Swindon teacher sacked in pronouns row faces wait in unfair dismissal claim
Maths teacher Kevin Lister was dismissed by New College Swindon in September 2022
A Swindon teacher who was sacked for refusing to use a student’s chosen name and pronouns faces a wait for a decision in his legal battle over an unfair dismissal claim.
Maths teacher Kevin Lister was dismissed by New College Swindon in September 2022 and is appealing against a Bristol employment tribunal’s decision that he was not unfairly sacked or discriminated against for his views on gender.
The teacher at the Wiltshire further education college was asked to refer to a biologically female student, aged 17, by their preferred male name and he/him pronouns in A-level maths lessons.
When asked to make the change, Mr Lister said he began to gesture to the student rather than use their name.
The Bristol tribunal concluded in 2024 that Mr Lister was dismissed for his conduct and expressing his beliefs in an “objectionable” manner.
After hearing arguments at the Employment Appeal Tribunal in London on Tuesday and Wednesday, Mr Justice Mansfield said his judgment will be given in writing on a date to be set.
Jude Shepherd, representing the college, said the school’s gender reassignment policy did not seek to modify teachers’ philosophical beliefs, but sought to modify their behaviour and speech.
She said Mr Lister had made his case that he was compelled to speak in a certain way at the Bristol tribunal and they had decided he was not discriminated against.
She said he did not make the argument at the Bristol tribunal that the college had sought to change his beliefs.
Ms Shepherd said the policy did not “encourage” students to transition.
The barrister added: “You don’t have to believe that a man can become biologically a woman in order to treat with respect those who identify in a different gender.”
She said Mr Lister had claimed at the Bristol tribunal that the policy “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”.
Anna Loufti, for Mr Lister, said it was after the teacher was instructed to use the student’s chosen pronouns by another student that a disciplinary process began and the college instructed him he should be following the gender reassignment policy.
She said Mr Lister was not willing to do this as he had raised a safeguarding concern about the teenager’s wish to transition.
She said: “Being asked to transition a child flies in the face of a gender critical person’s concern about doing so.
“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.”
Ms Loufti said the college’s policy “created a culture in which everyone was supposed to be positive about gender transition”.