Trans woman 'harassed for being female' wins discrimination payouthttps://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/trans-woman-harassed-for-being-female-wins-discrimination-payout/ar-AA1OnbWb?ocid=hpmsn&cvid=505daead5cf349d6aabe8486a2517387&ei=80 🔗 [Link: msn.com/en-us/news/world/trans-woman-harassed-for-being-female-wins-discrimination-payout/ar-AA1OnbWb/]Telegraph reporters (13 Oct 2025)
A transgender Royal Mail postal worker has won a sex harassment payout after being "harassed for being female".
Sophie Cole, 46, who started living as a women in 2016, was awarded £12,500 after an employment tribunal concluded that Royal Mail failed to act on complaints of bullying, verbal abuse, and physical assault.
The collections worker said the ruling is "a win for the transgender community" because it "proves that trans people can still win sex harassment claims in their real gender".
Cole reported experiencing "harassment" over her sex by two separate colleagues and lodged a complaint with bosses, reporting being singled out, name calling, touching and a physical assault.
Following a hearing in Bury St Edmonds, Employment Judge King ruled the claims for direct discrimination and harassment on grounds of gender reassignment were "successful in part".
She also ruled that Cole's claims of "direct discrimination on the grounds of sex" and "for harassment related to sex" succeeded on one allegation of each.
The judge's ruling was referred to by Cole as "perhaps the first in the UK since the Supreme Court ruling", which effectively ruled trans woman couldn't be victims of harassment for their sex "as a woman".
The verdict of the employment tribunal was delayed while the Judge sought clarification on the Supreme Court ruling, but Cole said the judge ruled that "if an individual 'deemed' me to be a woman when they harassed me, I could be listed as a 'female victim'".
