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Holding gender critical beliefs to account
In light of Jo Phoenix’s tribunal decision on 22nd January 2024 it is worth stopping to consider what it is going to take to hold gender critical believers to account. Unless belief is held to account it becomes sacrosanct, to the point that it becomes a screed that cannot be challenged lest those believers litigate or force those beliefs onto others. After the Forstater appeal decision embedded protections for gender critical beliefs in English law there have been a series of cases in which gender critical beliefs have been held above gender reassignment and gender inclusive beliefs by lower courts in England. None of the decisions have accounted for the fact that all beliefs must be held up to scrutiny, and that no right is above reproach. What Phoenix appears to be saying is that even when your right to believe gender critical beliefs is affirmed by your employer, you have the right to be thin skinned and take things out of context as long as you can fall back onto your beliefs as a reason.
UK law is a curates egg for rights, with the enshrined notions of rights in the Equality Act 2010 requiring multiple court cases to tease out the meaning of each section. That gender critical beliefs have been added to the protected beliefs section is an example of the courts extending a section of the EA2010 beyond its original intended scope. The tension between gender critical…
