Prison officer sacked after refusing to call male-born inmates ‘she'
Army veteran David Toshack, 50, was dismissed by GEOAmey, one of the UK's largest security firms, during a training course just days before taking up a role as a prison custody officer at Kirkcaldy Sheriff Court in Fife.
However, he said that he was 'shocked' to be dismissed before even starting the job.
Mr Toshack is now taking the company to an employment tribunal on the grounds of unlawful discrimination and harassment for his beliefs.
The father of three said he told a safeguarding workshop he would not be comfortable using a transgender inmate's preferred gender pronouns and said he had gender-critical beliefs that people are unable to change sex.
'I'm just a normal, working-class person who's never been in trouble with the law before, not got a criminal record, lived a good life,' he told the Mail on Sunday.
'I've been prepared to go and fight and die for my country, and then I have come back here and been told that there's certain things you can't think or can't say.'
Mr Toshack, who spent more than 10 years with the Army's medical reserves and who describes himself as a regular churchgoer, added: 'There must be loads of folk like me who don't have any of that, who are on their own, so I want to show folk you can stand up against this stuff.'
His case comes after the UK's Supreme Court's ruling in April which said that the terms 'woman' and 'sex' in the Equality Act refer only to biological women and biological sex.
This excludes transgender women who hold gender recognition certificates. The judgment has far-reaching ramifications regarding single-sex spaces.
The UK Government said at the time that the ruling brought 'clarity and confidence' for women and those who ran hospitals, sports clubs and women's refuges.
It is expected Mr Toshack's case will increase the pressure on the Scottish Prison Service to review its transgender policies in light of the Supreme Court ruling, and Mr Toshack's employment tribunal.
It could also lead to further complaints from other prison custody officers asked to use transgender inmates' preferred pronouns.
A spokesman for GEOAmey said: 'As this matter will be subject to tribunal proceedings, it would not be appropriate to comment at this time.'
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