A row over free speech and women’s rights has escalated in Northern Ireland after a taxpayer-funded festival cancelled a panel on transgender issues.
Women’s Rights Network Northern Ireland (WRN NI) had been due to hold a discussion titled “Respect, Rights, and Reality” at Féile an Phobail in West Belfast on August 4.
The panel was expected to cover sex-based rights, single-sex spaces and fairness in women’s sport. However, festival organisers removed the event after saying they had not realised it would promote campaigns they believed opposed transgender rights.
The cancellation reportedly followed an online campaign calling on the festival to withdraw the event.
WRN NI said the panel had been agreed in good faith before being abruptly cancelled on Tuesday. The group claims its subsequent emails and telephone calls to the organisers have gone unanswered.
“We are being stonewalled,” WRN NI said on Thursday.
The group argued that Féile an Phobail should explain its decision because it is a registered charity that receives substantial public funding.
A WRN NI representative also questioned why women who hold gender-critical views appeared to have been excluded from a festival that promotes female participation.
“The Féile prides itself on featuring loads of panels for women,” she said. “The key thing to remember, of course, is that the fight for women’s rights pre-dates trans rights. So what is it that has now changed?”
She added: “Does every woman have to say that ‘trans women are women’ to have access to their events?”
WRN NI said the cancellation appeared to conflict with the charity’s stated objective of supporting West Belfast residents regardless of their sex or political, religious or other opinions.
J.K. Rowling has offered to help fund any legal action taken by the group.
On Thursday evening, WRN NI said it had instructed its lawyers to seek a High Court injunction unless the event was reinstated.
Féile an Phobail was contacted for comment but had not responded by the time of publication.
