belief?
20th June 2022
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Sex self-ID in Scotland and transgender unemployment
The Gender Recognition Act 2004 was an extraordinary piece of legislation intended for an extraordinary group of people. It was passed to allow people who had transitioned under medical supervision to change the legal sex recorded on their birth certificate “for all purposes”. Now the Scottish Government is...
14th June 2022
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Briefing for conversion therapy debate
The Government has decided to introduce a law banning “gay conversion therapy’”, but following consultation decided not to introduce a law criminalising therapy in relation to “gender identity”. On Monday 13th June 2022 there will be a Westminster Hall debate where the issue will be raised again.
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Gender-critical: your rights at work
A leaflet to print at home. Or a glossier version for colour printing or sharing online.
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We have been worthy of respect for a whole year!
A year ago today Maya Forstater won a critical judgment in the Employment Appeal Tribunal, establishing that gender-critical beliefs are “worthy of respect in a democratic society”. The judgment had many implications: Employers should not refuse to employ someone because they have expressed gender-critical views online. Organisations should recognise...
10th June 2022
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Sex realists gaining ground at Westminster
Debates on new laws in Parliament are one of the key battlefields between sex realists and sex denialists, with one side seeking clarity on sex, and the other seeking to conflate and confuse sex and gender identity. A long-term strategy of the sex-denial lobbyists has been to propose legislation seemingly...
31st May 2022
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Maya Forstater: Warning on ‘quickie’ gender recognition certificates in Scotland
Jason Allardyce for The Sunday Times.
Maya Forstater of Sex Matters is quoted. -
Is Scotland going to turn the UK into an identity-laundering haven?
As part of Sex Matters’ response to the Scottish Parliament consultation on GRA reform we raised security concerns. This has been reported in the Telegraph and the Times, and Maya Forstater had a Thunderer piece in the Times. Identity matters The involvement of the state with an individual’s identity...
18th May 2022
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We’ve told the Scottish Parliament our views – have you?
We asked you to respond to the consultation on Scotland’s draft bill to reform the Gender Recognition Act 2004 and introduce self-ID, whether you’re in Scotland or not (because if legal sex change just by self-declaration is allowed in Scotland, it will make it easier for it to be come...
16th May 2022
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Response to Gender Recognition Reform (Scotland) Bill
Sex Matters’ response to the government consultation, submitted on 9th May 2022. The rules for obtaining a GRC should not differ across the UK. There are serious implications to removing the medical diagnosis, reducing the qualifying period, and reducing the minimum age, and giving secrecy provisions.
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Self-ID: tell the Scottish Parliament your views!
When the Gender Recognition Act came into force in 2004, it was a single regime for the UK. The Scottish Executive at the time considered whether Scotland should have separate legislation, but rejected this approach due to “cross-border anomalies”. In 2019 the UK government stepped back from its plan...
3rd May 2022
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“We hardly get any of those here” – working with girls and women
Charlotte Weinberg writes for Probation Quarterly on whether changes to the perception, treatment and approaches to work with women and girls affected by the criminal justice system have occurred, to what extent and to what effect.
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Maya Forstater interviewed on BBC Woman’s Hour
Presenter Emma Barnett talks to Maya Forstater about her legal case on 9th March 2022.
18:04 to 48:04 on BBC Sounds. -
Interview with Maya Forstater
Sex Matters’ Executive Director Maya Forstater won an important judgment in 2021 in her employment discrimination case. Now she is going back to court. Before her hearing begins next week on 7th March, Sex Matters interviewed Maya about her journey.
2nd March 2022
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A radically simpler system than gender self-ID
Critics of the Gender Recognition Act who call for gender self-identification say the current system is too much of an administrative burden. They are calling on the government to bring people together to find solutions.
21st February 2022
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Gender representation on public boards (Scotland) – opinion of the court, 18th February 2022
For Women Scotland sought judicial review of the Scottish Government’s decision to change the definition of “woman”, an appeal against the decision of the Lord Ordinary made on 23rd March 2021.
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Sex and digital identities
How digital identities can solve the problem with sex and gender identity – and how getting it wrong will make the problem worse.
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Responses to the government consultation on banning conversion therapy
The government's consultation on conversion therapy has now closed, and the responses are being analysed. More than a thousand people used the form on our website to send the government their own responses to the consultation.
11th February 2022
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Response to the government consultation on banning conversion therapy
We reviewed the government’s evidence base and, like the EHRC, found little evidence to support this legislation – and a great deal that concerned us…