Just before last year drew to a close, Richard had an extremely useful catch-up with CEO and Co-founder of SexMatters, Maya Forstater and Laura Pascal, Head of Public Affairs at the campaign group.
Richard Fuller MP said:
Coincidentally, the day of our meeting was the exact 5 year anniversary of Maya losing her industrial tribunal case against the Center for Global Development who had not renewed her contract following a number of gender critical messages Maya had posted online. 18 months later she won her appeal at the Employment Appeal Tribunal in April 2021 with the critical and precedent-setting finding that Maya's beliefs were protected, and specifically, that they were "worthy of respect in a democratic society".
We had a wide-ranging conversation about womens' rights and particularly the importance of protecting single-sex spaces such as toilets, changing rooms, refuges, and so on. In a very alarming development, the Labour government have reneged on their pre-election commitment to protect female-only spaces by asserting that public and private bodies can write policies that allow transgender women into female-only places as long as the organisation in question did not “incorrectly” claim that the Equality Act obliged it to do so.
I think Maya Forstater's own words as reported in the Daily Telegraph on the very day of our meeting, provide an eloquent and extremely worrying summation of what this might mean in practice:
"𝐈𝐧 𝐢𝐭𝐬 𝐦𝐚𝐧𝐢𝐟𝐞𝐬𝐭𝐨, 𝐋𝐚𝐛𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐩𝐫𝐨𝐦𝐢𝐬𝐞𝐝 𝐭𝐨 𝐩𝐫𝐨𝐭𝐞𝐜𝐭 𝐰𝐨𝐦𝐞𝐧’𝐬 𝐬𝐩𝐚𝐜𝐞𝐬. 𝐍𝐨𝐰 𝐢𝐧 𝐠𝐨𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐧𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭, 𝐢𝐭’𝐬 𝐛𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐤𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐩𝐥𝐞𝐝𝐠𝐞.
“𝐈𝐭’𝐬 𝐭𝐡𝐫𝐨𝐰𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐚𝐰𝐚𝐲 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐩𝐨𝐧𝐬𝐞𝐬 𝐭𝐨 𝐚 𝐜𝐚𝐥𝐥 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐞𝐯𝐢𝐝𝐞𝐧𝐜𝐞 𝐛𝐲 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐩𝐫𝐞𝐯𝐢𝐨𝐮𝐬 𝐚𝐝𝐦𝐢𝐧𝐢𝐬𝐭𝐫𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐚𝐛𝐨𝐮𝐭 𝐰𝐡𝐞𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐫 𝐩𝐫𝐨𝐯𝐢𝐬𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐬 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐬𝐢𝐧𝐠𝐥𝐞-𝐬𝐞𝐱 𝐬𝐩𝐚𝐜𝐞𝐬 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐬𝐞𝐫𝐯𝐢𝐜𝐞𝐬 𝐰𝐞𝐫𝐞 𝐰𝐨𝐫𝐤𝐢𝐧𝐠.”
“𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐆𝐨𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐧𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭 𝐢𝐬 𝐬𝐚𝐲𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐢𝐭’𝐬 𝐟𝐢𝐧𝐞 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐚 𝐬𝐞𝐫𝐯𝐢𝐜𝐞 𝐩𝐫𝐨𝐯𝐢𝐝𝐞𝐫 𝐭𝐨 𝐚𝐥𝐥𝐨𝐰 𝐦𝐞𝐧 𝐰𝐡𝐨 𝐢𝐝𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐢𝐟𝐲 𝐚𝐬 𝐰𝐨𝐦𝐞𝐧 𝐢𝐧𝐭𝐨 𝐰𝐨𝐦𝐞𝐧-𝐨𝐧𝐥𝐲 𝐬𝐩𝐚𝐜𝐞𝐬, 𝐚𝐬 𝐥𝐨𝐧𝐠 𝐚𝐬 𝐢𝐭 𝐝𝐨𝐞𝐬𝐧’𝐭 𝐬𝐚𝐲 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐭’𝐬 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐥𝐚𝐰.
“𝐈𝐧 𝐩𝐥𝐚𝐢𝐧 𝐥𝐚𝐧𝐠𝐮𝐚𝐠𝐞, 𝐢𝐭’𝐬 𝐬𝐚𝐲𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐢𝐭’𝐬 𝐟𝐢𝐧𝐞 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐚𝐧𝐲 𝐦𝐚𝐧 𝐰𝐡𝐨’𝐬 𝐰𝐢𝐥𝐥𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐭𝐨 𝐜𝐥𝐚𝐢𝐦 𝐡𝐞’𝐬 𝐚 𝐰𝐨𝐦𝐚𝐧 𝐭𝐨 𝐜𝐨𝐦𝐞 𝐢𝐧𝐭𝐨 𝐰𝐨𝐦𝐞𝐧’𝐬 𝐜𝐡𝐚𝐧𝐠𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐫𝐨𝐨𝐦𝐬 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐬𝐡𝐨𝐰𝐞𝐫𝐬 – 𝐬𝐩𝐚𝐜𝐞𝐬 𝐰𝐡𝐞𝐫𝐞 𝐩𝐞𝐨𝐩𝐥𝐞 𝐠𝐞𝐭 𝐧𝐚𝐤𝐞𝐝.”
