It’s great to see the FSU getting namechecked in The Irish News, in the buildup to our Belfast Speakeasy event tonight (Friday 26th Jan).
We’re currently supporting two separate legal Crowdfunders launched by some of our Northern Irish members who were discriminated against on the basis of their ‘gender critical’ beliefs.
First, there’s the group of 23 people – including writer and creator of Father Ted and The IT Crowd, Graham Linehan and feminist academic Dr Julia Long – who were refused service at a Belfast Pub simply for wearing ‘Woman = Adult Human Female’ T-shirts.
As solicitor Simon Chambers, who represents the 23 people in the group, told The Irish News they were refused service in Robinson’s Bar in Belfast in April 2023.
In the first case of its kind in Northern Ireland, 23 civil bills have now been issued against Wine Inns, which owns Robinson’s Bar.
The legal action was sparked after the group visited the bar after they had taken part in a demonstration led by women’s rights campaigner Kellie-Jay Keen, also known as ‘Posie Parker’ (you can watch the event at the link below).
The second, equally shocking case, is that of FSU member Sara Morrison, who was suspended by her employer, Belfast Film Festival, for the ‘crime’ of speaking at a Let Women Speak event in the city.
As Sara points out, she was in attendance not as an employee, but as a private citizen.
However, when Belfast Film Festival came under pressure from various local trans focused organisations, who claimed Sara was “an unsafe person to be around”, it decided to launch an investigation into its employee.
Sara’s case is that her employer is discriminating against her due to my support of women’s rights, and the holding of gender critical beliefs.
Please show your support for these cases – here and here – and help send a message to all employers in Northern Ireland that women’s rights and LGB rights cannot be trampled in this way.
And if you’re in Belfast tonight, why not come along to our Speakeasy event at the city’s Titanic Hotel?
We’ve already sold almost 200 tickets for ‘The state of free speech in Ireland’, but we still have some left, and we’d love to see you there — snaffle yours by clicking here!
