JK Rowling has given her backing to a Belfast woman taking her employer to an Employment Tribunal claiming she was “persecuted” for taking part in a Let Woman Speak rally in Northern Ireland (Belfast Telegraph).
The Harry Potter author, who has been outspoken in her defence of defence of women’s sex-based rights, was responding to a repost of Sara Morrison’s legal crowdfunder on X by the journalist Jo Bartosch.
“This is bitterly ironic,” Jo wrote in her post. “A single mum bravely speaks out, in her own time, about the harassment and bullying tactics of the trans mob. She is then disciplined by her employers who succumb to pressure from the trans mob.”
In a repost to her 14.1 million followers, JK Rowling wrote: “Have donated.”
Sara Morrison’s case is one of two separate legal crowdfunders the FSU has been supporting, both of which have been launched by some of our Northern Irish members who claim they were discriminated against on the basis of the gender critical beliefs.
Sara was suspended by her employer, Belfast Film Festival, for the ‘crime’ of speaking at a Let Women Speak event in the city, despite being in attendance not as an employee, but as a private citizen.
“I was there with friends, and very clearly not there in a work capacity,” she says. “I plucked up the courage to take the microphone, and I spoke about the harassment and intimidation that women experience when they express views similar to mine, that women’s rights are threatened by people claiming they can change sex.”
What looked and felt like an orchestrated cancellation campaign then materialised, with large numbers of activists emailing, texting and tweeting Belfast Film Festival to complain that its employee was “an unsafe person to be around” and an “anti-gay fascist”. Her employer quickly caved in to the mob, publicly announcing that it would launch an investigation into its employee.
Sara’s case is that her employer is discriminating against her due to her support of women’s rights, and the holding of gender critical beliefs. If you can, please donate to support Sara’s legal action below.
The other, equally shocking case involves a 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 pledge your support for this important case below.
Earlier this year, the FSU hosted our biggest ever Regional Speakeasies in Belfast, and attracted a significant amount of national press coverage into the bargain (in the Belfast News Letter here and here; and in the Belfast Telegraph here and here).
‘The state of free speech in Northern Ireland’, took place in Belfast’s Titanic Hotel in February, where FSU General Secretary Toby Young was joined on-stage by the lawyer Simon Chambers, who is involved in two important free speech cases in Northern Ireland, the journalists David Quinn and Ella Whelan, writer and psychotherapist Stella O’Malley, and gay rights campaigner and former Ulster Unionist Party politician Jeffrey Dudgeon MBE.
Non-FSU members can watch a 15-minute clip of the event here (and join us to unlock the rest of the event video by clicking here), while FSU members get exclusive access to the full event video on our website.
