A senior staffer in Arts Council England (ACE) has won her claim of harassment against the agency over her belief that transgender people cannot change their sex.
Arts boss and feminist, Denise Fahmy, brought Britain’s biggest development agency for the arts to an employment tribunal after she resigned from her role as a grants officer, having challenged a decision to withdraw funding for a group representing gays and lesbians, LGB Alliance.
Ms Fahmy, who was a long-standing employee of ACE, issued complaints to the Employment Tribunal for harassment and victimisation on the grounds of her gender critical beliefs at work (the conviction that people cannot change their biological sex).
Given the “untenable” circumstances the 54-year-old experienced, she felt she could no longer work for ACE and resigned before the final ET hearing took place.
The harassment unfolded after the arts boss had attended an internal Teams meeting where “hostile comments” were made about people who hold gender critical beliefs, her legal team said. The comments in question were made during a work discussion about the award (and removal) of a grant to LGB Alliance.
The LGB Alliance had been awarded £9,000 to develop a film for the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee, celebrating the way in which the lives of gay men had become better under the late monarch’s 70-year-reign. However, the funding was removed last Spring after the LGB Alliance was accused of being transphobic and neo-Nazi, allegations it denies.
Deputy Chief Executive of the group, Simon Meller, held the meeting in April, during which he conveyed his “personal view” that the LGB Alliance “has a history of trans-exclusionary activity” which meant funding the group was “not within the spirit” of the Jubilee fund, the Telegraph reports.
Ms Fahmy, 54, in response to Mr Meller’s remarks, questioned why the funding had been withdrawn, and what message such an action sent about “freedom of speech” in the Arts Council, and what protection there was for those who held gender-critical beliefs, which is the belief that people cannot change their biological sex.
Following this internal meeting (which was described as “hurtful, hostile and intensely toxic”) some of Denise’s colleagues circulated a petition with further hostile and intimidating comments contained within it which were aimed at all gender critical people, the tribunal heard. The petition purported to raise a grievance in respect of the dialogue that had been held in the Teams meeting but in fact “tipped over into an act of unwanted harassment”.
Leeds Employment Tribunal ruled that Ms Fahmy was the victim of harassment after a work colleague circulated an email and the petition on the ACE intranet which targeted those accused of being “anti-trans”. The petition remained on the intranet site for 26 hours, the tribunal heard. Judges felt it should have been removed from the site sooner.
One email seen by the tribunal claimed that gender critical views were “seen as cancer” which “needs to be removed from the organisation”.
In response, the arts boss made a Dignity at Work complaint with ACE highlighting that she felt she had been harassed during the meeting.
“The petition was clearly aimed at her as she had bravely ‘outed’ herself at the Teams meeting as being someone who holds gender critical beliefs. Her internal complaint was not upheld and contrary to her right to appeal the decision Denise was not given the right to appeal.,” her legal team said in a statement.
‘VICTORY FOR WOMEN AND COMMON SENSE’
In its unanimous ruling, a panel of three judges reached the conclusion that “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 result was described as “another victory for women and common sense” with Ms Fahmy’s legal team saying it affirmed that “gender critical beliefs are protected by law”.
“Arts Council England is a publicly funded body and is responsible for awarding grants to artistic projects and organisations across the country drawn from taxpayers and national lottery good causes resources.
“It is unfortunate that in this case an award made by a devolved body (London Community Foundation) was withdrawn for reasons that were based on bias, hostility and mis-information, namely that ACE alleged LGB Alliance was a transphobic organisation,” her legal team said.
The judges wrote in their ruling: “The session, the personal opinions expressed by Simon Mellor and the email after the meeting … did provide the basis, or opened the door, for the subsequent petition and the comments within that petition.
“Whether intended or not, it led to the petition. It was inappropriate to provide his personal views and express solidarity with one side of the debate.”
A remedies hearing will be held in the next few weeks, which could see Ms Fahmy awarded thousands of pounds. She did, however, lose her claim of victimisation.
While her claims for victimisation were not successful, her legal team said that the claims “do however provide important context in the chronology of her claims and demonstrate the kinds of issues that those who hold GC beliefs, predominantly women, are being subjected to in their working environments, some of whom are being hounded out of their jobs.”
Ms Fahmy said she was “delighted” with the judgement, however an ACE spokesperson said that her claims of victimisation were “not well founded”
“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 judgement to support the accusation of institutional bias.
“We are reflecting on the judgement, 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 acknowledgement of steps taken by us to disable the petition and address the incident at the time,” the spokesperson for the publicly funded body said.
An ACE spokesman commented: “Kate Barker, chief executive of LGB Alliance, whose funding was made and withdrawn by a body separate to the Arts Council, said artists who “believe biological sex is real” could be “considered ineligible for funding”.
“It cannot be right that a group of zealous ideologues, encouraged by senior leaders, has developed a stranglehold on Arts Council England,” the statement added.