Judge rejects accusations of pro-trans bias in job tribunal for second time

Lawyers representing Sara Morrison in her case against former employers the Belfast Film Festival today argued that one member of the panel, retired civil servant Michael McKeown, should withdraw from the hearing because he used to be involved with public services trade union NIPSA.

The legal team characterised NIPSA as being “actively and uncritically supportive of gender identity ideology” and thus “necessarily hostile to the sex-realist [or] gender critical viewpoint” since 2015, which overlapped with Mr McKeown’s time in what lawyers argued was a “senior and key role” in the union.

That left open the possibility that he backs NIPSA’s pro-trans policies, they suggested, giving rise to potential bias.

The idea was opposed by Belfast Film Festival’s legal team, who stated there’s no evidence Mr McKeown does support those policies, adding people can be a members of a trade union without personally endorsing every single position it adopts.

They also characterised the logic of the recusal motion as meaning that a unionist member of the panel could never hear a case involving a nationalist.

Judge Sturgeon dismissed the recusal request, stating Mr McKeown wasn’t involved in drafting NIPSA’s trans policies, had only been seconded to the union rather than employed by it or seeking election to its committees, plus hadn’t been a member of the union since he retired in 2018 and has no idea what its current policies are on any matter.

The recusal motion was filed this morning and decided this afternoon. It was the second time during the hearing that Morrison’s lawyers alleged members of the panel could potentially be biased, as last week they argued a different person should go.

On Friday, they levelled a series of accusations against Professor Deborah Boyd, including that she’d previously been chair of a women in business body that was a member of an umbrella group with ties to another women’s rights organisation Morrison had publicly criticised. The judge rejected their allegations, though Professor Boyd recused herself from the panel on health grounds.

The case stems from Morrison making a speech at a Let Women Speak rally in the centre of Belfast in April 2023. Run by a prominent critic of trans rights, English activist Kellie-Jay Keen-Minshull, it was protested by several LGBT rights bodies.

Morrison, then Belfast Film Festival’s inclusion and audience development coordinator, says she attended in a personal capacity and was speaking in favour of women’s rights.

Subsequently the festival received complaints from LGBT groups and individuals, some suggesting they would no longer work with her. The festival launched an investigation, though Morrison left work citing stress before resigning. She alleges she was discriminated against due to her beliefs on sex and gender.

Today’s tribunal heard film festival director Michele Devlin confirm she’d worn a T-shirt to an LGBT Pride event bearing the slogan “trans-inclusive feminist”.

If the festival had received complaints about that, she stated, she would be investigated and potentially disciplined. This did not happen, though Ms Devlin reinforced: “Sara was never disciplined nor dismissed.”