An Edinburgh Fringe festival venue has indicated that Kate Forbes would not be allowed back to speak at the venue due to its ‘inclusion and wellbeing’ policy.
The Christian MSP spoke at Summerhall Arts last week as part of a series of political interviews hosted by the Herald. A ‘safe room’ was set up in the venue for some of the artists who claimed to be ‘terrified’ that Forbes was in the building, and police escorted her out due to protestors.
Gender critical views are protected in law, and in April, the UK’s highest court ruled that the terms ‘woman’, ‘man’ and ‘sex’ in the Equality Act 2010 (EA 2010) refer to biological sex in a unanimous decision.
Safety and wellbeing
A source at Summerhall Arts told the Scottish Daily Mail: “This event was booked as a series of longform interviews prior to the guest list being confirmed.
“Summerhall Arts’ primary concern is the safety and wellbeing of the artists and performers we work with, and going forward we will be developing robust, proactive inclusion and wellbeing policies that would prevent this oversight in our bookings process happening again.”
what is this saying about the Edinburgh Fringe if free speech doesn’t exist
Tess White, the Scottish Conservative equalities spokesperson, said: “Not only is this a scandalous attempt to curtail free speech, it is seemingly oblivious to the Supreme Court ruling which fully vindicated in law those whom Summerhall wishes to silence.”
Healthy democracy
Forbes was questioned during the event about the people inside the venue who wanted to cancel her interview because of her gender critical views. She responded: “I think it is a reflection on a healthy democracy that people both agree with me and disagree with me.
“I am not anti any human being. I am taught to love my neighbour as myself, which is to give them greater respect, greater honour and greater appreciation than I would expect myself.”
Following outcry around Summerhall’s statement, Forbes said: “As I stated at the event, I fervently believe in freedom of speech. Any effort to ‘cancel’ people, especially politicians, undermines democracy.”
She added: “That is all the more reason to create events where the audience and journalists can question politicians openly, as the Herald did.”
‘Dangerous’ thoughts
Marion Calder, Co-Director of the campaign group For Women Scotland, said: “They clearly haven’t taken legal opinion on this. Why on earth would members of staff and other performers be scared of a young woman having ‘dangerous’ thoughts?”
She added: “Summerhall is renowned as being one of the largest Fringe venues: what is this saying about the Edinburgh Fringe if free speech doesn’t exist and this appearance is intolerable? And who are these arbiters who think some people are not allowed to have thoughts?”
Many expressed outrage on social media, with one commenter on X writing: “A ‘safe room’! ‘Terrified’ of 5’2” Kate Forbes?”
Another posted: “Utterly laughable except it’s not actually funny”.
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