A British woman who was fired from her job after saying men cannot change into women has been awarded a huge payout after a court ruled she was a victim of discrimination.
Researcher Maya Forstater has been awarded £106,404 in compensation, which is the equivalent of $136,659.00 U.S. Dollars.
As CBN News reported, Forstater shared her opinion on sex and gender in 2018 in a series of tweets that didn’t sit well with some of her colleagues at the Centre for Global Development (CGD). Following several complaints, Forstater’s employer did not renew her contract for the following year.
Forstater took legal action when her contract was not extended, stating, “My belief…is that sex is a biological fact and is immutable. There are two sexes, male and female. Men and boys are male. Women and girls are female. It is impossible to change sex. These were until very recently understood as basic facts of life by almost everyone.”
In 2019, a tribunal judge ruled Forstater’s beliefs were “not worthy of respect in a democratic society.” The 49-year-old appealed the ruling.
In 2021, she won her appeal with the British High Court declaring that her beliefs were protected under the Equality Act.
Judge Akhlaq Choudhury said Forstater’s views might be offensive to some but were covered by freedom of belief protections in the Equality Act. He shared that Forstater’s views do “not get anywhere near to approaching the kind of belief akin to Nazism or totalitarianism” that would come up against the “prohibition of abuse of rights” in the European Convention on Human Rights.
An employment judge found that the Center for Global Development used “oppressive or high-handed conduct” during the court battle, and directly contributed to the abuse Forstater endured on social media.
“I would like to thank everyone who has supported my case, above all my family, who have been put through hell over the past four years,” she responded after the ruling on Thursday.
“Seeing their mother smeared as a bigot and a potential harasser across international media is something that my sons should never have had to experience,” she added. “My case has exposed institutionalized discrimination against, and the routine abuse and smearing of, people with perfectly ordinary beliefs about the material reality of sex.”
Forstater said she also feels like she finally has “some measure of closure and vindication.”
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