Akhlaq Choudhury QC was a barrister specialising in commercial, employment, procurement, information and public law. He was appointed a Deputy High Court judge in 2016 and a High Court judge in 2017.
The Centre for Global Development is responding to Maya's Appeal. They are hoping that the original Judgment will be upheld.
Their President is Masood Ahmed.He joined the Centre in January 2017 following a 35-year career driving economic development policy initiatives.
Jane Russell from Essex Court Chambers will be representing CGD today in the Employment Appeal Tribunal.CGD will be referred to as the "Respondents" to the Appeal during the Hearing.
Ben Cooper QC will be representing Maya Forstater.
She will be referred to as the "Appellant" during the Hearing today.
Karon Monaghan QC will appear for the Equalities & Human Rights Commission, intervening in support of Maya Forstater’s appeal.
Aileen McColgan will appear for Index on Censorship, intervening in support of Maya Forstater’s appeal.
• • •
Missing some Tweet in this thread? You can try to
force a refresh
The case being heard today (and tomorrow) by @UKSupremeCourt will test the legal uncertainty about how GRCs interact with the Equality Act.
There is no ambiguity, however, about the lawfulness of women’s sport 🧵
Whatever the outcome of the FWS case it is clear that female-only competition is lawful.
🔹The #EqualityAct, section 195, says that it is permissible to discriminate by sex in a sport in which the physical strength, stamina or physique of average persons of one sex would put them at a disadvantage compared to average persons of the other sex.
🔹It also makes specific provision to allow gender-reassignment discrimination wherever it is necessary to secure fair competition or the safety of competitors.
Any sport that runs separate competitive categories for men and women, or boys and girls, is relying on s.195 ⬇️
The Sports Councils Equality Group (SCEG) provides a legal briefing to national governing bodies that makes the position clear. We obtained it through a lengthy freedom of information process.
The Sex Matters team spent last weekend at the Battle of Ideas in London.
The festival of public debate included around 100 lively discussions on big issues in politics, science, economics, culture, the law and more. Panels that touched on sex-based rights took place alongside sessions on riots, China, AI, cities, prisons, art, energy and education.
Fiona spoke on “Gender Wars: no end in sight?” about how women's rights that have been won in our lifetime are being lost.
Last weekend I attended the Bigger Picture conference held by @genspect in Lisbon.
It was Genspect’s third conference in under 18 months – a remarkable achievement for a small, newish organisation and another step towards fighting back against the “gender affirming” model of healthcare for trans-identifying people…
…according to which everyone, including children, has an innate gender identity and it’s the job of doctors and therapists to provide puberty-blockers, cross-sex hormones and surgeries to bring their bodies into line.
The draft DfE guidance says “Allow for watchful waiting: Wait for a period of time before considering a request, to ensure it is a sustained and properly thought through decision. This period of ‘watchful waiting’ may help to ensure unnecessary action is not undertaken.”
But as the @ASCL_UK says “Our members are not clinical experts, and should not be expected to possess or exercise clinical expertise.”
Over the past few weeks (even while Sex Matters was closed for a much-needed summer break!) we have been busy with the fallout from the scandal of male boxers in the women’s Olympic boxing.
With Emma Hilton, and the rest of the team, I have been doing interviews, media briefings…
…and podcasts to explain what was going on and why.
Last year, while I was on a summer holiday, I was emailed by the Metropolitan Police and told I was under investigation for the crime of “Malicious Communications”. Now I’ve been told that the case has been referred to the Crown Prosecution Service…
My crime was to tweet about a male doctor who was presented to patients as a woman and allowed to examine them without their informed consent.
This week the awful spectacle at the Olympics goes on. The IOC has allowed two athletes, found to have XY chromosomes (most likely with a disorder of sexual development which led to their being recorded female at birth by mistake) to compete against women in boxing.