A government lawyer who faced legal action after expressing gender-critical views at work including commenting that only women menstruate has had the case against her dropped.
Elspeth Duemmer-Wrigley works for an arm’s-length body affiliated to the Department for Environment Food & Rural Affairs (Defra) and was due to appear at a tribunal this week accused of harassment over comments and posts made in the workplace. A comment that “only women menstruate” made in a seminar about female autism and a post listing the nine protected characteristics from the Equality Act were cited among the examples.
As reported by the Times, the claimant has now officially withdrawn all accusations against Duemmer-Wrigley, who is a chairwoman of a civil service network that represents staff with gender-critical views. The report continues:
The individual works for another organisation linked to Defra and is still suing the government department for allowing the network to exist.
Duemmer-Wrigley says the claims against her were “vexatious and without merit” and believes she was targeted as a figurehead of the Sex Equality and Equity Network (SEEN). The network has more than 700 civil servant members across 50 government departments who support the belief that biological sex is binary and immutable.
The anonymous claimant has accused Defra bosses of creating an “intimidating, hostile, degrading, humiliating and/or offensive environment” and is calling for a disbanding of the departmental SEEN network.
Despite the personal toll the case has taken on her, Duemmer-Wrigley is seeking to remain an interested party to defend the existence of SEEN across the public sector. “It has always been my position that this claim was vexatious and without merit,” she said.
“However, this does not end things. The claimant is still seeking remedies which would directly impact me, those who are gender critical within the civil service, and the SEEN network. For this reason I am seeking to remain on the action as an interested party, to ensure that none of these remedies are implemented.”
Worth reading in full.
