A Christian school employee in England has won an appeal after being fired for criticizing LGBT relationships on social media.
Kristie Higgs, who had an administrative role at Farmor’s School in Fairford, Gloucestershire, was fired in 2019 for sharing posts critical of gender and sexual ideology on Facebook.
Three judges have now found that the case was discriminatory.
Lord Justice Underhill, sitting with Lord Justice Bean, and Lady Justice Falk, said the judgment was “regrettably long” and “long-delayed.” He wrote the “dismissal of an employee merely because they have expressed a religious or other protected belief to which the employer, or a third party with whom it wishes to protect its reputation, objects will constitute unlawful direct discrimination within the meaning of the Equality Act.”
“It was not in dispute … that the Claimant’s beliefs that gender is binary and that same-sex marriage cannot be equated with marriage between a man and a woman are protected by the Equality Act,” Underhill added.
The ruling explained that the school “sought to justify her dismissal on the basis that the posts in question were intemperately expressed and included insulting references to the promoters of gender fluidity and ‘the LGBT crowd’ which were liable to damage the school’s reputation in the community: the posts had been reported by one parent and might be seen by others.” They noted that “neither the language of the posts nor the risk of reputational damage were capable of justifying the Claimant’s dismissal where she had not said anything of the kind at work or displayed any discriminatory attitudes in her treatment of pupils.”
Higgs said the ruling was a victory for free speech. “Employers will no longer be able to rely on their theoretical fears of reputational damage or subjective concerns about causing offense to discipline employees for exercising their fundamental freedom to express their deeply held beliefs,” she stated. “The Court of Appeal has now set a clear standard to protect people like me, and the countless other Christians in this nation, to express their beliefs without fear of losing their jobs.”
