I Believe

Belief is something that you feel to be true despite no observable evidence. Lots of people believe in things without evidence and that’s fine. However, we are now in a strange new world where the term belief is being misused.

The equality watchdog has said ‘gender critical’ views should be considered a philosophical belief and protected under law, in the wake of a landmark employment appeal tribunal.

The Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) spoke out after an employment tribunal appeal by Maya Forstater, who was sacked after claiming people cannot change their biological sex.

The EHRC argued, ‘A ‘gender critical’ belief that ‘trans women are men and trans men are women’ is a philosophical belief which is protected under the Equality Act.’

That we should even be having such a discussion is an affront. While people should be free to believe what they want and to express those views, none of this should be a matter for the law.

However, more importantly, the claim that transwomen are men and transmen are women is not a philosophical belief. It is a demonstrable biological fact – our sex is determined by our genes. If you have XY chromosomes, you are biologically male, if you have XX then you are biologically female. A transwoman can have surgery and hormone treatment to create the appearance of femininity and live life as a woman and should be free to do so, but they will still be biologically male. Nothing will change this, not policing of language, sacking heretics nor inventing ridiculous pronouns and stating them on Twatter. Facts and belief are two different things and we repeatedly see them being conflated. Maya Forstater was sacked for stating a fact, not a belief and her statement of such should not have been remotely controversial.

Ms Forstater took her case to an employment tribunal on the grounds that her dismissal constituted discrimination against her beliefs, but her claim was thrown out by a judge.

It should never have come to this and the judge was a moron, frankly. I am hoping that she will win on appeal. Facts are facts. They are not beliefs.

Challenging the ruling at the Employment Appeal Tribunal yesterday, lawyers for Ms Forstater said her views were a ‘material reality’, adding biological sex is ‘real, important, immutable, and not to be conflated with gender identity’.

This, again, in a sane society should be uncontroversial.

The EHRC said the case, ‘raises important legal questions about how a person’s strongly held beliefs are protected in law, which have been largely untested and need clarifying.’

Actually, no. There should not be any protection for beliefs in law. It is nothing to do with the law.  No one should have their beliefs so protected that no one can challenge them and no one has the right not to be offended by statements others might make. Anyway, in this case, what Forstater said was not a matter of belief, it was a matter of fact. Facts, now, need to be protected by law? Is that it?

The watchdog warned if Ms Forstater loses her appeal, it could ‘restrict free speech’ in debates about trans rights.

That ship weighed anchor, caught the morning tide and is now over the horizon.