"No one is sexually attracted to a piece of paper"

The legal panel at LGB Alliance Conference, Oct. 12th, 2024

At the LGB Alliance Conference on October 12th, 2024, I was joined by a fantastic panel to discuss the many legal cases that have been fought and won in the UK over sex and gender issues, most of which have involved employment law. I would recommend the video of this panel to everyone who would like to understand the UK legal context within which these cases have been fought, and the issues that lie on the horizon.

The panel consisted of Akua Reindorf KC, Dr. Michael Foran, Lizzie Pitt, and Belle Lane.(1)

We hear how the Forstater appeal ruling — on belief discrimination — underpinned all subsequent discrimination cases in employment tribunals. We also hear why it was so important — though unexpected — that Forstater lost her case at first instance.

We hear about the fraught relationship between the Equality Act 2010 and the Gender Recognition Act 2004, and why repealing the Gender Recognition Act — something we often hear advocated — would present numerous complications, possibly leading to a situation even more muddled than the one in which we find ourselves today.

We hear about the lies or misrepresentations of the protections afforded by the Equality Act, in particular the scope of the protected characteristic of “gender reassignment.” Those who maintain that it defines “misgendering” as discrimination and essentially provides for gender self-ID are quite wrong.

The case awaiting judgment by the UK Supreme Court on the meaning of “sex” is crucial to people with same-sex sexual orientation. You cannot define “sexual orientation” without defining “sex” — and the case is crucial especially to lesbians wishing to form societies or associations that exclude men. As things stand, a heterosexual man with a GRC stating he is a woman can legally claim to be a lesbian and cannot legally be excluded from such an association. In contrast, a heterosexual man without such a GRC remains under law a heterosexual man. As Michael observed during the discussion: “No one is sexually attracted to a piece of paper.”

So a man with a GRC is the “legal lesbian” that Lady Dorrian failed to understand — and indeed mocked — in her ruling for the Inner Court of Session in Scotland, responding to the lesbian rights issue:

We confess that we have not found it easy to follow this particular submission. It is not a necessary inference from Section 9 of the GRA that a person's sexual orientation changes on acquiring a GRC. There is no such thing as being "legally lesbian" and we have not identified a problem which would require that sex be referable to biology alone.

We hear about Lizzy Pitt’s win against her employer on the grounds of discrimination for philosophical belief and sexual orientation. We also hear from the Australian barrister Belle Lane, who has done groundbreaking work in the state of Victoria and helps to provide legal assistance for parents who oppose the gender-related medicalization of their children.

In all, this was a fantastic panel that I think everyone interested in these issues will want to watch.

Notes on the panel

Akua Reindorf KC is a barrister at Cloisters Chambers specializing in employment, discrimination and human rights law. She appeared for LGB Alliance in the challenge to their charitable status brought by Mermaids and is instructed in a number of high profile claims of discrimination because of gender critical belief. In 2021 she authored the “Reindorf Report” for the University of Essex, which related to the university’s cancellation of appearances by Professors Jo Phoenix and Rosa Freedman.
Akua is a Commissioner of the Equality and Human Rights Commission, a Visiting Senior Fellow at LSE Law School and a fee paid Employment Judge. She was was Chambers and Partners’ Employment Junior of the Year 2022 and was named Barrister of the Year by the Legal Business Awards 2023. Akua appeared at the LGB Alliance Conference in her capacity as a barrister in private practice and not in any other capacity.

Dr. Michael Foran is a lecturer in public law at the University of Glasgow. He holds a PhD from the University of Cambridge where he was awarded the Yorke Prize. He is an expert in both constitutional law and equality law and writes regularly for a public audience. In 2023, he published analysis suggesting that the U.K. government could veto the Scottish Gender Recognition Reform Bill. His analysis led directly to the section 35 order that blocked the Bill and stopped self-ID from becoming law. His second book, Sex, Gender Identity and the Law, will be published next year with Cambridge University Press.

Lizzy Pitt is an experienced and very well respected social worker. In her 16-year career, she was most recently employed by Cambridgeshire County Council as a Social Work Manager. She was told at work that she was transphobic because she stood up for her same-sex rights — and for LGB Alliance. In July 2024, represented by Naomi Cunningham and Liz McGlone, Lizzy won a landmark Employment Tribunal case against her employer for discrimination on the grounds of sexual orientation and sex based rights, setting precedent for local authorities and social workers. As a woman whose sexual orientation is exclusively towards women, she considers the reality of sex to be particularly important.

Belle Lane is a barrister from the Victoria bar in Australia. She has worked in family law for 30 years and has been counsel in a number of gender dysphoria cases in the family court. Belle prepared a comprehensive paper for the family court and the legal profession, setting out the complexity of the issues facing parents, children, and the family court, when dealing with the medicalization of dysphoric children.