An Edinburgh comedy club has issued an unreserved apology to an SNP MP for cancelling her show over her views on trans rights. In a statement, the Stand admitted the decision amounted to “unlawful discrimination” against Joanna Cherry.
The event will now go ahead. Cherry said: "It's a very welcome move by The stand and I accept their apology, and I'm looking forward to taking part in the event."
Management at the Edinburgh venue cancelled the 'In Conversation' show earlier this month after staff said they did not want to work at an event featuring Cherry.
The MP is a leading critic of the Scottish Government's gender recognition legislation, which allows trans people to change their gender without medical oversight. The cancellation sparked an angry backlash and the venue was accused of censorship.
The Stand have backed down after Cherry promised to take legal action. The statement read: "We believed it would be impossible to stage because a number of staff had expressed an unwillingness to work on the day it was due to take place, citing their personal discomfort with some of Joanna Cherry’s views.
"Legal advice was taken before we reached this decision. As has been widely reported, Ms Cherry said she was considering legal action as a result of this. This prompted us to seek further external legal advice from a separate firm of solicitors.
"Having considered that new advice, we now accept that the previous decision that the event could not go ahead was unfair and constituted unlawful discrimination against Ms Cherry. We now publicly and unreservedly apologise to Ms Cherry."
The club added: "We have sent a detailed response to Ms Cherry and her legal team and have spoken to the event’s promoters to confirm that we will be able to host the event as originally planned.
"The Stand will donate our share of the profit from the event to one of our partner charities, Edinburgh Food Project."
In an interview with the BBC, Cherry said of the u-turn: "I really hope that's going to benefit other women, and indeed men, by discouraging other people from discriminating against people like me, who fully support equal rights for trans people, but don't believe that any man should be able to self identify as a woman.
"I think the fact that The Stand have made that apology, accepted that they unlawfully discriminated against me, is highly significant, and I hope it will be a warning to other bodies, like universities, employers, pubs, and indeed political parties, that it is unlawful to discriminate against gender critical women on the basis of our philosophical beliefs."
In a letter to the Stand, Cherry's lawyer David McKie had written: "The clear and unequivocal opinion of senior counsel and by us is that your decision is unlawful and discriminatory. There is no defence available to you which would or could justify the decision as a matter of law."
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