A key figure in the UK pub trade has admitted that his staff were at fault when they refused to serve the co-leaders of For Women Scotland (FSW) following their Supreme Court victory defining sex, in law, as biological (and not as ‘gender identity’).
Sir Tim Martin—founder of the JD Wetherspoon group (known colloquially as ‘Spoons’)—said
If you win a court case, especially a Supreme Court case, you would expect to be allowed to celebrate in a pub, so glad they were able to do so—albeit after an initial hiccup.
The hostile action by some Edinburgh Spoons’ staff followed the ejection of a ‘gender critical’ meeting in its entirety from the Southern Belle pub in Brighton, East Sussex. It also fits into a broader pattern of transgender campaigners attempting to deny those who affirm the biological reality of sex a place in public life, such as Professor Kathleen Stock or football supporter Linzi Smith. Over time, such targets of trans activism are sometimes striking back successfully in the courts.
While Susan Smith and Marion Calder of FWS welcome Sir Tim’s comments, they remain critical of the Labour government’s apparent refusal to change policy in line with the Supreme Court ruling, which clarified a legal requirement to protect single-sex spaces. For three months and counting, UK Women and Equalities Secretary Bridget Phillipson has frozen work on translating the ruling into official guidance, while finding time to describe the proposed rule changes as “trans-exclusive”.
