Maya Forstater wins more than £100,000 in compensation from think-tank after she lost her job for believing that people cannot change their biological sex

• Researcher’s contract not renewed after voicing ‘gender critical’ beliefs in 2018
• Yesterday tribunal ordered she should be paid £106,404 by her former employer

Maya Forstater has won more than £100,000 in compensation from a think-tank that dropped her over her view that people cannot change their biological sex.

The Center for Global Development did not renew the researcher and tax expert’s contract after she tweeted ‘gender critical’ beliefs – that ‘male people are not women’ – in 2018.

Yesterday an Employment Tribunal ordered that Ms Forstater, 49, should be paid a total of £106,404 by her former employer, including £27,000 for injury to feelings and £64,000 for loss of earnings.

The tribunal said the think-tank – which is based in the US but has a London office – had used ‘oppressive or high-handed conduct’ during its court battle with Ms Forstater.

It found the organisation had equated her beliefs to ‘bigotry’ in public statements and contributed to the abuse on social media and the shunning experienced by Ms Forstater.

Yesterday an Employment Tribunal ordered that Ms Forstater (pictured), 49, should be paid a total of £106,404 by her former employer, including £27,000 for injury to feelings and £64,000 for loss of earnings

Last night Ms Forstater said: ‘I would like to thank everyone who has supported my case, above all my family, who have been put through hell over the past four years.

‘Seeing their mother smeared as a bigot and a potential harasser across international media is something that my sons should never have had to experience.’ 

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She added: ‘My case has exposed institutionalised discrimination against, and the routine abuse and smearing of, people with perfectly ordinary beliefs about the material reality of sex.’ 

In September 2018, Ms Forstater shared a series of tweets including concerns that expanding the definition of a woman would ‘undermine women’s rights and protection for vulnerable women and girls’.

She also tweeted: ‘I think that male people are not women. I don’t think being a woman/female is a matter of identity or womanly feelings. It is biology.’ 

While a tribunal judge decided in 2019 that Ms Forstater’s views were ‘not worthy of respect in a democratic society’, a 2021 appeal court judge decided in a landmark ruling that ‘gender-critical’ views were protected under the Equality Act.

An employment judge then found the think-tank’s decision not to offer Ms Forstater an employment contract nor renew her unpaid visiting fellowship role in March 2019 was direct discrimination related to her ‘gender-critical’ beliefs.

Ms Forstater, who has since founded the campaign group Sex Matters, said: ‘This final judgment provides me with some measure of closure and vindication, as it requires that CGD compensate me for my loss of income and injury to feelings.’

In September 2018, Ms Forstater shared a series of tweets including concerns that expanding the definition of a woman would ‘undermine women’s rights and protection for vulnerable women and girls’

Last night Harry Potter author and women’s rights campaigner JK Rowling said: ‘Congratulations to Maya Forstater, who receives over £100k in compensation from the CGD, who were found to have discriminated against her due to her gender critical beliefs, which, as her case established, are worthy of respect in a democratic society.’ 

A spokesman for the think-tank said: ‘CGD has and will continue to strive to maintain a workplace that is welcoming, safe, and inclusive to all.

‘The resolution of this case will allow us once again to focus exclusively on our mission: reducing global poverty and inequality through economic research that drives better policy and practice.

‘Following the Employment Tribunal’s remedy judgment, the case brought against CGD, its President, Masood Ahmed, and CGD Europe by Maya Forstater will come to a close.’

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