A gender-critical teacher sacked for refusing to use a pupil's chosen pronouns says he felt 'coerced'

Max Thompson, Campaigns Officer

23 October 2026

A maths teacher was sacked in September 2022 after he refused to refer to a biologically female pupil by their preferred male name and pronouns.

Kevin Lister was dismissed by New College Swindon after refusing to use the student's preferred pronouns, and is reported to have gestured towards the student rather than use their preferred name.

An appeal tribunal has now heard that Mr Lister felt coerced by the trans policy of the further education college in Wiltshire.

In 2024, a tribunal in Bristol concluded that Mr Lister had been dismissed for his conduct, finding that he had expressed his beliefs in an 'objectionable manner'.

gender-critical beliefs are protected under the Equality Act 2010, and last year the Supreme Court's landmark ruling held that 'sex' in that Act is defined by biology, not gender identity.

On Tuesday, at the Employment Appeal Tribunal in London, Anna Loufti, representing Mr Lister, said that the teacher had been required to 'socially transition' the student, which he could not do because of his lawful gender-critical beliefs.

Ms Loufti also said that the Bristol tribunal had wrongly concluded that the college's policy, which stated that students should be referred to by their preferred name and pronouns, did not have a 'coercive' effect on Mr Lister.

Mr Lister believed that he had a duty to safeguard the student rather than 'encourage and condone' their transition. Ms Loufti also argued that the college had failed to consider how its policy set the rights of people with gender-critical beliefs and those of transgender people in opposition to one another.

It was also reported that the Bristol tribunal had heard that Mr Lister had posted his views on X:

"I am not going to call my #transgender students by their preferred name. To do so, (is to) support them killing the person they were. To call them by their preferred name is like telling a potential #suicide victim to jump off a cliff."

Despite gender-critical beliefs being lawful, cases involving individuals who have been punished, silenced, or cancelled for holding or expressing such views make up the second-largest category of cases that the Free Speech Union handles.

Read more in The Telegraph.