1. Can using pronouns to misgender a person, including a Trans person, constitute unlawful harassment?

The law does not as a rule regulate pronoun use. There are a few: e.g. Lord , Lady, Sit which carry legal constrsints in very limited settings…. 1/13
2. … But he/him, she/her, they/their are just matters of social convention, used by people to categorise individuals & to be polite.

There are 2 types of unlawful harassment:
- Criminal (The Protection from Harassment Act 1997)
- Civil (The Equslity Act 2010 s. 26)…
3. … CRIMINAL: the Protection from Harassment Act s.1. states a person must not pursue a course of conduct which

- amounts to harassment of another,
- which they know or ought to know amounts to harassment of the other.
Or
- that involves harassment of 2 or more people ….,
4. - which they know or ought to know is harassment, & which
- they intend to persuade any person (whether or not 1 of those harassed)
- to not to do something that they are entitled or required to do, or
- to do something they is not under any obligation to do. …
5. The course of actions is not determined by the Act & therefore words can constitute harassment.

Criminal harassment is a course of conduct, so the action must happen on at least 2 separate occasions, but these need not take exactly the same form though must be related. …
6. There is no minimum or maximum time between when the occasions took place, but they must not be so far apart as to become unrelated.

Essential to Criminal harassment is the perpetrator knows/ should know the action is harassing to the 1 or more people it is directed at. …
7. What format, harassment takes is evidential, but can be anything a court determines acts upon the victim

Claiming the misgendering of a T person is the truth/accurate is irrelevant ...
8. The court is
concerned with
a. whether the person knew or should have known
b. the impact on the victim &
c. If it was a ‘course of conduct’

So Yes, repeated misgendering of a person can lead to a criminal conviction
8. The Equality Act 2010 s.26 protects those with a protected characteristic, including sex or gender reassignment from harassment

Harassment is
- unwanted conduct
- related to a protected characteristic that
- has the purpose or effect of violating someone's dignity or…
9. … - creating an intimidating, hostile, degrading, humiliating, or offensive environment.

The Equality Act does not require a course of conduct, so once can be sufficient.

The act may protect the individual who is an employee or service user from liability
10. But Employers have a duty to take reasonable steps to prevent and address harassment in the workplace, including harassment by third parties such as customers .

An employer can be held vicariously liable for the actions of an employee, or customer. They may well …
11. find the harassment amounts to gross misconduct

Similarly a Service provider can be liable for harm suffered by the victim if they have not taken reasonable steps to protect service users

The harassment must be unwanted by the person experiencing it.
11. The harassment must either be intended to have the effect of violating dignity or creating a hostile environment, or actually have that effect

So yes, misgendering can be unlawful harassment under the provisions of the Equality Act
13. The solution is to be polite, remember we - not the law - choose our pronouns that suit us.

Referingu to people by their preferred pronouns is social convention & polite

Mistakes are tolerated provided an effort is made to get pronouns correct once a preference is known
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More from @stephenwhittle

May 11
1. A fundamental problem with the decision of the SCt in FWS:

The Court said it was a matter of statutory interpretation but they don’t appear to properly assess the entirety of the statute, the EqAct.

EqAct s11 says man/male, woman/female. …
2. But If s11 was to be taken to only mean sex as gonads, genitals & chromosomes, the Ct ignored entirely the decision of the ECtHr in Goodwin v UK, by failing to address the Human Rights of TP with a gender recognition certificate …
3. The Court appears to have dismissed those rights as laid down in Goodwin & has determined sex was as held by Ormrod LJ in Corbett v Corbett (1971)

Other than regressing the law 55yrs, the Court did not consider why the EqAct schedule 3 exists. …
Read 5 tweets
May 10
1. Ok - an answer to question 1

There is no moral imperative on anyone to do anything - that would require belief in an overarching set of moral & ethical principles guiding the world we live in.

But we are just a jumble of evolutionary chances, there is no omniscient mind. 1/5
2. In my world, we exist communally in society.

In order for society to be community, I hope we do what we can to afford each person the opportunities to live their best life during such limited time as they/we have.

I believe we choose - to beat our own path
OR
3. … we follow the path of the social imperative, wherein we improve life for all during our short time in this world.

I give regard to all as they present, & afford them respect until they do something to lose it. I hope for the same in return
Read 7 tweets
May 8
@MForstater SM team could give the world proof of their sex (however they define it - but not just the easily lied about ‘I gave birth’ statements.)

Then we can see whether the rest of us needed to know that proof

Govt has many systems that records self reported ‘sex’…
2. Those records are cross correlated with already known data held by govt agrnces

HMRC, DSS, DVLA, school, clinical, & Passport records all keep a record of any ‘change of sex/gender’. Those are accessible to relevant parties e.g. for paying pensions, immigration etc
3. Further Govt can access records of all those with a gender recognition certificate

So who else lneeds to know: Spouses & partners

Partners have either reached the trust stage or they haven’t. But non-disclosure about being trans or telling a lie about …
Read 6 tweets
May 4
1. But that still doesn't permit the EHRC to go beyond its remit and instruct service providers to discriminate

The EHRC's remit is to prevent arbitrary and unfounded discrimination
Discrimination is often acceptable, we don't let 5yr olds/Blind people obtain driving licences...
2. But when a SP chooses to provide a service, it is up to them to decide what, how and to who that service will be provided.
SP's have an absolute right to exclude anyone so long as they do not exclude anyone because of their protected characteristic, unless there is an...
3. ... an exemption contained within the Act.

e.g. SP's must provide equal access for those with disabilities, unless the cost of providing access is prohibitive for the business.

Single & Seperate Sex SP's can continue to choose how they provide services. The EHRC ...
Read 5 tweets
May 4
1. I think I am correct & know that
Service providers (SPs) get to decide what services they provide, how & to whom
SPs have an absolute right to exclude any person provided it is not because of a protected characteristic
SPs who provide a single or Seperate sex service …
2. … may exclude a TP if it us both legitimate or proportionate to do do

Note the MAY

SPs of S/SS services may choosr to continue providing them to anyone who needs them including TP. They may choose to rename or reorganise a service so as not to exclude TP

The role of …
3. .., the @EHRC is to prevent arbitrary & unfounded discrimination because of a persons protected characteristic & to ensure the Human Rights of all are both balanced & upheld

The EHRC’s interim guidance is legally incoherent in that it gives insufficient consideration to …
Read 13 tweets
Apr 28
1. Motion passed b the British Medical Association (BMA) at the weekend:

“This meeting condemns the Supreme Court ruling defining the term 'woman' with respect to the Equality Act as being based on 'biological sex', which they refer to as a person … Image
2. … who 'was at birth of the female sex', as reductive, trans and intersex-exclusionary and biologically nonsensical.

We recognize as doctors that sex and gender are complex and multifaceted aspects of the human condition and attempting to impose a rigid binary has no basis…
3. … in science or medicine while being actively harmful to transgender and gender diverse people.

As such this meeting:

i. Reiterates the BMA's position on affirming the rights of transgender and non-binary individuals to live their lives with dignity, having their…
Read 6 tweets

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