Belfast Pride 2022 organisers ‘may have broken law by seeking to bar transgender critics from parade’

The group, The LGB Alliance, said that the organisers have left themselves “potentially open to litigation or even judicial review” as a result of their move.

The Equality Commission meanwhile said that “there is no straightforward answer” to the question of whether it was unlawful to seek to exclude people who do not support the tenets of the transgender movement.

The News Letter tried to get a response from the Pride 2022 organisers to the LGB Alliance’s comments, but none was forthcoming.

The whole issue rests on the recent emergence of transgenderism as the paramount cause of what are now known as LGBTQQIA+ activists.

Formerly groups like Stonewall and the Rainbow Project concentrated on matters concerning homosexuality (like gay marriage), but in the last several years have refocussed their activities onto transgender activism.

Transgender no long means someone who has had a “sex change”; in modern useage, the term refers to anyone who says they are the opposite gender to the one they were born in, regardless of their legal status, their appearance, hormone treatment, or surgery.

It can also sometimes refer to people who believe themselves to be neither male nor female.

The LGB Alliance arose in reaction to this; it maintains a focus on increasing acceptance of homosexuality, and challenges the precepts of transgender activists.

Last year the Manchester Evening News reported that a man wearing an LGB Alliance t-shirt was escorted away from a Pride parade in the city by police officers after the crowd began chanting “trans lives matter” at him.

TRANS CRITIC BAN:

Amid masses of coverage of Belfast’s 2022 Pride parade in Belfast on July 30, the News Letter was the only news outlet to report the fact that its terms-and-conditions contained the following clause:

“1.16... The parade is for all of the LGBT+ family and any group that seeks to deny the rights of any group in the para de will not be allowed to take part.

“Belfast Pride is a signatory of the European Pride Organisers Association’s #PrideWithTheT declaration – we affirm the place of Trans people at the heart of Pride, and we state that those who oppose equality and respect for any section of our community including Trans people are as unwelcome at Pride as those who oppose equality and respect for every section of our community.”

The LGB Alliance’s co-founder Bev Jackson told the News Letter that many gay people’s sexual orientation is based on attraction to someone who is physically the same sex as them, and not on someone’s self-declared gender identity.

“Many of us marched proudly in Gay Pride decades ago,” she said.

“We came out to show the world it’s fine to be gay, lesbian or bisexual. Excluding us from Pride makes a mockery of an event that once meant so much to us...

“Banning people who believe in same-sex attraction from a Pride event is frankly bizarre. At LGB Alliance we stand for freedom of expression and respectful debate, which is just one reason why we are growing so quickly.”

As to the lawfulness of the Belfast parade’s ban on trans critics, she said: “As a service provider or a public body, Belfast Pride will be bound by the Human Rights Act 1998, the Equality Act 2010, or both.

“In that case, it is highly likely they may be in breach of Articles 9 and 10 governing freedom of conscience and expression.

“This leaves them potentially open to litigation or even judicial review.”

AND WHAT DOES THE LAW SAY?

The 1998 Act basically enshrines the European Convention on Human Rights into UK law, including Articles 9 and 10.

Respectively, they say:

Article 9 – Freedom of thought, conscience and religion

Everyone has the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion; this right includes freedom to change his religion or belief and freedom, either alone or in community with others and in public or private, to manifest his religion or belief, in worship, teaching, practice and observance.

Freedom to manifest one’s religion or beliefs shall be subject only to such limitations as are prescribed by law and are necessary in a democratic society in the interests of public safety, for the protection of public order, health or morals, or for the protection of the rights and freedoms of others.

Article 10 – Freedom of expression

Everyone has the right to freedom of expression.

This right shall include freedom to hold opinions and to receive and impart information and ideas without interference by public authority and regardless of frontiers.

This Article shall not prevent States from requiring the licensing of broadcasting, television or cinema enterprises.

The exercise of these freedoms, since it carries with it duties and responsibilities, may be subject to such formalities, conditions, restrictions or penalties as are prescribed by law and are necessary in a democratic society, in the interests of national security, territorial integrity or public safety, for the prevention of disorder or crime, for the protection of health or morals, for the protection of the reputation or rights of others, for preventing the disclosure of information received in confidence, or for maintaining the authority and impartiality of the judiciary.

The 2010 Act seeks to protect people against discriminationbased on nine protected characteristics, including “religion or belief”.

However, parts of the act do not apply to Northern Ireland.

‘NO STRAIGHTFORWARD ANSWER’:

Asked for its own view on the legality of the Pride 2022 ban, the Equality Commission responded as follows: “There is no straightforward answer to this query and, given our remit, we are focusing on whether there is the potential for unlawful discrimination to occur in any set of circumstances.

“In this situation, much would depend based on the facts of any case and ultimately it would be for a court to decide whether unlawful discrimination had occurred.

“It is not clear to us whether the terms and conditions are seeking to deny entry on the basis of a person holding certain beliefs, which it would seem difficult to determine, or whether the terms and conditions involve denying entry on the basis of a person expressing those beliefs during the parade.

“It would appear from the terms and conditions that the provisions relate to people registering to take part in the parade and of course people may join the parade without registering.

“Ultimately, any individual alleging discrimination would need to make a case that the organisers were providing a service or facility to the public for the goods, facilities, services for the equality provisions to be applicable and that they were suffering a detriment on one of the protected equality grounds.

“On the face of it, this may seem difficult, given that people can attend the Pride parade without registering or indeed may demonstrate against the message of Belfast Pride, with the normal restrictions to such demonstrations.

“Also, it must be remembered that not all of the equality protections cover all aspects of the provision of goods and services.”

For more click here: Alliance leader Naomi Long speaks up in defence of drag performers reading transgender-themed books to children