A MAJOR Scottish arts venue has indicated that Kate Forbes won’t be allowed back due to her views on trans issues.
Summerhall Arts issued an apology for the “oversight” of letting the Deputy First Minister speak at an event last week due to her past comments according to The Daily Mail, including against Scotland’s gender reforms.
She is a member of the Free Church of Scotland and said she would not have backed same-sex marriage if she had been an MSP at the time of the 2014 vote.
Forbes also previously said she would not have backed the Scottish Government’s Gender Recognition Reform (Scotland) Bill had she not been on maternity leave.
Forbes had appeared on August 7 as part of the Herald’s Unspun Live at the Fringe – which saw a number of politicians and commentators take to the stage.
The venue’s management said they will now develop “robust, proactive inclusion and wellbeing policies that would prevent this oversight in our bookings process happening again”.
Gender critical campaigners have hit out at the move, suggesting it may be illegal – citing the Stand comedy club, which was forced to reinstate a show featuring ex-SNP MP Joanna Cherry at the Fringe two years ago.
The venue had initially planned to cancel her show because of her trans views before then U-turning when threatened with legal action.
Responding, Kate Forbes said: “As I stated at the event, I fervently believe in freedom of speech. Any effort to 'cancel' people, especially politicians, undermines democracy.
“Many people attended The Herald event and it is important that we could freely discuss and debate matters in a respectful manner.
“I respect and acknowledge the fact that in a liberal democracy there are people who will agree with me and others who will disagree with me.
“That is all the more reason to create events where the audience and journalists can question politicians openly, as The Herald did.”
A source at Summerhall Arts told The 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.
"Summerhall Arts issued a communication to all artists making them aware of the event."
