Imagine practicing medicine for thirty years only to get fired because you didn’t want to call a woman by her proper pronouns. This is exactly what happened to David Mackereth, a doctor from the UK who decided that trans women aren’t women and refused to call his patient “she,” according to BBC.
Dr. Mackereth lost his job after refusing to call a transgender patient by the correct pronouns and was so surprised at this decision that he took his termination to court where he argued that his religious conviction prevented should protect him in discriminating against people. The panel, however, said that his biblical defense of what constitutes male and female was not in tune with human dignity and his case was dismissed.
Mackereth also implied with his case that he does not believe transgender people are real and that he objects to trans people’s existence, as the judge in this tribunal said “a lack of belief in transgenderism and conscientious objection to transgenderism in our judgment are incompatible… with the fundamental rights of others.” It’s one thing to dislike transgender people for being who they are (which is definitely wrong) but not acknowledging their existence is on a whole other level of bigotry.
Mackereth is troubled by the tribunal’s ruling, as he said that medicine cannot function without “intellectual and moral integrity” and that his thirty years of practicing medicine is now irrelevant because someone may get offended by his beliefs. What he fails to realize is that times change and new discoveries are always being made especially in the medical field, so it’s perfectly reasonable for a trans person to want to be referred to by their correct pronouns. Alas, Dr. Mackereth seems to be stuck in the past.
He’s not the only one who feels this way though. He has support from the Christian Legal Centre, where chief executive Andrea Williams said in response to the court’s decision that there will be “seismic consequences” for anyone in the workplace that adhere to the biblical definition of sex and gender. The Department of Work and Pension, or DWP, welcomed the court’s decision, however, as they said that “we acted to protect claimants from behaviour that would have failed to treat them with dignity, so we welcome this ruling.”
Refusing to call someone by their preferred pronouns is definitely a sign of disrespect and a disregard for that person’s dignity, so I happen to agree with the DWP. What do you think? Do you agree with the court’s decision or do you think Dr. Mackereth was perfectly within his rights to refuse to call a trans woman by her proper pronouns?
Source: BBC