Denise Fahmy taking Arts Council England to an Employment Tribunal because she has been harassed for being gender critical.

[ChristinaXYZ]

Denise Fahmy queried why an award to the LGB Alliance was withdrawn and then faced harrassment at work.

From her summary:
" some of my colleagues saw fit to circulate a petition to all staff against me and any other 'gender criticals' working at ACE. The petition was hosted for 26 hours on the ACE staff intranet, gaining the attention of 700 staff and signatures from over 100 of them. People signed it, and made comments, citing gender critical people like me and LGB Alliance as parasites, neo nazis, needing to be stamped out ..."

Denise is gardening in the usual place - see "Fighting bias at the top of the Arts Council"

If you're able to help her out by planting or sharing please do. Thank you.

[littlbrowndog]

🙌🏽🙌🏽🙌🏽

[littlbrowndog]

Tossers the whole lot of them

[ChristinaXYZ]

Exactly!

[RealityFan]

Remind me, am I paying for these idiots via my taxes? I'll always say the biggest sin the Conservatives are guilty of is permitting anti-conservative organisations to grow and prosper contrary to the general temperature of the nation...100% funded by said taxpayers.

[ArabellaScott]

'ACE have been captured by Stonewall & are responsible for introducing mixed-sex toilets in theatres & funding the 'Family Sex Show' & the 'Rainbow Dildo Monkey.''

Thanks. Will donate.

[dcbc1234]

Donated. This shouldn't be necessary grrr.

[ChristinaXYZ]

@RealityFan

Remind me, am I paying for these idiots via my taxes? I'll always say the biggest sin the Conservatives are guilty of is permitting anti-conservative organisations to grow and prosper contrary to the general temperature of the nation...100% funded by said taxpayers.

Couldn't agree more.

[RealityFan]

Then again, with Teresa May and Penny Mordant at the helm, we were this close to Self ID being proposed and supported.
And the subsequent chilling of free speech this would have necessitated.

[Tidyspy]

I’ve donated to this - brave woman. I work in the arts and have done since the 90s, the sector is totally captured. Anti racism, Black Lives Matter, disability rights, gay rights, asylum seekers, women (haha) nothing else has been given more than a tiny fraction of the time and attention dedicated to TRAs. White men’s right to tell women to shut up wins every time. It’s sickening. I’d be forced out of my job if I questioned the mantra, the most I dare do is say no to pronouns on my email and name badge, afraid I keep my head down and get on with the actual work. Good luck Denise, what you’re doing will make a difference.

[WarriorN]

Though awful for her, I'm really pleased about this as they're absolutely captured.

The arts council have a lot of input into education and I've increasingly seen problematic content.

They influence teaching in schools by running the v popular arts mark and arts awards. These impact curriculum teaching and learning as the school does projects that embed the arts in their school. They push diversity etc and culture bridge organisations (orgs that link schools and cultural institutions such as galleries and theatres) put on lots of cpd and arts related events.

many that I've seen here have been increasingly linked to trans crap.

[Tidyspy]

@WarriorN completely agree, the organisation I work for does a lot of stuff with young people and the actual creative work is great, but they think they’re being so inclusive by asking 12 yr olds their pronouns. I actually won’t send my own DC to any activities there now which is a shame but it’s such BS. I’m the middle aged woman in the office and if I say anything I’ll be labelled a transphobe and out on my ear. Work meetings would be funny if it wasn’t so tragic:
”so I had a good meeting with Sarah and she…”
”sorry - they”
”what?”
”sarah - she, sorry, they, goes by they now. Sorry”
”oh right, sorry sorry. Yes - they said the project’s going well and she’s…
”they”
”sorry, they - er - is working with Ben and he…
”they”
”what?
”Ben - goes by they too”
”does he? I mean do they? Sorry. So anyway they’ve got a new workspace and…”
”sorry who has?”
”what”
”Ben or Sarah has the new studio?”
”both of them”
“Ok ok”
A version of this happens in every meetings, total madness.

[Chersfrozenface]

Nice day for gardening here - have dug.

[Boiledbeetle]

Is this shit ever going to stop?

I'm off for a five minutes destress by watching cat video

[ChristinaXYZ]

the story has been picked up by the Telegraph

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/03/25/transgender-views-created-toxic-culture-fear-arts-council/

"Denise Fahmy claims Britain’s biggest arts quango risked “closing down free speech” after a grant was withdrawn from a charity that campaigns exclusively for lesbian, gay and bisexual rights.

Ms Fahmy, 54, who has worked for 15 years as an Arts Council England (ACE) grant officer, says she was targeted after she questioned why £9,000 of funding was withdrawn from LGB Alliance.

She has now resigned but is taking ACE to an employment tribunal because she claims she was harassed and victimised due to her “gender critical” beliefs.
In April last year, LGB Alliance was awarded the grant to make a film for the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee to celebrate how the lives of gay men had improved under the monarch’s reign.

However, the money was withdrawn amid claims the alliance was transphobic, an allegation the charity denies.

At an ACE staff meeting held a few days before the cash was pulled, Simon Mellor, ACE’s deputy chief executive, accused LGB Alliance of being “a divisive organisation with a history of anti-trans exclusionary activity”.

He said it was a “mistake” for it to have been awarded the grant through a second body, the London Community Foundation.

At that meeting, Ms Fahmy spoke saying she was “shocked” by Mr Mellor’s remarks, which she felt demonstrated ”worrying “bias” that threatened to affect funding of the arts.

Afterwards, Ms Fahmy, who oversees the development of the visual arts in the north of England, made a formal complaint about Mr Mellor’s comments to Sir Nick Serota, the council’s chairman, and wrote to Michelle Donelan, the then culture secretary."

Much more on the Telegraph website obviously but I don't think I am allowed to post archive links on here. I am allowed to post archive links on Ovarit (see Activism thread).

[dimorphism]

@Tidyspy

@WarriorN completely agree, the organisation I work for does a lot of stuff with young people and the actual creative work is great, but they think they’re being so inclusive by asking 12 yr olds their pronouns. I actually won’t send my own DC to any activities there now which is a shame but it’s such BS. I’m the middle aged woman in the office and if I say anything I’ll be labelled a transphobe and out on my ear. Work meetings would be funny if it wasn’t so tragic:
”so I had a good meeting with Sarah and she…”
”sorry - they”
”what?”
”sarah - she, sorry, they, goes by they now. Sorry”
”oh right, sorry sorry. Yes - they said the project’s going well and she’s…
”they”
”sorry, they - er - is working with Ben and he…
”they”
”what?
”Ben - goes by they too”
”does he? I mean do they? Sorry. So anyway they’ve got a new workspace and…”
”sorry who has?”
”what”
”Ben or Sarah has the new studio?”
”both of them”
“Ok ok”
A version of this happens in every meetings, total madness.

Sounds SOOO efficient. Who has that sort of time to waste? Only companies not interested in profits, I assume.

[MissLucyEyelesbarrow]

@WarriorN

Though awful for her, I'm really pleased about this as they're absolutely captured.

The arts council have a lot of input into education and I've increasingly seen problematic content.

They influence teaching in schools by running the v popular arts mark and arts awards. These impact curriculum teaching and learning as the school does projects that embed the arts in their school. They push diversity etc and culture bridge organisations (orgs that link schools and cultural institutions such as galleries and theatres) put on lots of cpd and arts related events.

many that I've seen here have been increasingly linked to trans crap.

Yes. Even if you are not a big consumer of the arts, please consider gardening if you can afford it, because the Arts Council is very influential. As PPs have said, it influences education in schools and also indirectly influences broadcast media, especially the BBC and Channel 4.

[Truthlikeness]

"People signed it, and made comments, citing gender critical people like me and LGB Alliance as parasites, neo nazis, needing to be stamped out ..."

We've seen this week where that kind of rhetoric - unchecked - leads.

[Tidyspy]

@dimorphism yep exactly, it’s cringemaking.

[ArabellaScott]

@Truthlikeness

"People signed it, and made comments, citing gender critical people like me and LGB Alliance as parasites, neo nazis, needing to be stamped out ..."

We've seen this week where that kind of rhetoric - unchecked - leads.

100%.

[ChristinaXYZ]

@Truthlikeness

"People signed it, and made comments, citing gender critical people like me and LGB Alliance as parasites, neo nazis, needing to be stamped out ..."

We've seen this week where that kind of rhetoric - unchecked - leads.

Completely agree - it is a kind of hate speech. Making someone you don't agree with into a monster so you don't need to engage with the arguments.

I am so grateful for the women prepared to go to court. It must be so stressful. And for those that keep giving and sharing to keep the court cases coming.

What frightens me is that if we don't win this quickly then a new crop of captured judges will appear who read law as they want it to be instead of what it is.

[ArabellaScott]

It's dehumanising hate speech. It's violent rhetoric that is often a precursor to physical violence.

[ChristinaXYZ]

I want to keep the focus on this because as a PP said the Arts council feeds into so many other aspects of life - especially schools - and with everyone so broke at the moment I think it might be a hear slog for Denise to raise the money in time - just over 2 weeks. I'd like to help her keep the momentum going because I think it is such an important case.

Thanks to everyone keeping this thread alive!

[ArabellaScott]

She's halfway there.

This has been described as similar to Maya's ET, but for the arts.

The arts are riddled with misogyny in the guise of genderism.

I will continue to bump.

[MissLucyEyelesbarrow]

The arts are riddled with misogyny in the guise of genderism

And homophobia, despite always having been one of the most LGB-welcoming sectors. But lesbians and, increasingly now, boring old c*s gay men, are sidelined in favour of straight kids with purple hair, claiming to be queer.

[ThisIsMyGCname]

I dig a small amount each time it’s needed. I wish I could make bigger holes but tbh I’d rather it wasn’t needed.

Next time it could be any of us in this position.