Woman Wins Harassment Case Against Arts Council England After Transgender Row

LGBT activists and their supporters rally in support of transgender people on the steps of New York City Hall, N.Y., on Oct. 24, 2018. Drew Angerer/Getty Images

A woman who said she suffered harassment at Arts Council England (ACE) for saying people cannot change sex has won her claim against her former employer.

Denise Fahmy, who had worked at the public funding body for over 15 years, complained at an employment tribunal that she had been harassed and victimised due to her “gender critical” beliefs.

In a unanimous judgment on June 26, the Leeds Employment Tribunal ruled that Fahmy was subjected to harassment for her beliefs at her workplace.

Reacting to the news on Twitter, Fahmy said she was “delighted” to have won her claim, adding, “It cannot be acceptable that people like me, who believe, as most people do, that [you] can’t change sex, are subjected to harassment at work.”

Petition Targets ‘Gender Criticals’

Fahmy, who was a relationship manager, said she believed that the Arts Council “saw to it” that the London Community Foundation withdrew an award of £9,000 that had been made to LGB Alliance, an organisation representing gays and lesbians who believe biological sex matters.

The ACE insists that it was not involved in the decision.

But in April 2022, Simon Mellor, ACE’s deputy chief executive, held an online staff meeting at which he expressed his “personal view” that funding LGB Alliance would be inappropriate because the group “has a history of anti-trans-exclusionary activity.”

Fahmy expressed her objection to Mellor’s view, calling it “misleading.” She also asked if he had any concerns about the “impact on freedom of speech that this case highlights,” and “how are gender critical views protected at the Arts Council and in the arts.”

In the following month, Fahmy said, some ACE staff members circulated a petition to all staff against her and other “gender criticals” working there.

She wrote in a post on the CrowdJustice website: “The petition was hosted for 26 hours on the ACE staff intranet, gaining the attention of 700 staff and signatures from over 100 of them.

“People signed it, and made comments, citing gender critical people like me and LGB Alliance as parasites, neo-Nazis, needing to be stamped out.”

‘Extremely Offensive’

The judgment by employment judge Jim Shepherd noted that gender-critical views are a protected belief under the Equality Act.

It said it was “inappropriate” for Mellor to express his “personal” views and “express solidarity with one side of the debate” in the meeting about the LGB Alliance, but ruled that his comments did not constitute harassment.

But the judgment said the petition emailed to all staff and the “extremely offensive comments” did constitute harassment.

It said: “The email and comments were unwanted conduct which had the purpose and effect of violating the claimant’s dignity and creating an intimidating, hostile, degrading, humiliating or offensive environment for the claimant.”

The judgment also said it was “unreasonable and inappropriate” for the petition to be left up for 26 hours before it was taken down.

The tribunal dismissed Fahmy’s claim of victimisation but concluded: “The unanimous judgment of the tribunal is that the claim of harassment related to the protected characteristic of religion or belief is well-founded and succeeds.”

In a statement emailed to The Epoch Times, an ACE spokesperson said: “We are pleased that the ruling confirmed that two allegations of harassment and two claims of victimisation were not well-founded and were dismissed, and that there was nothing in the judgment to support the accusation of institutional bias.

“We are reflecting on the judgment which upheld two allegations of harassment in relation to a petition set up by a junior member of staff who no longer works for us, and we note the tribunal’s acknowledgement of steps taken by us to disable the petition and address the incident at the time.”