Heresy hunters in Edinburgh

The Times reports:

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”.

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