A Christian doctor in the U.K. recently appealed his case after being fired for refusing to use transgender pronouns. Dr. David Mackereth held that
he would not refer to a patient based on his subjective gender identity rather than based on his objective biological nature because of his Christian beliefs. Mackereth is currently appealing his case before the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR).
The Christian Legal Centre commented on the case stating that “these rulings are believed to be the first time in the history of English law that a judge had ruled that free citizens must engage in compelled speech.”
In response, Mackereth sued the DWP for religious discrimination. The Employment Tribunal dismissed his case three months after the DWP fired Mackereth, citing his Christian beliefs as “incompatible with human dignity.” In May 2022, the Employment Appeal Tribunal partially overturned the previous verdict, yet still ruled that the firing had been justified.
In 2019, Mackereth lost his job at the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP), the public service bureaucracy responsible for welfare and healthcare benefits in the U.K. The Christian Legal Centre—a Christian advocacy group in the UK—reported that the DWP considered refusal to use female pronouns to refer to a man that identified as a woman as “harassment” under U.K. law. — International Christian Concern
