A researcher has been awarded £100,000 in compensation after she lost her job at a thinktank for tweeting that transgender women could not change their biological sex.
An earlier employment tribunal ruled that Maya Forstater, who worked at the Centre for Global Development (CGD), was unfairly discriminated against because of her gender-critical beliefs.
Forstater said the court's decision is a warning to other organisations.
“My case has exposed institutionalised discrimination against, and the routine abuse and smearing of, people with perfectly ordinary beliefs about the material reality of sex,” she told The Guardian.
(Left-right) Caroline Ffiske of Women Uniting, Heather Binning from the Women's Rights Network and Maya Forstater Sex Matters in Victoria Tower Gardens, Westminster, as three of the country's largest campaign groups on women's rights
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“A bigot is someone who is prejudiced or antagonistic towards a person or people on the basis of their membership of a particular group.
"I, and many other people with gender-critical beliefs, have been the victims, not the perpetrators, of discrimination fuelled by bigotry.”
Her tweets included one where she wrote: “A man’s internal feeling that he is a woman has no basis in material reality.”
In addition, she compared self-identifying trans women to Rachel Dolezal, a white American woman who misrepresented herself as black, and described it as “a feeling in their head”.
Forstater, who is the founder of campaign group Sex Matters, added: “Organisations that call people ‘bigots’ and that discriminate against them because of their beliefs can expect to pay significant damages when these cases come to court.
“This final judgment provides me with some measure of closure and vindication, as it requires that CGD compensate me for my loss of income and injury to feelings.
"And it makes clear that the organisation’s statements about me suggesting that I might have engaged in harassment or discrimination were false.”
The 49-year-old was awarded £91,500 in compensation for loss of earnings, injury to feelings and aggravated damages along with £14,900 in interest.
The 49-year-old was awarded £91,500 in compensation for loss of earnings, injury to feelings and aggravated damages along with £14,900 in interest
PAThe London employment tribunal found that CGD had not complied with employment law by discriminating against her in three ways: by not offering her an employment contract, not renewing her visiting fellowship and removing her from its website.
CGD said: “Following the employment tribunal’s remedy judgment, the case brought against CGD, its president, Masood Ahmed, and CGD Europe by Maya Forstater will come to a close.
“CGD has and will continue to strive to maintain a workplace that is welcoming, safe, and inclusive to all.
"The resolution of this case will allow us once again to focus exclusively on our mission: reducing global poverty and inequality through economic research that drives better policy and practice.”
