A free speech group were kicked out of a pub by security staff after the landlord objected to a talk by a retired teacher arguing that children should not be taught gender ideology as fact in schools (European Conservative, Express, LBC, Mail, Mail, Telegraph).
About 50 members of Free Speech Brighton, a sister group of the Free Speech Union (FSU) were ordered to leave the Southern Belle, a hotel and pub in the city, during an evening of speeches on Tuesday.
The group had pre-booked a back room of the establishment for the meeting, and brought a microphone and speaker for members to make speeches on a variety of topics.
A retired teacher gave the first talk, arguing that gender ideology – i.e., the idea that biological sex does not determine one’s ‘gender identity’, and that someone born biologically male can become female – should not be taught to schoolchildren as fact.
The woman, in her late fifties, spoke for 15 minutes about the situation in Brighton and Hove schools, arguing that parents should be able to ask questions about what their children are taught in sex education, see the material they are given, and judge for themselves whether a ‘transitioning’ agenda is being encouraged by school staff and external agencies.
However, the landlord is said to have disapproved of the speech, and asked security guards to eject the entire group.
Group chairman Laura King said that as the speaker was taking questions from the floor, five uniformed security staff came to the entrance of the room and said that “we all had to leave”.
When Ms King replied that the group had just finished listening to that speech, and that there were two more on completely different subjects, they reiterated that the order had come from the landlord.
She added that one of the security guards then tried to grab the speaker and drag it out of the room, as it was still plugged in.
Another member of the group, Gloria Elliott, told the FSU: “The security men said that the publican wanted us to leave, that a pub is a private house, and the publican had a right to ask us to leave, even without explanation.
“Everyone was questioning the security men who started to unplug the microphone and said that if we did not go, they would remove us all one by one forcibly.”
In a video of the incident posted to social media, the security guard can be heard saying that anyone who refuses to leave is “trespassing”.
Ms King said the group “stood our ground for a few minutes” and, like any group of self-respecting free speech warriors, insisted on finishing their drinks before leaving.
Needless to say, the FSU will be writing to the owners of the Southern Belle, threatening legal action unless the group receives an apology and is allowed to rebook the meeting.
Our understanding is the group was kicked out of the pub because the landlord disapproved of the speaker’s belief in the biological reality of sex. That belief is a protected characteristic within section 10 of the Equality Act 2010. Under section 29 of that Act service-providers are required not to discriminate in the provision of services because of a person’s protected characteristic.
As well as constituting a breach of the Equality Act, the landlord’s actions constitute a breach of the common law duty laid out in the case of Constantine v Imperial Hotels Limited ([1944] KB 693, [1944] 2 All ER 171), which holds that an innkeeper has an implied tortious duty to receive and entertain guests unless there is just cause to refuse.
Speaking to the Telegraph about the incident, FSU General Secretary Toby Young said: “Legally, the landlord doesn’t have a leg to stand on. He cannot evict customers just because he disapproves of their perfectly lawful beliefs, particularly if those beliefs are protected by the Equality Act.”
“From a legal point of view,” he added, “it’s no different to kicking someone out because they’re black or gay – it’s unlawful discrimination, plain and simple.”
Sadly, this isn’t the first time we’ve had to step in to support people accused of having had a little too much to think.
Recently we went to bat for Liz Panton, a gender critical feminist – and, at the time, the prospective parliamentary candidate for the Party of Women in the constituency of Newcastle upon Tyne East and Wallsend – after she was barred from her local pub for wearing a hoody emblazoned with a gender critical slogan.
Following receipt of a letter advising that we would assist Ms Panton in considering the legal remedies available to her, which would include, without limitation, the right to seek injunctive relief as well as a claim for compensation for injury to feelings, the pub backed down and reversed its decision to bar our member.
Then there’s the FSU member who was banned from his local in Bristol. When he was informed he’d no longer be welcome for a drink at The Drapers Arms because other patrons disagreed with his gender critical views, we wrote to the pub’s management pointing out that they had wandered into dangerous legal territory. Not long thereafter, the ban was lifted.
Earlier this year, we also helped a group of our Northern Irish members after they were refused service at a watering hole in Belfast because several of them were wearing ‘Woman = Adult Human Female’ T-shirts. They’re now suing the pub.
The ‘public house’, as the full title of that great British institution aptly reminds us, used to be regarded as a space for lively debate and discussion, and since at least the 19th century has been closely associated with principles like freedom of speech and association.
How times have changed.
Indeed, if the FSU’s recent casework is anything to go by, the humble pub is rapidly becoming a major flashpoint in the war currently being waged by progressives on forms of speech they happen to find politically distasteful.
At first glance it might seem odd that staff employed within a sector that has suffered 7,000 pub closures over the past decade would be so keen to alienate punters in this way. But then as our Director of Data and Impact Tom Harris has pointed out in several recent research briefings (here and here), the current fad among progressive employers for equity, diversity and inclusion rarely makes for good business.
We suspect our current spate of pub-related cases may well be the tip of the iceberg. So if you or anyone you know has been banned from your local because you vote a certain way or have expressed a point of view that the landlord just doesn’t like, we want to hear from you. Email us via help@freespeechunion.org.
