A judge in the UK ruled on Wednesday that it was legal for a leading think tank to fire a worker for arguing publicly that biological males who identify as transgender women are not real women. Harry Potter author, JK Rowling, weighed in on behalf of the sacked worker.

The Centre for Global Development (CGD) fired tax expert Maya Forstater in March 2019 over a series of tweets in which she said that “men cannot change into women.”

She sued the CGD on grounds of discrimination, but in a ruling published Wednesday, employment tribunal Judge James Tayler said Forstater’s view is “not a philosophical belief protected by the Equality Act” and “is not worthy of respect in a democratic society.”

He continued by saying that Forstater “is absolutist in her view of sex and it is a core component of her belief that she will refer to a person by the sex she considered appropriate even if it violates their dignity and/or creates an intimidating, hostile, degrading, humiliating or offensive environment.”

JK Rowling, tweeted in support of Ms Forstater, writing: “Dress however you please. Call yourself whatever you like.Sleep with any consenting adult who’ll have you. Live your best life in peace and security. But force women out of their jobs for stating that [biological] sex is real? #IStandWithMaya #ThisIsNotADrill”.

She has since been denounced by trans activists as a ‘Terf’, or ‘Trans Exclusionary Radical Feminist’. Well known former athletes Martina Navratilova and Sharon Davies, MBE, have also come to Forstater’s defence.