Did you watch the recent series of I’m a Celebrity, Get Me Out of Here? If yes, you’ll know that Caitlyn Jenner was one of the campmates in the jungle. Caitlyn came out as a woman in 2015 having previously won Olympic gold as a decathlete (when she was known as Bruce).
During one segment, co-presenter Ant McPartlin was criticised in the media for referring to Caitlyn as ‘he’.
Using the wrong pronoun can lead you into legal trouble, as this recent story confirms.
What happened
In May 2018, Dr David Mackereth started a contract at the Department for Work and Pensions assessment centre in Birmingham.
In his induction session, he was told that transgender claimants should be referred to by their preferred title, name and pronoun.
David said he was happy to call service users by the first name of their choice, but, because of his Christian faith, he had an issue with using a pronoun that was inconsistent with their birth gender.
A few days later, he was called to a meeting to discuss it. In the conversation, David reaffirmed his belief that he could not refer to customers by their chosen sexuality.
In June, he received an email from his employment agency, offering him help and support to follow the DWP procedure on gender pronouns, and giving him the right to leave the contract if he couldn’t do so. Again, David refused because of his Christian faith.
Because of this, he wasn’t allowed to deal with customers face-to-face (effectively losing his job) and he made a claim for religious discrimination and harassment.
The Birmingham tribunal found that David’s objections were ‘incompatible with human dignity” and so would constitute unlawful discrimination or harassment against transgender people. If the person held a full gender recognition certificate, he would also potentially breach the Gender Recognition Act.
David (who has 30 years’ experience as a doctor) accepted that his actions could cause offence and breach the Equality Act. However, he intends to appeal the decision in order to “fight for the freedom of Christians to speak the truth”.
What this means to you
If you are a trans person, you should not be treated any differently or made to feel uncomfortable in the workplace. Had Dr Mackereth remained in post and refused to call trans clients or colleagues by their preferred pronoun, this could potentially amount to harassment.
Check the policy at your workplace – you should have written information about transgender discrimination and harassment, including details showing how to deal with transgender people and those who want to undergo gender reassignment.
Equally, you shouldn’t suffer discrimination or harassment because of your religion or beliefs.
As you can no doubt tell, it’s a complex area of employment law. If you have any questions or concerns, do give us a call. Thanks to our years of experience in this area, we’ll be happy to help and advise.
Further reading
For more information on this subject, you might find our other articles useful:
- Are you transgender and suffered discrimination?
- Can I claim for religious discrimination?
- Discrimination: Religion and belief
- Religious discrimination
- Is my belief protected under law?
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