Transgender pilot’s harassment victory

A flight instructor has won her six-year battle with a wealthy businessman, who has abandoned court appeal ­action and paid her compensation.

Jennifer Beck. Picture: Lyndon Mechielsen

A transgender woman who was a flight instructor at Gympie Airport in regional Queensland has won her six-year battle with a wealthy local businessman abandoning court appeal ­action and paying her compensation for ­sexual harassment and victimisation.

Jennifer Beck, who qualified as a senior flight instructor in 2004, the same year she transitioned from male to female, trained many pilots without incident for a decade. But her life was up-ended in 2015 during a “concerted campaign” against her by property ­investor and pilot Blair Rowan, which she believed was aimed at driving her out of the local community.

Following The Weekend Australian’s account of Ms Beck’s battle, Mr Rowan this week dropped plans to continue the fight in the Queensland Court of Appeal at a hearing scheduled in August.

Mr Rowan had wanted to overturn a ruling and earlier ­appeal decision by the Queensland Civil and Administrative Tribunal which found he harassed Ms Beck with two emails ­attacking her gender, and further victimised her with a “made-up” claim that Ms Beck had sexually harassed him years earlier when she trained him as a pilot.

Under a deed of release signed this week, Mr Rowan agreed to abandon further action. He also paid Ms Beck $19,000 – the maximum compensation under Queensland’s Anti-Discrimination Act, which was set up to provide public justice and not large financial rewards.

QCAT rulings in Ms Beck’s favour will now stand and could serve as a guide in similar cases.

Under the settlement, Ms Beck agreed not to pursue action to recover legal costs from Mr Rowan. Now 72 and living on the age pension, Ms Beck relied on borrowings and crowd-funding to finance her case, spending far in excess of the compensation awarded to her. She told The Weekend Australian she was ­“relieved” her battle was over and glad Mr Rowan no longer disputed the tribunal’s findings. Her ­intention all along, she said, was to win acceptance in a small community and resume her life.

Ms Beck lived in an onsite caravan at Gympie Airport for 10 years, training pilots and serving as regional safety officer and local council liaison officer before hostilities erupted. In mid-2015, Ms Beck, then 65, was shown emails Mr Rowan had sent to male members of the Gympie Aero Club that condemned Ms Beck’s use of female toilets, called her a man with “man parts” and asked why she should not be called “he”.

In one email, Mr Rowan said his “religion and personal values” were highly offended by Ms Beck. In another, he said: “But let’s leave emotion out of this and burn the witch.”

As conflict escalated, Ms Beck was sacked as regional safety officer and feared the next steps could be losing her job and home.

On legal advice, she lodged a complaint against Mr Rowan under the state’s anti-discrimination act in January 2016. Hopes of resolving the matter informally collapsed and it went to a QCAT hearing after Mr Rowan filed a belated counterclaim alleging Ms Beck had sexually harassed him in 2009.

The QCAT ruled two of Mr Rowan’s emails were “sexual harassment” and he “victimised” Ms Beck with his harassment claim against her, which she denied and “could not be believed”. Mr Rowan lost a QCAT appeal in February.

Ms Beck still flies and lives in her caravan but lost her instructor’s licence when her health ­deteriorated.

Mr Rowan declined to comment. He is no longer an aero club member and bases planes he owns at a private airstrip north of Gympie.