Case Law - Forstater v CGD Europe – gender-critical belief is a protected characteristic

The Employment Appeal Tribunal (EAT) has held that the Tribunal was wrong in their application of the criteria set out in Grainger plc v Nicholson, and that a philosophical belief would only be excluded for failing to satisfy the fifth criterion of the Grainger test if it “was the kind of belief the expression of which would be akin to Nazism or totalitarianism and thereby liable to be excluded from the protection of the rights under the European Convention of Human Rights”. 

In a very clear judgment, the EAT set out that the Claimant’s gender-critical beliefs, which were widely shared, and which did not seek to destroy the rights of trans persons, clearly did not fall into that category and therefore Forstater was protected under the Equality Act 2010.  For the avoidance of doubt the judgment went on to set out that this decision did not mean that the EAT had expressed any view on the merits of either side of the transgender debate, or that those with gender-critical beliefs can ‘misgender’ trans persons with impunity or that trans persons do not have the protection from discrimination and harassment conferred by the Equality Act 2010.

Click here to read the judgment.