Groupthink and negligence let a bullying culture thrive in the workplace, writes Suzanne Moore for the Telegraph, but now the tide is finally starting to turn. She continues:
Many people I know cannot be “out” about their gender critical beliefs in their workplaces because those in charge still do not know the difference between what Stonewall says is the way to do things and the actual law. It is an act of gross negligence and groupthink that the leaders of our institutions do not care to inform themselves of the difference between the two. But they need to, sharpish.
If the Cass Review broke the medical dam, then the many cases heard in employment tribunals are breaking the legal one. You are entitled to believe that men can be women and therefore enter any space that previously excluded them, from toilets to prison, to refuges. But I am allowed to believe that this is not so.
This has been brought home once more by Rachel Meade not only winning her case against Social Work England for harassment and sex discrimination but winning – unusually – exemplary damages. Meade had been a social worker in Westminster for 20 years. On her private Facebook page, she linked to petitions about keeping male athletes out of female sports and prisons. She also liked tweets written by well-known gender critical people such as Graham Linehan and JK Rowling.
For this, she was reported as “transphobic” by another social worker and Facebook friend Aedan Wolton. She was suspended by Westminster City Council and after a year given a written warning. A disciplinary investigation was launched and she was told she could be sacked for misconduct.
The regulator did not bother to check out anything about the background of the person who complained, a trans activist, as the tribunal notes.
Meade won her case, just as Prof Jo Phoenix won her case against the Open University, just as Denise Fahmy won her case against Arts Council England.
All of this is because of the bravery of Maya Forstater, whose 2021 appeal means that gender critical beliefs are a protected characteristic in the Equality Act.
Basically, people can believe what they wish. This does not mean anyone may act in a discriminatory manner in the workplace and I would not support any of these women if there was ever any evidence of this. There isn’t. They were threatened for the expression of their views.
The judge in the Meade case made it clear that the managers of Social Work England need to go away and do some training. Indeed any public body that has only received training from Stonewall needs to do so. Urgently.
Worth reading in full.
