The Stand staff refused to work on Edinburgh Fringe event

Edinburgh’s Stand Comedy Club has cancelled a planned appearance by SNP MP Joanna Cherry – after staff refused to work at the event.

The politician, who has been critical of increasing transgender rights to allow self-identification, was due to take part in an ‘in conversation with…’ event at the venue during the Fringe this August

But Stand workers, including venue management and box office staff, said they were unwilling to work on the session, forcing bosses to cancel her appearance.

The Edinburgh South West MP told BBC Radio Scotland's Drivetime programme: ‘I'm being cancelled and no-platformed because I'm a lesbian who holds gender-critical views that somebody's sex is immutable.

‘Because a small number of people don't like my feminist and lesbian activism, I'm being prevented from talking about all of those things in my home city where I'm an elected politician. I think it says something's gone very wrong in Scotland's civic space.

‘Small groups of activists are now dictating who can speak and what can be discussed. I would hope The Stand would see sense here. Staff shouldn't be framing editorial and artistic policy.’

The venue was co-founded by Tommy Sheppard, who is now an SNP MP and remains a director of parent company Salt N Sauce Productions, although he no longer takes part in the day-to-today running of the venue.

In a statement, Stand bosses said they did not endorse the views of any participant in the In Conversation With series.

They said: ‘Following extensive discussions with our staff it has become clear that a number of key operational staff, including venue management and box office personnel, are unwilling to work on this event.

‘As we have previously stated, we will ensure that their views are respected. We will not compel our staff to work on this event and so have concluded that the event is unable to proceed on a properly staffed, safe and legally compliant basis. 

‘We advised the show producers, Fair Pley Productions, of this operational issue and they advised Joanna Cherry that it is no longer possible to host the event in our venue.’

When the row first flared up in April, The Stand defended the booking, saying: ‘Whilst we may disagree with a particular viewpoint, we believe that people should have the right to express views that others might find controversial or strongly disagree with, providing this is done within the law and does not violate our code of conduct’.

The Stand also said: ‘This was not specifically intended to be an event focussed on gender recognition or the rights of trans people.’

And Fair Pley director Stephen Wright said the company ‘does not necessarily endorse the views of any of its guests in the In Conversation with… series. We would, however, ordinarily defend the right of guests to express their own views in an appropriate manner.’

Trans stand-up Bethany Black previously pulled her touring show at the club’s Glasgow venue because of Cherry’s booking. Writing on Twitter, Black accused Cherry  of wanting to ‘exclude people like me from public life’, adding that she did not want to ask the trans community to ‘fund their own oppression’ by purchasing tickets for her show.

At last year’s Fringe, Cherry appeared on Matt Forde’s Political Party chat show – which was staged a the Gilded Balloon – without incident. There, she complained that she had been ‘erased from SNP history’ for not supporting the party’s policy of letting people self-identify as whichever sex they wished.

The politician – who is also a KC and human rights activists – says she supports equal rights for transgender women, but has also said that ‘women don't have penises’ is an ‘undeniable biological fact’ and argued that trans young people ‘must be treated like any other children with psychological problems’.

JK Rowling expressed her support for Cherry yesterday, tweeting: ‘Jo Cherry's completely right about modern McCarthyism. One of the most depressing things in this whole mess has been finding out how many people I formerly admired would have named names in a heartbeat.’

Published: 2 May 2023