Sex Matters (advocacy group)

Sex Matters
TypeCampaign group
Registration no.1207701
Legal statusCharitable Incorporated Organisation
Chief Executive Officer and co-founder
Maya Forstater
Key people
Helen Joyce, Director of Advocacy[1]
Websitesex-matters.org

Sex Matters is an advocacy group co-founded by Maya Forstater in October 2020 that campaigns for the view that "sex matters in law and in life".[2] The Charity Commission registered Sex Matters as a Charitable Incorporated Organisation in England and Wales on 3 April 2024.[3][4][5]

Activities

Sex Matters was co-founded by Maya Forstater, who successfully brought a high-profile discrimination case in Forstater v Centre for Global Development Europe, which established that gender-critical beliefs were legally protected under the UK Equality Act 2010.[6][7]

In 2021, Sex Matters wrote an open letter to the Committee on Standards in Public Life complaining the passport office did not record how many people changed sex on the passport.[8] In other documents, Sex Matters has called for trans peoples' assigned sex at birth to be on all medical records at all times and for the sex of trans doctors and hospital workers to be a matter of public record.[8]

The group has claimed that legislation banning conversion therapy (the practice of trying to alter a person's sexual orientation or gender identity) for gay and trans people would be "used to criminalise dissent with gender ideology". They published a draft bill calling the government to "outlaw all medical or surgical treatment of minors to modify their sexual characteristics, and treatment performed on anyone who has not had the full implications of the treatment explained to them’", describing trans healthcare as "modern conversion therapy".[9]

In October 2023, Sex Matters issued guidance on collecting official data, calling on public bodies to ask about sex as opposed to self-identified gender.[10] Forstater said: "From official statistics to HR records, the collection of data on sex and gender has bordered on dystopian for several years now thanks to lobbying from transactivist groups. Recording sex accurately is crucial, particularly when it comes to issues such as safeguarding and service provision".[10]

In January 2024, Sex Matters said it had catalogued at least 19 current legal cases where a claimant argued discrimination because of their gender-critical beliefs.[11]

In July 2024, a letter from Sex Matters, signed by Forstater, called on incoming Prime Minister Keir Starmer not to give Anneliese Dodds, Minister of State for Women and Equalities, responsibility for Labour's pledge to implement a "trans-inclusive" ban on conversion therapy.[12]

In April 2025, Sex Matters made arguments at the Supreme Court in the case For Women Scotland Ltd v The Scottish Ministers and said that the Court's ruling that "the terms woman and sex in the Equality Act 2010 refer to a biological woman and biological sex" was "the right answer".[13] Chief executive Maya Forstater said: "The protected characteristic of sex - male and female - refers to reality, not to paperwork."[14]

In May 2025, Fiona McAnena, Sex Matters’ director of campaigns, welcomed the Football Association ruling to ban transgender women from playing women's football in England and added that “Every other sporting body now needs to re-establish a genuine women’s category".[15]

See also

References

  1. ^ Beal, James (22 November 2024). "Police log hate incident for refusal to shake hands in gender row". The Times. Retrieved 18 April 2025.
  2. ^ Gordon, Jane (23 April 2021). "Maya Forstater: 'I am fighting for the right to say men can never be women'". The Telegraph. London. Retrieved 12 January 2025.
  3. ^ "SEX MATTERS - Charity 1207701". register-of-charities.charitycommission.gov.uk. Retrieved 18 April 2025.
  4. ^ Whitehead, Harriet (5 April 2024). "Regulator grants Sex Matters charitable status". www.civilsociety.co.uk. Retrieved 18 April 2025.
  5. ^ Harle, Emily (5 April 2024). "Controversial gender-critical group granted charitable status". www.thirdsector.co.uk. Retrieved 18 April 2025.
  6. ^ Siddique, Haroon (6 July 2022). "Maya Forstater was discriminated against over gender-critical beliefs, tribunal rules". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 9 May 2025.
  7. ^ "Maya Forstater". Sex Matters. Retrieved 9 May 2025.
  8. ^ a b Amery, Fran (1 March 2025). "'Gender critical' feminism as biopolitical project". Sexualities. 28 (3): 1239–1253. doi:10.1177/13634607241257397. ISSN 1363-4607.
  9. ^ Walters, Mark Austin. "Legalizing transphobia: from courtroom to legislature, how gender‐critical activism is hurting us all". Journal of Law and Society. 51 (3): 343–366. doi:10.1111/jols.12491. ISSN 0263-323X.
  10. ^ a b Martin, Daniel (25 October 2023). "Ask about sex not gender to protect the truth, public bodies told". The Telegraph. London. Retrieved 18 April 2025.
  11. ^ Siddique, Haroon (19 January 2024). "'A politically toxic issue': the legal battles over gender-critical beliefs". The Guardian. London. Retrieved 18 April 2025.
  12. ^ Gibbons, Amy; Martin, Daniel (10 July 2024). "Anneliese Dodds should not be in charge of conversion therapy ban, campaigners urge". The Telegraph. London. Retrieved 18 April 2025.
  13. ^ "UK Supreme Court rules legal definition of a woman is based on biological sex - live updates". BBC News. Retrieved 18 April 2025.
  14. ^ "UK Supreme Court makes unanimous decision on definition of a woman". 16 April 2025. Retrieved 18 April 2025.
  15. ^ "FA to ban transgender women from playing women's football in England". 1 May 2025. Retrieved 10 May 2025.
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