​Pressure mounts on Féile an Phobail over its decision to ban a women’s rights event as UK charity threatens legal action

​Sex Matters, which campaigns for law and public policy to be based on biological reality and not gender ideology, wants confirmation that the event will go ahead by Friday afternoon, or it will take legal action.

The festival, Féile an Phobail, attracted criticism this week after pulling a panel discussion to be held by the Women’s Rights Network (WRN), to discuss issues such as single sex spaces. It said it had made the decision as it supported “the right of the Transgender community to be treated with equality and respect”.

Stormont’s culture minister Gordon Lyons said Feile was happy to take public money “to platform ‘debate’, right up until the debate involves views they don’t like”. The DUP MLA said Feile dropped the event “the moment an online mob kicked off”.

The event, was entitled ‘Respect, Rights and Reality: Women’s voices from Ireland and Europe’, and had been scheduled to take place at St Mary’s University College.

The panel was to be hosted by journalist Catherine McGinty, with guests including Fiona McAnena from Sex Matters, Danielle Loughrey from Gaels for Fair Play, Marianne Driessen from Athena Forum and Sorcha Nic Lochlainn from The Countess.

After a campaign by prominent LGBTQ+ online activists in Northern Ireland, Feile pulled the event.

It said it was “unaware from the initial submission that this event would promote campaigns against rights for the Transgender community” and had withdrawn the event.

Trans rights groups and some political parties have branded women’s demands for existing rights based on biological sex as “anti-trans”. This is because these groups believe that anyone can claim womanhood, as it is based on an internal sense of self, rather than on biology.

In its legal letter to Feile, Sex Matters references an email to WRN from the west Belfast festival, in which the organisation said it had discovered “via social media” that the event involved a “panel member that would likely promote campaigns against rights for the trans community”.

“Given what we have seen of a social-media pile-on directed against Fiona McAnena, we believe that she is the panel member to whom you refer. Fiona is director of campaigns at Sex Matters. This discriminatory action by Féile an Phobail exposes the speakers and the organisations to further prejudice, discrimination and hostility”, the letter said.

Sex Matters said: “To be clear: Sex Matters and WRN fully support the human rights of all people, and their right to protection from discrimination and harassment in line with relevant legislation, including the Equality Act 2010 and the corresponding equality framework in Northern Ireland”.

They said it is “prejudicial and discriminatory for Féile an Phobail to join in with the online attacks and to smear WRN, Sex Matters and the panellists as “campaigning against the rights of the trans community” and as being inconsistent with “fully supporting the rights of the Transgender community to be treated with equality and respect”.

Earlier this week, the author and women’s rights campaigner JK Rowling announced a foundation set up in her name would help WRN with any legal costs.

WRN NI said the decision to cancel the event followed an organised online campaign against it – and they have been “stonewalled” since.

“Phone calls and emails have gone unanswered, all attempts to mediate have been to no avail. We are being stonewalled. We have asked our lawyers to write to Féile, and make it clear that our preference is to settle this matter by direct discussion rather than pursuing formal legal action”

The group added that Feile “cannot discriminate against women on the basis of their basis of sex or political opinion, take taxpayers money with commitment to treating people fairly and then cancel an event due to online pressure.

“If we are silenced and are met with silence, then we see no alternative but to pursue an injunction to reinstate the event”.