What are gender-critical beliefs?

Judge-led panel ruled that such views should be protected under the Equality Act

Weight lifter Laurel Hubbard
Laurel Hubbard of New Zealand, pictured in 2018, is making history at Tokyo 2020 as the first openly transgender Olympic athlete
(Image credit: Alex Pantling/Getty Images)

The term “gender critical” has been at the centre of increasingly heated debates in recent months, as rows about trans and gender identity rage on.

Gender-critical beliefs refer to “the view that someone’s sex - whether they are male or female - is biological and immutable” and “cannot be conflated” with their gender identity (whether they identify as a man or a woman), says The Observer.

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Kate Samuelson is the newsletter editor, global. She is also a regular guest on award-winning podcast The Week Unwrapped, where she often brings stories with a women’s rights angle. Kate’s career as a journalist began on the MailOnline graduate training scheme, which involved stints as a reporter at the South West News Service’s office in Cambridge and the Liverpool Echo. She moved from MailOnline to Time magazine’s satellite office in London, where she covered current affairs and culture for both the print mag and website. Before joining The Week, Kate worked as the senior stories and content gathering specialist at the global women’s charity ActionAid UK, where she led the planning and delivery of all content gathering trips, from Bangladesh to Brazil. She is passionate about women’s rights and using her skills as a journalist to highlight underrepresented communities.

Alongside her staff roles, Kate has written for various magazines and newspapers including Stylist, Metro.co.uk, The Guardian and the i news site. She is also the founder and editor of Cheapskate London, an award-winning weekly newsletter that curates the best free events with the aim of making the capital more accessible.