Sacked gender critical teacher ‘could have shown respect’

The maths teacher was asked to refer to a biologically female student by their preferred male name and he/him pronouns during A-level lessons but refused to do so.

A Bristol tribunal concluded in 2024 that he was dismissed for expressing his beliefs in an “objectionable” manner, which staff say amounted to “bullying and harassment”.

Anna Loufti, representing Lister, said earlier he was not willing to oblige as he had previously raised a safeguarding concern about the teenager’s wish to transition.

“Being asked to transition a child flies in the face of a gender critical person’s concern about doing so,” she said.

“The policy cannot be regarded as having no coercive element whatsoever when the reality is my client was fired for not having complied with it.”

Loufti argued the college’s gender reassignment policy “created a culture in which everyone was supposed to be positive about gender transition”.

Lister argued that it “had the effect of intimidating gender critical staff into public silence”, and that any staff member who wanted to raise a safeguarding concern about a transitioning student “can only do so under risk of persecution”.