Trans beliefs case: Woman's attendance at gender-critical rally like sharing platform with 'dissident republicans advocating for armed struggle', says Belfast Film Festival founder in discrimination tribunal
A woman’s appearance at a rally run by a prominent gender-critical voice has been likened to sharing a platform with dissident republicans pushing for armed struggle.
Belfast Film Festival co-founder Laurence McKeown, an ex-IRA hunger striker turned playwright and author, made the remarks at the discrimination tribunal of former festival employee Sara Morrison today – though rapidly rowed them back.
Once the organisation’s inclusion and audience development coordinator, Ms Morrison appeared at a Let Women Speak event in Belfast in April 2023, run by English activist Kellie-Jay Keen-Minshull.
During the rally, which the former festival employee says she attended in a personal capacity to make a speech about women’s rights, Ms Morrison criticised several Belfast-based activist bodies in the women’s rights sector. The event was protested by LGBT groups, some of whom complained they could no longer work with her.
The festival launched an investigation into Ms Morrison in summer 2023. She left work citing stress, subsequently resigning; she alleges she was discriminated against due to her beliefs on sex and gender.
On the eighth day of the tribunal, Mr McKeown stated the festival team had concerns about Ms Morrison criticising several named women’s rights bodies they work with, plus that she “appeared on a platform at a political rally with people who have a record of making very contentious statements”.
He added: “It would be like me appearing with dissident republicans who still advocate for armed struggle, even if I didn’t [speak about] armed struggle.”
Asked if that was definitely the comparison he wanted to draw, he backed down, stating it was not.
Under questioning from one of Ms Morrison’s legal team, barrister Charlotte Elves, he denied the festival’s leadership were trying to get rid of their former inclusion coordinator as she was perceived to be gender-critical, stating the investigation was nothing to do with trans rights or politics. “It was a staffing issue at Belfast Film Festival that [its] board was doing their best to deal with,” he said.
Another senior festival figure, board member Lisa Barros D’Sa, denied allegations from Ms Morrison’s lawyer Naomi Cunningham QC that initial complaints spurring the investigation came from such a small number of people with ties to an LGBT arts organisation that “it’s all looking pretty incestuous”.
Two complaints came from leading figures in Outburst Arts, Ms Cunningham stated.
In the wake of Ms Morrison’s appearance at the rally, the film festival received communication from a trans man accusing her of “borderline targeted harassment” at a film industry drinks reception in November 2022, alleging she’d made “several negative comments in relation” to his identity.
The accusation was made by someone who, Ms Cunningham claimed, was later employed by Outburst. She also suggested the incident wasn’t fully detailed in a letter about the investigation sent to Ms Morrison as it would’ve been difficult to establish.
Ms Barros D’Sa denied that, stating the letter had explained issues other than the 2023 rally could be probed.
The tribunal is due to conclude on Friday.