It's Schrödinger's Gender Critical Worker!

James Orwin changed his email footer in protest after East Riding of Yorkshire Council chief Caroline Lacey urged staff to 'consider adding pronouns to your email'.

The ICT project officer was suspended and eventually sacked when he continued to refuse to remove the footer 'XYchromosomeGuy/AdultHumanMale' having been told it posed a 'serious risk' to the transgender community and the council's reputation.

I can believe the latter claim, because there may have been people unaware their council was staffed by lunatics, but what the hell does the former claim mean? What 'risk'? 

Mr Orwin sued the local authority for religion or belief discrimination and unfair dismissal saying he believed remaining silent when 'morals and principles are under threat facilitates the steady creep of evil'. But the employment tribunal in Hull dismissed his case having found he was not discriminated against.

However, it did accept his gender critical beliefs amounted to a protected 'philosophical belief'.

Wait, both can't be true, surely? They are either protected - and so he can't be sacked for them - or they aren't?  

However, Employment Judge Ian Miller concluded he had not been discriminated against by being told to change his pronouns. He said: 'The real reason that [Mr Orwin] decided to add 'XY-chromosome-guy/adult-human-male' was in protest.' Mr Miller added: 'The footer was designed to provoke and, we think given his acceptance of possible offence, was designed to offend.'

The judge said the implementation of the policy was 'poorly thought through and badly executed'. Dismissing his claims of discrimination, he said: 'None of the treatment he experienced was because of his beliefs (or expression of beliefs). His claim of unfair dismissal was also dismissed as it was 'well within the band of reasonable responses of a reasonable employer'.

A 'reasonable employer' wouldn't, surely, have expected someone with gender critical beliefs to adopt a pronoun footer in the first place? 

It looks like this employment tribunal wants to have its cake and eat it.