Reposted by @forstater.bsky.socialTimes Higher Education (THE) @timeshighered.bsky.social · 08/05/2026Opinion: The Office for Students should appeal against the flawed Sussex free-speech ruling, says Maya Forstater #freespeech #OfS #academicsky www.timeshighereducation.com/opinio… 122
forstater.bsky.social @forstater.bsky.social · 06/01/2026Get the facts sex-matters.org/posts/update... 361
forstater.bsky.social @forstater.bsky.social · 18/06/2025“It is clear that taking no action at the moment is not a lawful option for the Scottish government.” We will go to court again if ministers do not act. Read more in @thetimes ⤵️ www.thetimes.com/uk/scotland/...thetimes.comObey Supreme Court on sex or we’ll sue again, feminists warn SNPGender-critical campaigners have urged Holyrood to take steps to prevent men from entering female-only spaces 53611
forstater.bsky.social @forstater.bsky.social · 31/05/2025The Equality Act does not require case-by-case assessment to apply ordinary sex-based rules. It does not give trans-identifying people the right to use single and separate sex services for the opposite sex. Read Sex Matters' guidance sex-matters.org/wp-content/u...sex-matters.org 2293
forstater.bsky.social @forstater.bsky.social · 31/05/2025There are different ways of providing services. The Equality Act provides for all of them when they are a proportionate means to a legitimate aim. 1162
forstater.bsky.social @forstater.bsky.social · 31/05/2025The single-sex and separate-sex service exceptions in the Equality Act should be straightforward and easy to use. The recent judgment by the Supreme Court in the case of For Women Scotland v The Scottish Ministers made clear that the Equality Act is based on biological sex. 2182
forstater.bsky.social @forstater.bsky.social · 31/05/2025Providing single sex services with confidence: a template for clear guidance sex-matters.org/posts/update...sex-matters.orgA template for clear guidance - Sex MattersIt is simple What about enforcement? The single-sex and separate-sex service exceptions in the Equality Act should be straightforward and easy to apply. But they have become entangled in misundersta... 35725
forstater.bsky.social @forstater.bsky.social · 25/05/2025Joanne Cash and Sue-Mei Thompson. No idea why they redacted them. 110
forstater.bsky.social @forstater.bsky.social · 25/05/2025The EHRC met a human rights charity not a "hate group". There were two members of staff there - one works in legal 130
forstater.bsky.social @forstater.bsky.social · 24/05/2025Top tip: when you do an "exposé" read the documents. As you will see there was the Chair & CEO, two commissioners and two staff members which EHRC have redacted. 120
Reposted by @forstater.bsky.socialLaura Pascal @pascallaura.bsky.social · 24/05/2025TAKE ACTION: Email your MP! Calling all sex-realist women and men! Bank holiday weekend action. Use this tool to write to your MP and tell them how much you appreciate the Supreme Court's clarity and want them to support local organisations to start following it. sex-matters.org/take-action/...sex-matters.orgEmail your MP about the Supreme Court judgment - Sex MattersMake your voice heard – let your MP know why the Supreme Court ruling is important to you. 105130
forstater.bsky.social @forstater.bsky.social · 24/05/2025As the email shows Joanne Cash and Su-Mei Thompson bsky.app/profile/tran... 210
forstater.bsky.social @forstater.bsky.social · 24/05/2025Guess again 🙄 Lot of imagination going on here 🤣 6202
forstater.bsky.social @forstater.bsky.social · 12/05/2025Calling accurate data on sex "anti-trans" is silly playground stuff. Everyone has a sex, even trans & non-binary people. The aim of the DVS is to enable ppl to prove facts about themselves. And as the UKSC has confirmed sex is a protected characteristic in the Equality Act. 000
Reposted by @forstater.bsky.socialforstater.bsky.social @forstater.bsky.social · 24/04/2025Following the #SupremeCourt ruling, everyone wants to talk about toilets. The Equality Act, and this judgment, are about much more than toilets. But toilets are important. Sex Matters' latest blog answers the most common questions. 👇 sex-matters.org/posts/update...sex-matters.orgThe truth about toilets - Sex MattersDoes the Equality Act say that male and female toilets always have to be provided? Does that mean that single-sex toilets do not have to be provided? What does the Equality Act say about toilets? W... 2173
forstater.bsky.social @forstater.bsky.social · 24/04/2025Following the #SupremeCourt ruling, everyone wants to talk about toilets. The Equality Act, and this judgment, are about much more than toilets. But toilets are important. Sex Matters' latest blog answers the most common questions. 👇 sex-matters.org/posts/update...sex-matters.orgThe truth about toilets - Sex MattersDoes the Equality Act say that male and female toilets always have to be provided? Does that mean that single-sex toilets do not have to be provided? What does the Equality Act say about toilets? W... 2173
forstater.bsky.social @forstater.bsky.social · 22/04/2025“Those provisions were always there, but the Supreme Court has set that out beyond a doubt.” Clear, strong and impressive from Labour's Minister for Women & Equalities Bridget Phillipson MP speaking for the Government on the #SupremeCourt judgment. Great to hear! 🙏 45017
forstater.bsky.social @forstater.bsky.social · 20/04/2025Right now a lot of people need to change their mind about the protected characteristic of sex. The legal accepted wisdom was wrong. Naomi Cunningham wrote about changing her mind on this in 2022 after some late night debates... sex-matters.org/posts/update...sex-matters.orgBeing wrong about sex - Sex MattersBy Naomi Cunningham, Sex Matters Chair 4348
Reposted by @forstater.bsky.socialforstater.bsky.social @forstater.bsky.social · 19/04/2025We had precooked two statements: one for a win and one for a loss. We didn’t dare hope the result would be better than 8 on our scale – roughly, an FWS win, but with comments designed to deflect criticism from those opposed to sex-based rights. 1163
forstater.bsky.social @forstater.bsky.social · 19/04/2025After Easter, Sex Matters will be writing letters and speaking to key individuals and organisations, and our supporters will be taking action 131
forstater.bsky.social @forstater.bsky.social · 19/04/2025by local authorities, police forces and NHS trusts; by regulators, trades unions, charities, sports governing bodies, universities and schools; and by industry bodies and every employer. 120
forstater.bsky.social @forstater.bsky.social · 19/04/2025But organisational inertia is powerful. Our next task is to make sure that this judgment is understood and implemented by the national and devolved governments and all their departments; sex-matters.org/posts/update...sex-matters.orgWhat does the For Women Scotland judgment mean in practice? - Sex MattersGeneral principles Ten places for urgent action The judgment handed down yesterday by the Supreme Court returns the Equality Act to clarity. Many organisations have fallen victim to misunderstandings... 131
forstater.bsky.social @forstater.bsky.social · 19/04/2025Those were the angry cries of teenagers, it turned out, encouraged and amplified by adults who should have known better – and some who were willing to exploit their distress. 120
forstater.bsky.social @forstater.bsky.social · 19/04/2025Every person who has spoken up for reality and faced ridiculous accusations of being a bigot, fascist or Nazi was vindicated by the Supreme Court ruling. 130
forstater.bsky.social @forstater.bsky.social · 19/04/2025And now scrappy upstart organisations and grassroots groups of dissident women and men have brought most media outlets and many politicians – as well as the judges of the Supreme Court – to the point where they see the issue our way. 111
forstater.bsky.social @forstater.bsky.social · 19/04/2025Step by step, we became braver and harder to ignore. 110
forstater.bsky.social @forstater.bsky.social · 19/04/2025That first protection for free speech about sex-based rights started a process whereby each person who spoke up made it easier for the next person to do so, and each thing we said further refined our message and thinking. 120
forstater.bsky.social @forstater.bsky.social · 19/04/2025Courage calls to courage. And freedom of speech makes us all cleverer, as well as harder to frighten and control. 231
forstater.bsky.social @forstater.bsky.social · 19/04/2025It has taken us five years to get from a situation where a woman could lose her job for saying that the definition of sex in law should be reality-based to hearing the Supreme Court agree with that position. 120
forstater.bsky.social @forstater.bsky.social · 19/04/2025The Supreme Court is only five minutes’ walk from my old workplace at the Centre for Global Development, where I lost my job for wanting to talk about protections for women in the law. 120
forstater.bsky.social @forstater.bsky.social · 19/04/2025He ruled that “the GRA does not compel a person to believe something that they do not”, saying only that a GRC must not be disregarded in circumstances where it was legally relevant. The Supreme Court endorsed the Forstater judgment and called it comprehensive and impressive. 120
forstater.bsky.social @forstater.bsky.social · 19/04/2025The Supreme Court also referred to the judgment in my case by Sir Akhlaq Choudhury, who found that gender-critical beliefs were “worthy of respect in a democratic society” in my case. 120
forstater.bsky.social @forstater.bsky.social · 19/04/2025...or instead to interpret the two words in their ordinary meaning as the two sexes. The Scottish Government had argued that the words had variable meaning throughout the Act, but the Supreme Court dismissed that possibility. 120
forstater.bsky.social @forstater.bsky.social · 19/04/2025That “focus and structure” is clear throughout the judgment, which proceeds methodically and comprehensively through the Equality Act and tests whether it makes sense to interpret “man” and “woman” as mixed categories including biological males and females... 120
forstater.bsky.social @forstater.bsky.social · 19/04/2025...and who was able effectively to address the questions posed by members of the court in the hour he had to make his submissions”. 120
forstater.bsky.social @forstater.bsky.social · 19/04/2025At paragraph 35 of the judgment, it says that the judges were “particularly grateful to Ben Cooper KC for his written and oral submissions on behalf of Sex Matters, which gave focus and structure to the argument that ‘sex’, ‘man’ and ‘woman’ should be given a biological meaning... 120
forstater.bsky.social @forstater.bsky.social · 19/04/2025Lord Hodge called our submission “cogent” – which coming from the highest court in the land is high praise indeed. 080
forstater.bsky.social @forstater.bsky.social · 19/04/2025that makes sense in the context of the whole, taking account of the act’s purpose and all relevant provisions. 180
forstater.bsky.social @forstater.bsky.social · 19/04/2025Our submission by Ben Cooper KC and David Welsh argued that “sex” and related expressions in the Equality Act should be given a consistent meaning... t.co/CxynAS3U6Nt.cohttps://sex-matters.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/UKSC24-42-Sex-Matters-Written-Intervention.pdf 291
forstater.bsky.social @forstater.bsky.social · 19/04/2025Within Sex Matters we have been wrangling and testing the ideas that went into our submission since 2023, trying to find a way to remove the spanner of the Gender Recognition Act from the workings of the Equality Act in order that it could function properly again. 1100
forstater.bsky.social @forstater.bsky.social · 19/04/2025...but by campaigning, and building and supporting organisations that can hold their own in a hostile environment, and most of all by speaking up themselves whenever they safely can. 1100
forstater.bsky.social @forstater.bsky.social · 19/04/2025This victory wouldn’t have happened without the thousands of supporters who contributed not just by donating for legal fees... 180
forstater.bsky.social @forstater.bsky.social · 19/04/2025This was built upon the hard work of so many women who have been fighting for years to articulate and express why women’s rights depend on having a clear, reality-based definition of sex in law. 1111
forstater.bsky.social @forstater.bsky.social · 19/04/2025This judgment came after so much hard work by For Women Scotland and their legal team; by Sex Matters and our legal team; and by the lesbian interveners and their legal team. 1191
forstater.bsky.social @forstater.bsky.social · 19/04/2025and, as we discovered when we watched the footage later – a rousing cheer in Edinburgh. Then it was time for tears of joy and an avalanche of social media posts 1100
forstater.bsky.social @forstater.bsky.social · 19/04/2025When Lord Hodge announced that the meaning of sex is biological, there was a well-behaved collective exhale in the Supreme Court (before he started speaking, we had been warned not to make any noise)... 180
forstater.bsky.social @forstater.bsky.social · 19/04/2025We had precooked two statements: one for a win and one for a loss. We didn’t dare hope the result would be better than 8 on our scale – roughly, an FWS win, but with comments designed to deflect criticism from those opposed to sex-based rights. 1163
forstater.bsky.social @forstater.bsky.social · 19/04/2025The Sex Matters team had thought through our strategy for a wide range of outcomes, using a 1-to-10 framework to think about how bad or good the judgment might be. 170
forstater.bsky.social @forstater.bsky.social · 19/04/2025None of the parties or interveners knew in advance what the judgment would be. Sometimes barristers get advance copies of a judgment, or a press summary, but not this time. 1111
