‘Man-free’ feminist music festival found guilty of discrimination in Sweden

[OnTheDarkSideOfTheSpoon]

‘Man-free’ feminist music festival found guilty of discrimination in Sweden

metro.co.uk/2018/12/19/man-free-feminist-music-festival-found-guilty-discrimination-sweden-8263419

It had been billed as the worlds ‘first major music festival for women, non-binary and transgender’ people. However, a man-free music festival in Sweden has now been found guilty of discrimination. Men were allowed to buy tickets to the event but many – including technicians, managers and artists’ entourages – were restricted to a ‘man pen’ in a backstage area.

The event, called Statement, was held in the city of Gothenburg, but the country’s discrimination ombudsman said it was illegal. Spokesman Clas Lundstedt said: ‘It is important to point out what an infringement is. These are the statements made before the festival, what they wrote on their website. ‘Still, we haven’t been able to prove that someone would have been discriminated against in connection with the implementation or that someone would have been rejected.’

The festival’s organisers hit back saying they were too busy changing the world to comment. They wrote on Facebook: Hi, Ombudsman! ‘We are aware of your decision and we think it’s sad that 5,000 women, non-binary [someone who identifies as neither male nor female] and transgender witnessed at a life-changing festival experience, a few cis men [someone whose gender identity matches their anatomical birth gender] get caught up

‘The success of the Statement Festival shows that we needed it and the decision did not change that fact. ‘Otherwise, we have no comments – we are busy changing the world.’

Can we post more examples?

Women-Only Craft Beer Forum Shut Down By Men’s Rights Activist.
munchies.vice.com/en_us/article/bj44zq/women-only-craft-beer-forum-shut-down-by-mens-rights-activist

Eagle rock Brew are fundraising for their legal costs on Go Fund Me, they also have a Twitter if people would like to support them.

I'm flummoxed by this because non binary men and transwomen were allowed, so the claim of being "man-free" doesn't stack up according to my understanding of those words.

It's more of a "people-who-think-of-themselves-as-a-man-free festival".

Neither of the events posted were man free, but it didnt stop men from complaining and harassing them. Its nothing to do with discrimination and everything to do with abusive men misusing anti discrimination legislation to harass women.

Well it Is rather unfair if only some men are allowed in. SIngle sex festival might have been fine

They weren’t man free. All any man had to do to get in was identify as a woman.

What Bowl said.

Its the title 'women only' MRA's object to and claim is discriminatory.

The Equality Act states that you cannot make a claim of discrimination by being excluded from a something intended for a group with a protected characteristic.
I don't know how Swedens equality laws work but it might be worth looking into that in case The Equality Act is repealed or replaced.

Is this the sort of thing that would work as a test case for discrimination?

I think it was talked about with regards to jobs, where women-only jobs that included transwomen as applicants could be opened up to claims of discrimination by men. I'm not too sure how this all works but that's what this brought to mind.

I think that if it was possible to challenge women only jobs and win, someone would have tried it already. Anti women activists seem to have bottomless pockets.

It's not the women-only in and of itself, it's using "women" as a characteristic to segregate but opening that not just to GRC holders who are legally recognised as women but to anyone who simply identifies as one.

If some biological men are allowed in and others aren’t, that is discrimination.

What grounds would there be to bar men other than transwomen?

Friends of mine continue to run small women-only events, publicised as such — admittedly only publicised in what they hope are 'safe' sort of places. Each time they do it they expect an outcry but it hasn't happened yet. Their last event, with a live female band, attracted one clearly trans person who hugged the wall for a bit before leaving.

They've always told the owners of the various venues in advance that it will be women-only and none of the venues has ever questioned the legality of this except the local Student Union, who banned them from using SU and university facilities for women-only events more than 10 years ago. We saw what was coming then, when the women's officer at the university told us, straight-faced, that it was discriminatory to hold women-only events.

What was the comparator?