An employment judge has condemned a support service for rape victims and found that its chief executive was behind a “heresy hunt” against a female worker who held “gender-critical” beliefs.
Roz Adams won her claim of constructive dismissal against Edinburgh Rape Crisis Centre, which is funded by the Scottish government, with the tribunal finding that she had been harassed and discriminated against. Supporters of Adams condemned the “abusive management” she was forced to endure.
When she joined the rape crisis centre, Adams, 52, had at first welcomed its trans-inclusive policies, believing that everyone who had “suffered sexual assault is entitled to support”, the tribunal heard.
Support, yes. Support in a rape crisis centre for women, no.
However, in December 2020 she went for a walk with Maggie Chapman, a Green MSP, then the centre’s chief operating officer. The judgment states: “This was the first time that [Adams] heard what she described … as the ‘mantra’ that ‘trans women are women’. She felt concerned that there was no real definition or clarification associated with this statement. She felt it was odd.
Things became, as she put it, “eggshelly.”
Ian McFatridge, the employment judge, identified Mridul Wadhwa, a trans woman who is ERCC chief executive, as a key figure in an internal investigation that “should not have been launched in the first place”.
I hope Wadhwa will soon be out the door.
Helen Joyce, of the campaign group Sex Matters, said: “Sex-based boundaries matter for everyone, but most especially women who have experienced male violence and sexual assault. By standing up against the abusive management, Roz Adams has helped women across the UK.”
And beyond, probably.
Adams now works at Beira’s Place, a centre funded by the author JK Rowling, which offers a “sexual violence support service for women run by women”.
Comments
6 responses to “Heresy hunters in Edinburgh”
“Definitions” and “clarifications” are transphobic. Shut up and obey. Welcome to Gender World.
To paraphrase MacBeth: We are in bullshit waded in so deep that to return were as tedious as go o’er.
“eggshelly”
That reminds me of all the times that ‘trans women are women’ would pop up on the skeptical and atheist related sites I was following and stuck my neck out to make the point that, especially in a healthcare setting, one’s “normal values don’t change just because you’ve ‘discovered’ that you’ve really been a woman all this time”.
Makes a nice change to see ‘campaign’ rather than ‘anti-trans’ group.
Mridul isn’t even legally a transwoman: no GRC. I know the goblins don’t understand that but this bloke is even “legally” male. Maybe this isn’t a point worth emphasizing because that legal status is ridiculous, but in context maybe it should be emphasized.
BK,
I’ve noticed that it’s a one-way ratchet. If a transwoman has a GRC, then they’ll tweet about how “my passport says female, so take that, haters!” But the lack of a GRC is shrugged off because hey, the law can’t tell someone what their identity is!