Sex Matters: A conversation with Maya Forstater

Maya Forstater (middle) and colleagues at the launch of the #RespectMySex campaign, 2022

Since 2004, when trans activists first came after me, I and many others had fantasised about what it would be like to engage with them under the normal rules of public debate. The whole LGBTQQIA2Spirit+ Rainbow Community has been drip fed no debate by Stonewall for years, and I used to dream of a scenario where a group of us, five on each side, had been locked in a building and, becoming bored with the lack of Netflix or booze we ended up having the argument. It would be filmed of course, and subsequently leaked to the world.

This kept me going during the bleak years where few spoke out about the danger of trans identified men invading single sex spaces. But suddenly, despite the odds, this wish came true, thanks to Maya challenging this crazy ideology in court.

The debate, much to the chagrin of the blue fringe brigade, was aired during a three-week employment tribunal during which the Emperor appeared buck naked, his lady dick waving for all to see. Even the cute pink and blue trans flag could not cover his humiliation.

In October 2018 Maya Forstater was employed as a consultant by the US-based non-profit Centre for Global Development (CGD). Some staff in the Washington DC office raised internal concerns about a number of her tweets, which they claimed were “transphobic.” An internal investigation followed, and weeks later, her contract as a consultant at CGD was ended, and subsequently, an offer to continue as a visiting fellow was withdrawn.

Maya decided to sue CGD on the grounds of discrimination under the Equality Act 2010, but in November 2019, the Employment Tribunal ruled against her. They held that her “absolutist” beliefs, that trans women are NOT actual, literal women, and that sex and gender identity are not the same, are “not worthy of respect in a democratic society.”

She appealed the judgement, and in June 2021 the decision was published. Maya had won and would be able to continue with a discrimination claim. A fresh tribunal was convened which was tasked with the job of deciding whether Maya’s behaviour in the office amount to harassment of, or discrimination against, trans people, and whether she herself was discriminated against on the grounds of her beliefs.

The rest is history. And earlier this year, Maya was awarded over £100.000 in compensation. Too bloody right.

Here she is. Enjoy the chat.

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