Maya Forstater

Forstater holds a degree from the University of Newcastle. In 2002, she co-authored a technical report for the United Nations on corporate social responsibility for small and medium enterprises.[9] She has published academic research on corporate responsibility and illicit financial flows.[10][11] Her collaborators include Simon Zadek[12] and Peter Raynard.[9] She has been senior researcher for the UNEP Inquiry into The Design of a Sustainable Financial Systems and in 2015 she became a consultant at the Center for Global Development (CGD), a think-tank that campaigns against poverty. She described her work as being "in a field of technocratic activism: think tank research, where people are expected to be mission driven and to share their personal, evidence based, opinion in order to influence public policy debates towards socially beneficial goals".[13]

In October 2018, she was subject to an internal investigation at the Center for Global Development after some staff raised internal concerns about her social media activity. In 2018, she made on average 5 to 10 posts on Twitter every day, some of which the complaint alleged were transphobic.[14]

On 31 December 2018, her contract as a consultant at the Center for Global Development came to an end and was not renewed, and in March 2019 an offer to continue as a visiting fellow was also withdrawn. She then sued the Centre, alleging that she had been discriminated against because of her philosophical beliefs, which violated anti-discrimination provisions of the Equality Act 2010. The case, Maya Forstater v Centre for Global Development, attracted widespread media coverage, including the use of the hashtag #IStandWithMaya on social media by prominent supporters such as JK Rowling, and she fundraised over £120,000 for it.[15][16][17][18][19]

In November 2019, the Employment Tribunal released its judgment on the case, ruling against her on the grounds that she "is absolutist in her view of sex and it is a core component of her belief that she will refer to a person by the sex she considered appropriate even if it violates their dignity and/or creates an intimidating, hostile, degrading, humiliating or offensive environment."[14] The first judgment also said that her "absolutist" approach to these beliefs was "not worthy of respect in a democratic society” and that it conflicted with the fundamental human rights of others.[20] She appealed the judgment, which was heard by the Employment Appeal Tribunal over two days on 27 and 28 April 2021.[21] Judgment was published on 10th June 2021. She won this appeal because the Appeal Tribunal concluded (unlike the original tribunal) that: "Just as the legal recognition of Civil Partnerships does not negate the right of a person to believe that marriage should only apply to heterosexual couples, becoming the acquired gender “for all purposes” within the meaning of GRA [The Gender Recognition Act] does not negate a person’s right to believe, like the Claimant, that as a matter of biology a trans person is still their natal sex. Both beliefs may well be profoundly offensive and even distressing to many others, but they are beliefs that are and must be tolerated in a pluralist society." However, the judge also ruled "that does not mean, however, that those with gender-critical beliefs can indiscriminately and gratuitously refer to trans persons in terms other than they would wish. Such conduct could, depending on the circumstances, amount to harassment of, or discrimination against, a trans person."[22] A fresh tribunal would have to be convened in order to determine whether it was this belief that was the reason for the non-renewal of her contract.[6][7]

In March 2022, Forstater was interviewed on BBC Radio 4's Woman's Hour in advance of the final stage of the employment tribunal case, which will rule on whether she was discriminated against by her employer because of her beliefs.[23]

Although the legal case has had significant implications for them both, Forstater first met her supporter JK Rowling in April 2022 at a lunch at The River Café.[24]

In March 2019, Forstater rebuked the Minister for Women and Equalities, Penny Mordaunt, for her performance in a Mumsnet webchat on International Women's Day. Mordaunt received many questions regarding women and transgender people that she did not answer.[25] Forstater wrote in the Independent that Mordaunt had asked for "discussions on the topic of sex and gender identity to take place in a 'climate of respect, empathy and understanding', but when faced with a group of mothers asking respectful and carefully researched questions, she ducked and ran".[26]

In October 2020, she was a founding officer of lobby group Sex Matters, which describes itself as having "a singular mission: to reestablish that sex matters in rules, laws, policies, language and culture" and that has lobbied for organisations to leave LGBT+ charity Stonewall's Diversity Champions programme.[27]

In late-May 2021, Forstater wrote a comment under an article published in The BMJ stating that she believed that gender identity should not be used in the collection of sex data for medical matters. The authors of the article responded that she had mischaracterised the article, as they were not advocating that gender identity be used as a proxy for sex, but rather that "relevant and accurate information about a person’s body and health needs cannot reliably be assumed with sex assigned at birth data."[28]

In an article published in March 2021 in the Journal of Philosophy of Education, Judith Suissa and Alice Sullivan referenced Forstater's case as an example of women who "face campaigns of harassment, including attempts to get them fired" for discussing the rights of women and girls and the potential conflicts this may have with campaigns for transgender rights.[29] Forstater's experiences are referred to in Kathleen Stock's book Material Girls: Why Reality Matters for Feminism in the context of how Stonewall might influence court rulings.[30]

In May 2021, she was among 41 signatories to an open letter calling on the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) to end its membership of the Stonewall Diversity Champions scheme, and on the Committee on Standards in Public Life to oversee a review of Stonewall's influence and control over the Human Resources policies of public institutions.[31][32] Later that month, the EHRC withdrew from membership of the scheme.

In 2021 Baroness Falkner of Margravine, the new EHRC chair, mentioned Forstater in her first interview after taking office, citing her as someone abused for her reasonable belief.[33][34] Forstater was an invited speaker to a University of Cambridge student event on the topic of freedom of speech and belief.[35]

In December 2021 Forstater received an apology from The Scout Association after a complaint against her. Forstater described the complaint as 'vexatious'. [36] Forstater has been an Assistant Scout Leader for several years and has raised concerns about Scout’s policies for safeguarding. She published the text of the apology on her own website.[37]

Forstater is a daughter of American-born Jewish[38] film producer Mark Forstater,[39] who has expressed support for her on Twitter.[40][41]

• Raynard, Peter and Forstater, Maya (2002) Corporate social responsibility : implications for small and medium enterprises in developing countries United Nations Industrial Development (UNIDO)[9] Digital Library in Public Relations
• Forstater, Maya (2002). Business and Poverty : Bridging the Gap. International Business Leaders Forum. ISBN 978-0-7546-2979-5.[42]
• Forstater, Maya (2006). What assures consumers?. ISBN 978-1-9016-9326-3.[43]
• Forstater, Maya (2012). Shaping a Sustainable Future.[44]

• Academia.edu Profile
• Maya Forstater on Medium