Sara Morrison vs Belfast Film Festival

[NorthernIrishFeminist]

Employers seem to be slow learners when it comes to women's rights! There’s another employment tribunal case being brought by a woman who attended and took the microphone at a Let Women Speak event in Belfast last year and has been treated very badly by her employer Belfast Film Festival as a result.

Looks like we’re going to have to keep gardening until they get the message.

disclaimer. I don’t know Sara and have no connection to BFF I’m just a woman who likes donating to causes that make a difference

Worth finding it on youtube.
After failing dismally to get the kids to come up with any similarities, only differences, the 'charismatic' young priest asks 'Is there any one thing that unites us, one thing that every single person here wants?'
and Sr Michael says as an aside 'For this to be over'😁

The full Derry Girls list courtesy of the Ulster Museum. Surely traybakes in the workplace would be a big giveaway

From NW

NC they accuse her of transphobia
MD they say she spoke openly of trans rights
NC same thing
MD no it's not. and language is important in this debate "they say she spoke openly against trans rights.... I took it as a criticism of us"

From NW

NC Queerspace are not an organisation mentioned by SM in her speech are they?
MD no
NC and Ruth from Outburst Arts joins in with the condemnation "In April this year, Sara Morrison^ Equality and Inclusion Officer for Belfast Film Festival who you have copied in here,
spoke openly at an anti-trans event in Belfast."

NC so the fact that you have copied her in to your 3 July email is noted
MD I don't think it would have made any difference
NC asks her to read the rest of the email
MD asks for a break
J says we'll have a break then MD can read the email and we'll reconvene in 10 minutes.

[break]

MD no it's not. and language is important in this debate "they say she spoke openly against trans rights.... I took it as a criticism of us"

I thought SM didn't mention trans at all? 🤔

Just on language being important...

Let’s play complete the sentence

Another indication that MD is not taking this seriously - when the judge asked her if she needed a break a while ago, she said 'no I'm dead on' [meaning OK].
This is 'common parlance' in NI, people say it all the time - but in informal speech. It's not the register of speech you'd expect to be used when replying to a judge at a tribunal.
I doubt if it was a mistake, a slip of the tongue, she thought she was chatting to her friends - I think it fits into the 'don't care' attitude I've noticed.

So let's get this right. I paraphrase.

25 June Mark gets upset and says we can't have an inclusion officer who's against trans rights.
28 June Board meeting that no-one remembers.
29 June (early hours) MD sends an email saying ? She's putting the plan that doesn't exist into motion?
3 July MD emails lots of their supporters, copying in SM (presumably prewarned by the 29 June or otherwise) about Pride and the Big Screen
4 July MD emails the Board to say I've emailed our supporters (as a former board member I'd think righto, why are you telling me this minutiae?)
After this the supporters email back saying, why are you copying in a Terf?

Did I get that right?

I grew up in (sheltered) rural Scotland, DH grew up in Glasgow. I was astonished that a) he could tell from accents whether someone was Protestant or RC (100% success rate) and b) that it mattered.
So I'm afraid I don't believe MC on this point.

From NW

Full email is as follows:
"On 4 Jul 2023, at 09:28, Outburst Arts wrote:

Dear Michele,

In April this year, Sara Morrison Equality and Inclusion Officer for Belfast Film Festival who you have copied in here, spoke openly at an anti-trans event in Belfast.
She spoke on the same platform as Jolene Bunting, a Britain First fascist who is proudly anti gay. anti abortion, anti Catholic and anti migrant. Jolene Bunting was. also recently taken to court by local gay drag perform er and regular Outburst contributor Matthew Cavan, who she labelled as a paedophile and harassed repeatedly while encouraging others to do the same.
In addition to legitimising an anti-gay fascist, Sara stood on the same platform and. legitimised anti trans campaigner Posie Parker, who organised the event. Posie Parker is an anti-queer crusader who has been touring her circus around the world and building anti-trans sentiment that has caused and continues to cause massive damage, not only trans people but to LGBT people across the board and especially those living in the most precarious economic and political circumstances.

The anti-trans and anti-LGBT discourse that is perpetuated by events such as the one that Sara lent her voice to, are impacting on the safety and well-being of real people. We have Worked with vulnerable trans and queer people and lesbian women in 27 countries globally who are being battered by this growing right-wing discourse, human beings who are our friends, family, team members, arts network, our support and people we love. At Outburst we see every day the damage that this discourse is responsible for and it is terrifying. I will always champion freedom of expression and freedom of speech, especially in art, and have no interest in silencing intelligent open discourse.
There is however a world of difference between generous, kind and brave space for exchange - a space that we work hard for Outburst to be - and legitimising and adding to dangerous and damaging anti LGBT rhetoric. To receive an email where Sara is included as someone we are invited to organise an LGBT event with on behalf of Belfast Film Festival, feels deeply inappropriate. We unreservedly applaud Pride’s decision this year to centre trans rights. We are in this together or we are lost. Things have become too dangerous and if we are not part of the solution, not part of intelligently building trust, kindness and solidarity instead of firing up division like Sara has done, then we are part of the problem.
Yours sincerely
Ruth McCarthy
Artistic Director, Outburst Arts"

Gosh, where to start with that email?!! 😳

The date and time of that email is quite telling, I think.

Shes an angry woman.

Because she thought she was good and did what Mark Cousins told and she stands by her trans. Why can’t they see, she’s good.

Yet someone is pointing out she is a biased and bigoted person. And she doesn’t like the truth.

@BettyBooper

Ooo, ooo, I know!

long continuous swear censor bleep

'I will always champion freedom of expression and freedom of speech, especially in art, and have no interest in silencing intelligent open discourse.'

🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

These people are absolutely nuts.

All the eye rolls.

Can anyone recall what time the 3rd July email that SM was cced into was sent?

Bigly spendy mega mega £100k screen.

That costs £2000 a pop to erect. So you better only get it erected under special made up circumstances.

And I was wondering how they all seemed to notice SM was cc'd. It's as if someone might have made them aware....

Judge: are you showing contempt for this court?
Mae West: I'm doin' my best to hide it, Judge..
[from My Little Chicadee if I remember rightly]

Try harder, MD

So email/call supporters to say I'm going to email you about an event we're not going to put on and I need you to pretend to boycott this non-event (so I can sack SM or at least make it hard for her to stay).

Is that what happened?

Except they couldn’t find a reason to use it all summer and it costs £2000 to erect.

So lots of texts on how they can’t afford to erect it. The erection cost means it’s not worth it. If they erect it for £2k and charge someone £1000 they only need to charge 200 people a fiver.

So pretty useless if they can’t afford to run it.

Outburst just about sums it up.

The thing is, anyone with an ounce of sense would know that in Norn Iron you can quite easily find yourself in front of a tribunal for discriminating on grounds of religious belief or political opinion.

Political opinion is usually a proxy for religion/community background but not always, particularly when it comes to the unions. The factional situation in NIPSA means there have been so many cases of members of the Communist Party and whatever Militant call themselves these days taking each other to tribunal, that at least one judge got absolutely pissed off and told these union activists that the tribunal was not an appropriate place for their baroque ideological battles.

This obviously hasn't filtered through to the TRSOH crowd in the Bilfawst arts scene. Or maybe their incentives have been skewed by Pride becoming such a huge money spinner.