Sara Morrison v BFF thread 4

[MarieDeGournay]

continuation

I didn't check it (mainly as it was too fuzzy for me to read original. just asked it to transcribe the image. I was too tired to check.

It can wait til the morning. I must go to sleep.

That's a major thesis of de Grunwald's This Isn't Working podcast. What every you think of the various specific issues that the HR profession and it's constellation of adjacent domains has taken up advocacy for, the effect of how that advocacy is undertaken has seriously undermined basic professionalism in the workforce - first-and-foremost among the professions who's remit it is to promote a healthy corporate culture - it's coming from professional bodies and higher education.

She is also listed as a Dr in two government documents in 2002/3 - no evidence found here that she has a PhD or even a honorary doctorate.

She may have achieved a great deal in her business career of course.

Try tracking down a Spud Murphy in Newry 😂 (soz, local culchie humour)

Irish surnames tend to cluster in certain areas of the country owing to a combination of the ancient Irish clan system and a lack of inter-country movement until quite well into the 20thC.

I distinctly remember getting a Blue Peter Blue Badge for something, when I was ten. It wasn't a Gold one or even a Silver one, but it was a badge and I kept it until the pin went rusty, long enough to merit some kind of recognition, surely? Can I have a plaudit for my precocious talent?

I just want to check - Belfast Film Festival isn't a specifically trans- or LGBT- or queer- organization, is it?

Just a general run-of-the-mill film festival for cinemaphiles of all persuasions, attitudes, colours, races, and political hues?

"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"

*Text extracted by google lens from @ProfLargofesse screenshot attached.

There's an area on the border that I know of that has about 30 different families of one surname and each family has a nickname in order for locals to be able to distinguish between them. And any new postmen/postwomen have to learn all the nicknames in order to correctly deliver the post because a lot of the first names are similar too. Joys of culchie life, hi!

Do they not just deliver to the address on the envelope?

@BatsinmyProfessorBrain, we are heartily endorsing your supreme efforts and are pleased to confer upon you the following honours:

• Order of the British Empire
• Order of Merit &
• The King's Gallantry Medal

Thanks @NebulousProfessorSupportPostcard

I know it’s never going to happen but I would love to have Ruth McCarthy come and explain to the Court what she means by

‘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.’

Which part of saying we want safe spaces in our Rape Crisis Centre was dangerous and damaging for anti Lesbian or Gay or indeed Bisexual drew people?

And if you found it dangerous for trans people please explain which trans people and why?

And how are you Ruth McCarthy creating a space for generous, kind and brave spaces for lesbians do say that they do not want to have sex with men who think they are women and lesbians. How do you protect discourse for gay men who publically say I don’t to have penis in vagina sex with women who identify as trans men.

Please Ruth, tell us more. We’ll fundraise to have Naomi come over. She’s very softly spoken and oh so brave.

Why thank you for asking such an important question @ProfessorMyAmpleSheep.

Yes Belfast Film Festival is a run of the mill, buy a BIGLY screen and store it for 99.9% of the time, then after a £2,000 erection, show Encanto type film show.

Sara was an inclusion officer and she was to reach out to marginalised communities.

What is a marginalised community you ask? Helpfully Michele clarified on her first day of evidence on Wednesday that is was the s75 characteristics (but she didn’t know them of course).

Summary from AI and I know it hallucinates but I also provide a verified source. *https://www.equalityni.org/S75duties

Section 75 of the Northern Ireland Act 1998 identifies specific groups, often considered "marginalised communities", between whom public authorities must promote equality of opportunity

These groups are categorized by the following characteristics:

• Religious Belief: Includes Buddhists, Catholics, Hindus, Jewish people, Muslims, Protestants, Sikhs, people of no religious belief, and other faiths.
• Political Opinion: Includes Nationalists, Unionists, and members/supporters of other political parties.
• Racial Group: Includes various ethnic backgrounds such as Chinese, Indian, those of mixed ethnic background, Polish, Roma, Travellers, and White people.
• Age: Includes children, young people, and older people.
• Marital Status: Includes single people, married people, divorced people, separated people, and civil partners or people in civil partnerships.
• Sexual Orientation: Includes heterosexual people, lesbians, gay people, and bisexual people.
• Gender: Refers to men and women generally.
• Disability: Includes persons with a disability and persons without, as defined by the Disability Discrimination Act 1995.
• Dependants: Includes persons with dependants (such as unpaid carers) and persons without.

Interestingly gender applies to men and women generally. That’s helpful as gender identity ideology impacts everyone and people need to balance those rights against other such as political belief for example.

Ruth being a lesbian and having spent 20 years ingratiating herself with LGBT groups seems to have forgotten the rest of the country exists.

They’re not running events in care homes showing nostalgia movies or celebrating the Polish community by having a culture week.

Is there anyone who isn't marginalised? And do you get bonuses for being extra marginalised if you tick more boxes? Not just sad times but very strange ones.

Logically, though, if they're reaching out to all those groups then what did Sara do wrong?

So anyone can be marginalised. No wonder everyone feels so hard done by.

I don’t think that letter is AI, though there’s a phenomenon where people learn from AI as it learns from people. Consequently written communication seems to be converging from both sides onto a model that incorporates mild hyperbole, an obsequious tone, over-reliance on faintly poor choice of adjectives, a tendency to look like an argument while not actually being an argument and an impression of generalised smugness. Plus the odd hallucination.

BINGO!

Sara speaks out on 16 April. Nothing is done.

Tick tock. Some board people have gossip. Mark ‘forgiveness if you recant’ Cousins says this can’t stand end of June (maybe 28 from memory).

Few days later on 3 July Michele spams a load of LGBTQIA people about an entirely made up event to put Sara in front of her online mob from April.

Outbursty Ruth sends her missive in open cc on 4 July after excluding Sara from the response. A few others respond on that thread. Maybe some tweets too? But yes it looks orchestrated.

A few days later 6/7th July then theres a bunch of random emails from people like Lola Petticrew. These randomers had to be incited to do that. Why else would they have became aware in the same few days, found the relevant email address to complain to and write along the same theme unless it was orchestrated. And why bother a few months later and all at the same time?

Yes @weegielass found videos of Boyd establishing that she had been given a visiting professorship at Ulster at some point in the past. On that basis she should not have been using it as a title as it is not a Professorship. Protocol would be Mrs D Boyd, Visiting Professor UU.

But even that is time limited.

That being said there is no confirmation from Ulster that they did give her a visiting professorship role so we are awaiting news on that score.

I am now thinking that NC mentioning the living and relationship arrangements/history that surround Ruth McCarthy and Michele Devlin, not for grubby Eastenders style gossip, but to demonstrate the very real liklihood that the email received was a response to some communication(s) that happened outwith the process shared with the court.

I am guessing thay there was no requirement at all (rightly) to share personal WhatsApp etc between Michele and her partner and Ruth. But that email very much appears to be a 'not average' response to the email sent by someone you've had no working relationship with for 10+ years.

I actually feel, being generous, that she used 'judge' as a verb rather than a noun. As in she was standing in judgement (as part of a panel). I think it's her naivety at play here, not that she is fully understanding and claiming to be THE judge.

I think she just does not (or did not but has now received a rapid schooling!) in how these things work in academia and in the legal world. She's not the brightest, in essence, and she's too ignorant to have realised.

I really like TdG discussion of the issues this poses for the make up of the wider workplace too.

When she explains the additional risks organisations have unwittingly placed themselves in line for by systematically removing and/or silencing the staff who have enough integrity/energy/critical thinking/guts to question dodgy training or prioritising sacred castes or adoption of potentially offensive language etc. When your organisation then sails ever closer to the legal wind, the people who would have put their hand up and pointed it out, or advised you accurately or helped get you out of the mess, have all long gone or been hobbled.

In all these ETs and legal wranglings we hear constantly about all the people who didn't complain or who championed and supported the organisation's descent into illegal PC conflicts as if they were the good people. But these organisations are still missing TdG point, that the staff who were bright enough, conscientious enough, alert enough, to speak up and query the shift in language or the removal of accommodations for religious women or whatever until you shut them up/hounded them out, were the good ones. The staff who join your festival float all the way to the ET are not your organisation's friends.

As I suspect NHS Fife will be pondering in the next few days.

Edited for sweary typos!

And to add - I am.sire TdG said once that senior staff in these organisations breathe a sigh of relief when these irritating troublemakers move on or shut up. But they fail to realise what that meams they have lost. Your most vocal and outspoken staff going quiet is not the good thing you think it is.

No AI summaries. Please.

Even if they give a reference it's often not the best one - in this case, guidance on the legislation rather than the original legislation.

And then the summary adds all.sorts of wrong or irrenelvant stuff. In this case ' gender'. The word doesnt appear.

Here's the actual.legislation

https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1998/47/section/75

It doesn't set out 'marginalised groups'specifically - it's about promoting equality and good relations between all groups. Here's the relevant section in full.

75 Statutory duty on public authorities.
(1) A public authority shall in carrying out its functions relating to Northern Ireland have due regard to the need to promote equality of opportunity—

(a) between persons of different religious belief, political opinion, racial group, age, marital status or sexual orientation;

(b) between men and women generally;

(c )between persons with a disability and persons without;
and

(d) between persons with dependants and persons without.

(2) Without prejudice to its obligations under subsection (1), a public authority shall in carrying out its functions relating to Northern Ireland have regard to the desirability of promoting good relations between persons of different religious belief, political opinion or racial group.

😂

why thank you!
< bows >

She’s a lay panel member

Only one person with their name saying Judge on each panel.

Genuinely should have training not to use protected terms if they don’t already

As to her comprehension - I’m afraid that’s exactly the point.

If you like Fuck the DUP photos and PRIDE and LGBTQ you might not have the wit and unbiased approach needed to give Sara justice.

She literally cannot get a fair tribunal panel - that’s on Boyd & the appointments system

Okay okay no AI summaries @NoBinturongsHereMate

I am suitably chastened

As to her comprehension - I’m afraid that’s exactly the point.

Heartily agree! If she can't understand something as simple as who is entitled to what title, how can she possibly begin to comprehend complex employment law? Or truth, which is pretty fundamental to a tribunal.

I totally agree with you. I don't think she's entirely to blame for finding herself on a panel - there should be systems in place to source and train suitable panel members. She was not suitable.