Hove, UK
— A transsexual who claimed he was hounded out
of his council job has failed in a sex discrimination
claim.
Andrea Baldwin changed
her name to Andy after undergoing a female to male sex
change. Mr Baldwin accused Brighton
and Hove City Council
of discrimination but lost the case on appeal
today.
Mr Baldwin claimed he was
forced to resign from his £26,000-a-year job as
co-ordinator of the city's lesbian, gay, bisexual and
transgender forum after suffering a string of slurs
including being labelled as "one of those difficult gay
people".
The 34-year-old claimed
senior council officials suffered from transphobia - fear
of transsexuals.
But yesterday the
Employment Appeal Tribunal (EAT) upheld the ruling of an
employment tribunal which cleared the council of
discrimination.
Yesterday the city
council welcomed the judgement.
A spokesperson said: "We
do everything we can to make sure the council is a
welcoming and supportive place to work for everyone,
regardless of their sexuality."
Allegations arose after
Mr Baldwin said the council grew "suspicious and uneasy"
when he started living as a man in 2002 and claimed he
was forced to resign from his job in January 2003 because
he felt unsafe working as a transsexual.
At the original tribunal
hearing Mr Baldwin, who said he'd had to resign and ended
up on incapacity benefits due to stress and depression,
accused the council of bigotry and paying lip-service to
some issues affecting homosexuals.
He claimed he had been
labelled as "one of those difficult gay people" when he
got the job in 2000 along with other abuse.
He also claimed he had
been the victim of a whispering campaign by Linda
Beanlands, the council's safety manager, and Anthea
Ballam, who chaired his safety forum.
However the council
argued his line manager and senior colleagues did not
know or suspect he was undergoing a sex
change.
The EAT, which upheld the
tribunal decision, said Mr Baldwin had suffered "no
actual discrimination."
It said that as Mr
Baldwin's employers had no knowledge of his
transsexualism prior to his resignation, the tribunal had
been entitled to dismiss his discrimination
claim.
The council spokesperson
said: "The support we give includes funding a lesbian,
gay, bisexual and transgender workers forum, which has
more than 100 members.
"Within our community
safety work we also fund specialist officers who have a
high level of expertise in tackling homophobic and
transphobic safety issues and giving support to people
who have experienced homophobia or
transphobia."
Mr Baldwin was
unavailable for comment yesterday
