Legal action against Eventbrite for unlawful discrimination

[Spero]

On Oct 27 2022, Eventbrite pulled my book launch event for 'Transpositions - personal journeys into gender criticism'. This was a collection of stories from men and women about how they got involved in issues around sex and gender. Some of you may have contributed.

They told me that I was promoting 'violent and dangerous' content. I asked them to explain themselves. They haven't. So I am taking them to court for unlawful discrimination against my gender critical belief.

I wrote about it in the Critic here thecritic.co.uk/why-is-eventbrite-obstructing-my-book-launch/

I am hoping that some people may feel able to do a spot of gardening. I know its dark and miserable and not the best weather for gardening, but I think this could be quite an important piece of digging. There are some really important questions to ask about how private companies, based overseas are allowed to dictate what we think or say.

They are a protected belief in the sense they are literally not illegal - see the Forstater judgement. The only beliefs the Forstater judgment mentions that don't meet that bar are Nazism and "a belief that all non-white people should be forcibly deported for the good of the nation" - because those beliefs incite violence. The fact that those views are legal (and thus protected in the sense you mean) is not relevant. The belief that "gay people go to Hell" is also protected under that assumption.

The EA2010 refers to proportionate and legitimate in the context of discrimination, in a separate section to the one you are referring to.

So, I recommend you take a look at the text of the EA2010 and the Forstater appeal - both are available online.

Loads and rising. In fact, I thought I was pretty much at the top but apparently not!

The belief that "gay people go to Hell" is also protected under that assumption.

As is the gender ideological belief that TWAW.

I have a very warped brain which sometimes comes up with unusual arguments. Is it possible that Eventbrite have formed the idea that the events they have dropped, while not in themselves promoting "violent" and "dangerous" outcomes are, in effect, enabling them, since the organisers must know that people exhibiting such behaviours are going to arrive at the venues and do so? And that Eventbrite, in publishing those events, will be complicit in the violence?
Still need to be sued, of course.

It will be interesting to see how far eventbrite will go with their purge. Is this being done by a (hu)man or an algorithm?

Many women's groups as service providers use eventbrite and sometimes their sessions are women only.

And a lot of women's groups are advertising their events as part of the 16 Days of Action Against Violence Against Women on eventbrite. Admittedly not all of these are women only, but some are.

Are they going to be targetted too, or is this just the usual suspects trying to get to make problems for women / women's groups whose names are in the news.

The depressing thought is that should a different online platform be found how long before they are the object of a campaign to censor women's voices.

I've detected a nasty habit of the TRAs of trying to get events cancelled at the last minute, presumably hoping that not only will they not go ahead on the original platform or in the original venue, it will be difficult to find a replacement platform or venue.

@DadJoke
I'm not going to explain again. I suggest you take your own advice about checking the EA2010. And also the Forstater judgments in the appeal court and at the Employment Tribunal.

You should be supporting this action - genuinely. Imagine if it was the other way around. Imagine if trans allies and activists were being thrown off event platforms for having trans awareness events? If they can do it to us, they can do it to you. I know a lot you will think it would never happen to you. or it would be wrong for it to happen to you because you are in the right (or on the right side of history, as people love to say), but every dictator, tyrant, terrorist, political mass murderer etc has also thought they were in the right, or at least more so than their opponents. The issue here is not whether you agree with the content of these events. It's about free speech and freedom from discrimination. Ordinary citizens need protection from the abuse of power whether wielded by corporations or governments. If Spero and all these brave GC women and men go to court, it's on behalf of us all - trans people, TRAs and trans allies included.

@DadJoke Can you show where proportionate means of achieving a legitimate aim is applied to direct discrimination based on religion or belief. I can't see the carve out? There isn't one in s13

There is a carve out in s19 but that relates to indirect discrimination.

You haven't answered the question. It was a yes/no question - is the trans guidance that says 'agender is a term for someone who rejects gender identification completely' wrong?

I didn't ask anything to do with sexuality, and I don't think there's anything wrong with saying homosexuality is 'normal' anyway - so confused about what point you are imagining you're making.

No, agender is not the word for someone who rejects the idea of gender identity, any more than asexual is someone who rejects the idea of sexuality.

Agender means a person who has no gender identity, not someone who denies gender identity exists.

The two situations aren't remotely alike. That's like suggesting that because a "gay people are going to hell" event should not be platformed, a gay pride event should be cancelled. It's asymmetrical. Do you think Eventbite should be forced to sell tickets for a Westboro Baptist or anti-abortion event if they don't want to?

I've read the Forstater judgement and it does not say what you think it does. There is no right to free speech on social media platforms. They are not common carriers and we are not in the States. Eventbrite can chose to reject events they believe and can demonstrate disparage transgender people.

Discrimination is permitted where there are conflicting rights.You can't refuse to marry people as a civil registrar even if your religion says its wrong.

The two situations aren't remotely alike. That's like suggesting that because a "gay people are going to hell" event should not be platformed, a gay pride event should be cancelled. It's asymmetrical. Do you think Eventbite should be forced to sell tickets for a Westboro Baptist or anti-abortion event if they don't want to?

Forgive me if I am wrong but you have made up the 'gay people are going to hell' event so why not actually use the real situations that actually exist.

There is nothing illegal about women having events to discuss legal rights to same sex spaces. So there is no reason to deplatform them.

There is nothing illegal about the event, and there is nothing illegal about Eventbrite chosing not to sell tickets for it. There terms of service permit it, because they believe it disparages transgender people. You can try to prove in court that it doesn't, of course.

Agender means a person who has no gender identity, not someone who denies gender identity exists.

Theist means someone who believes there is a god. Atheist means someone who believes there is no god.

It’s not a stretch to realise that agender is a rejection of gender ideology

I have just been listening to "Law in Action" on R4. In it threre was a brief mention of "inclusive democracy", and how we should be interpreting democracy. One of our previous supreme court judges was quoted. I have to paraphrase here,, using memory, but it argued that "inclusive democracy means that everyone is treated equally under the law, even if the majority doers not support that in some cases".
We are facing situations where everyone is not treated equally, and it isn't the poor little victimised minority which is treated less equally.

@DadJoke
The two situations aren't remotely alike. That's like suggesting that because a "gay people are going to hell" event should not be platformed, a gay pride event should be cancelled. It's asymmetrical. Do you think Eventbite should be forced to sell tickets for a Westboro Baptist or anti-abortion event if they don't want to?

IMO, gender ideology is hateful, sexist, misogynistic and homophobic. It is also - IMO - authoritarian claptrap, an incoherent mess of retrofitted justifications and it is destroying the lives and bodies of children and young people. Nevertheless it is a protected belief. You consider gender critical beliefs hateful and transphobic. Nevertheless they are protected beliefs. You keep deflecting to bring up hate speech instead of addressing the point that in the eyes of the law, my beliefs and yours are equally weighted.

A group who is informing Bristol City Council says that is what agender means (no citations are given for where the information comes from). You have paraphrased it to change the wording for some reason, but I can't be bothered typing out again what I actually said when you can just scroll up and read.

This group is incorrect then, and/or doesn't know what they are talking about, and BCC shouldn't adopt their policies until they have corrected it.

Can I ask how you know your definition is the right one? I am sure the other group would say theirs is correct. How is someone meant to discern which is true and which is false? Straw poll of opinions?

Does 'gender identity' actually exist?

If so what is it and has anyone ever captured one in the wild?

Eventbrite did the same for the screening of Adult Human Female last weekend. Apologies if this has been discussed further up the thread. I haven't read all 16 pages. I had a ticket and was travelling into central London. I never received any info about where the screening was being held and got issued a refund. Same thing that happened to the OP. Does anyone know if the screening was actually held or if it was just cancelled by Eventbrite?

The problem is the meaning of "identity", even without a modifier or adjective.

"Identity" used to mean "who one is". That's why we have identity documents - to prove who a person is. Those documents have, or at least used to have, a basis in recorded information.

But nowadays "identity" is also used to mean "who I say I am" and need not have, and very often does not have, any basis in records, evidence or science.

@Sausagedoggy - was it the screening arranged by WPUK that you were going to? If so I am sure it went ahead as I saw info on their facebook page. I wonder why they didn't email you if you had a ticket. Strange.

www.facebook.com/womansplaceuk/photos/a.496713437349514/1791961507824694/?type=3&theater

That's the one. I didn't get any email saying where it was so I asked for a refund!

That's a shame. The screening did go ahead. You should have received an email - perhaps it was a glitch or went into spam? Eventbrite have however removed the Nottingham showing from their platform.

@RoyalCorgi I didn't get an email unfortunately and I checked spam. It was reported on Glinner's daily update along with the OP's book signing as something that Eventbrite had interfered with. I was gutted not to be able to attend the screening as this was literally the first GC event I have had the courage to attend. I've never put my head above the parapet before and I was heading into town ready to support them all. I will persevere!