I have been accused of “bad faith” by some of the great and the good in legal circles. Possibly the greatest and the best in fact.
Why?
Because I believe that sex matters.
The EHRC submission today in front of the Employment Appeal Tribunal in the #MayaAppeal was that Maya’s belief - one which I share - is one that the Tribunal should have concluded was a protected belief.
As the EHRC set out so concisely; the belief is that;
1. Sex is a material reality not to be conflated with gender identity and
2. Sex matters
Karon Monaghan submitted that belief is separate from manifestation and a person who holds such a belief might not manifest their belief at work at all.
I manifest my belief outside of work on social media and with friends and family.
I urge you to do the same.
Particularly if this is your personal Twitter account and you are not tweeting in a professional capacity.
I appreciate it’s scary and some women (particularly women) are not safe online.
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Ben Cooper’s closing submissions in Maya’s appeal against the original Employment Tribunal Judgment (that her beliefs are not worthy of respect in a democratic society) are playing on my mind this evening.
I thought maybe they should play on your mind too...
Ben Cooper QC submitted that no one disputes that gender identity beliefs meet the Grainger criteria for section 10 of the Equality Act
(Translation: those people who believe in gender identity are protected from discrimination)
The effect of the original Employment Tribunal Judgment is that Maya must be required to subordinate her use of language to the opposing view in this important debate (about sex and gender) .
GPGR originates from s 78 EqA2020 which talks about the differences in pay between male and female employees
The Equality Act 2010 (Gender Pay Gap Information) Regulations 2017 was enacted in April 2017 to kick s78 into gear.
It refers to male and female pay but doesn’t define either.
(Which ought to be unnecessary as S212 EqA provides definitions)
The Explanatory Memorandum to the Regs tells us that GPG is a measurement of difference between men and women’s earnings using transparency as a tool to improve policies and practices
We still live in sexist times. BBC presenters paid less than their male equals. Female youth squad footballers thousands less per hour than their male counterparts.
Current law is that where an individual has not aquired certified and state-mandated legal sex status then service providers may treat them as their born sex.
So women have female-only provision.
Once a gender recognition certificate has been acquired everything changes.
Instead of straight-forward sex exceptions, women’s rights fall back on those provided by Schedule 3 Paragraph 28 of the Equality Act 2010.