A gay volunteer was banned from a railway group after expressing his gender-critical views on email and social media. The Telegraph has the story.
Matthew Toomer, 48, was thrown out of West Midlands Railway’s “Adopt a Station” scheme after he privately contacted company bosses to express concern about its “Progress Pride” train.
WMR rebranded one of its trains last summer with a “rainbow diamond motif” that bears similarities to the Progress Pride flag, which features a yellow diamond. It was also named “Hurst Street” after the Birmingham road at the centre of the city’s Gay Village.
Mr Toomer commented on a social media post about the rebranded train, asking if it would “return to its natural state once the event is over”.
In response, he was summoned to a meeting and told that his views “do not align with [WMR’s] values and mission”. He was banned from the Redditch station volunteer group.
Mr Toomer said: “As a gay man myself, I want to stress that this wasn’t about objecting to visibility. My concern was the increasing tendency of public transport organisations to take visible positions on divisive issues.
“The Progress Pride flag has become associated with particular ideological stances – particularly around gender – which not everyone, including many within the LGB community, fully endorse.
“My position was simply that public services should remain neutral and welcoming to everyone.”
The Free Speech Union (FSU), which represents the volunteer, has written to the rail operator to warn it that punishing Mr Toomer in this way “unjustifiably restricts his freedom of expression, and that it is contrary to WMR’s stated values of diversity, equality and inclusion”.
Rebekah Brown, a case officer at the FSU, called on the train company to “apologise for this vindictive decision and reinstate him”.
Ms Brown said: “WMR should focus on delivering a working service for their passengers, not compelling every volunteer to be a fellow traveller for corporate wokery.
“I expect the vast majority of West Midland’s Railway’s customers will agree with Mr Toomer, not with WMR’s enforced ideological orthodoxy.
“A train company has no business acting as the arbiter of permissible opinion for volunteers, with these chilling consequences for individuals’ freedom of speech in their daily lives.”
Worth reading in full.
