A U.K. woman fired for speaking out against transgender and sex education lessons taught at her son's Church of England primary school won an appeal Friday after a judge overturned a previous ruling upholding her dismissal.
Kristie Higgs said she was initially fired from her role as a teaching assistant at the Farmor's School in Fairford, Gloucestershire, England, after an anonymous person noticed her Facebook posts speaking out against her son's school's plan to introduce books containing transgender ideology and reported the posts to the head teacher.
Though the school says otherwise, she maintains the firing was an attack on her Christian faith.
"From the beginning, despite the many attempts by the school to suggest otherwise, this has always been about my Christian beliefs and me being discriminated against for expressing them in my own time," she said, according to BBC News.
Higgs also gathered signatures from her family members and friends, challenging plans to implement the curriculum by sharing an online petition on Facebook.
The post read in part, "THEY ARE BRAINWASHING OUR CHILDREN!" adding that, with the new curriculum in place, "Children will be taught that all relationships are equally valid and ‘normal', so that same-sex marriage is exactly the same as traditional marriage, and that gender is a matter of choice, not biology, so that it's up to them what sex they are."
President of the Employment Appeal Tribunal in London Jennifer Eady ruled in Higgs' favor Friday, arguing that "the freedom to manifest belief (religious or otherwise) and to express views relating to that belief are essential rights in any democracy."
She added that the right to manifest the beliefs, no matter who they might offend, is protected without limits.
Eady previously dismissed two members of the appeal panel for perceived bias, particularly two who had historically advocated for LGBTQ rights.
Higg's appeal came after an employment tribunal ruled in October 2020 that she did not suffer discrimination or harassment due to the firing.
According to the BBC, Higgs' case will now head back for a fresh tribunal.
"I am pleased that the courts have overturned the previous judgment, but I am frustrated by the further delays to receiving justice," she said of the decision.
"I was, and still am, appalled by the sexual ideology that was being introduced to my son's Church of England primary school… Since I lost the job I loved, there has been so many disturbing revelations about transgender ideology in schools and children being taught inappropriate sex education. I feel so justified and vindicated for sharing and expressing the concerns that I did."
Fox News' Jon Brown contributed to this report.
