A council has paid a social worker £54,000 in compensation after admitting disciminating against her for her gender-critical views.
Cambridgeshire County Council has backed down in its legal battle against Lizzy Pitt, 62.
Pitt, who describes herself as "a lesbian who believes that sex is real" expressed her belief that sex was a matter of biology at a meeting in January 2023.
She also said that people cannot change sex, that men have ruined women's sport by competing as women and that biological men should not be allowed in women-only spaces.
Lizzy Pitt said that people cannot change sex, that men have ruined women's sport by competing as women and that biological men should not be allowed in women-only spacesCrowd JusticeFive colleagues then proceeded to file a formal complaint against her, months later, allegedly accusing her of "traumatising" them with "symbolic" violence.
One of them said they couldn't sleep for two nights "thinking about this cruelty", while another said they had suffered from anxiety dreams.
The council proceeded to launch a probe into Pitt's behaviour, with the investigation concluding that she had "made comments that were non-inclusive and caused considerable offence".
As a result she was issued with a management instruction and suspended from the LGBT network for a year.
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Cambridgeshire County Council agreed to pay Pitt £54,000 in compensation
Cambridgeshire County Council
The 62-year-old said at the time: "The whole process was intensely stressful and humiliating for me.
"It left me feeling that my colleagues and my employer regarded me as a bigot who could only be tolerated in the workplace if I was forced to keep my beliefs to myself even when they were relevant.”
Last October Pitt took the council to an employment tribunal and launched a fundraiser to help her with her legal fees, raising over £50,000.
After months of waiting for the tribunal which was due to commence this week, the council backed down on the morning of the hearing.
It accepted liability and agreed to pay Pitt £54,000 in compensation.
The social worker thanked those who had supported her and described the result as a "win for the right side of history".
She said: “Let’s hope that other employers will start to learn that it’s a bad idea to try to stop lesbians asserting their boundaries and silence staff who know that sex is real, and sometimes matters.
A Cambridgeshire county council spokesman said: “We strive to create a safe, inclusive and compassionate environment for people to work in and recognise this needs to be balanced with everyone being entitled to express their own views and beliefs.
“We will reflect carefully on this outcome, as well as undertaking a review of our policies and procedures accordingly.”
