Kate Forbes 'cancelled' at Fringe venue after staff 'terrified'
An Edinburgh Fringe venue has said Kate Forbes will not be allowed to appear at events in future after it was claimed staff at the Summerhall were "terrified" of her when she was interviewed on stage.
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The event including the deputy First Minister of Scotland took place last Thursday, but now it's been revealed that managers wrote to other performers saying her appearance was an "oversight" and would not happen again - sparking a row about free speech.
The cancellation of the Highlands MSP comes as a second cultural venue, the National Library of Scotland, has been accused of censorship after removing a book from a public exhibition.
Kate Forbes appeared at Summerhall as part of the Herald newspapers series of political interviewees. which included John Swinney and the pollster Professor Sir John Curtice.
She has received criticism in the past for her Christian religion, her views on abortion, on having children outside of marriage, and for rejecting her own government's stance on trans issues and backing single sex spaces for women.
According to a report in the Scottish Daily Mail some of the other performers at the venue set up a ‘safe room’ because they were said to have been ‘terrified’ while Forbes was in the building.
In a statement after her appearance, the Summerhall venue - which has received more than £600,000 in government funding - said: "This event was booked as a series of longform interviews prior to the guest list being confirmed.
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"Summerhall Arts primary concern is the safety and wellbeing of the artists and performers we work with, and going forward we will be developing robust, proactive inclusion and wellbeing policies that would prevent this oversight in our bookings process happening again.
"Summerhall Arts issued a communication to all artists making them aware of the event."
Following Summerhall's statement, Forbes said: "'As I stated at the event, I fervently believe in freedom of speech.
"Any effort to 'cancel' people, especially politicians, undermines democracy.
"Many people attended the event and it is important that we could freely discuss and debate matters in a respectful manner.
"I respect and acknowledge the fact that in a liberal democracy there are people who will agree with me and others who will disagree with me.
"That is all the more reason to create events where the audience and journalists can question politicians openly, as the Herald did."
LBC asked Scotland's Finance Secretary Shona Robison - who was previously deputy first minister - if she agreed with Summerhall's actions.
"I don't agree with that. We need to be tolerant of each other's views. This doesn't send out the right signal about freedom of speech and intolerance."
Summerhall's decision comes after the Stand comedy club was forced to reinstate a show featuring Joanna Cherry at the Fringe two years ago after she threatened legal action for discrimination when the venue initially planned to cancel the event because of her views on trans issues.
Marion Calder, a director at For Women Scotland, said "any refusal to allow Ms Forbes and others who share her views to appear at the venue would be against the law for the same reasons as in the battle between Ms Cherry and the Stand.
"They clearly haven’t taken legal opinion on this. Why on earth would members of staff and other performers be scared of a young woman having “dangerous” thoughts?"
Meanwhile the National Library of Scotland is under fire for withdrawing the book The Women Who Wouldn't Wheesht from a public exhibition marking the institution's 100th anniversary.
It has been accused of a "shameful" capitulation to censorship after the collection of essays was banned.
The book is an anthology written by women, including MSPs and JK Rowling, about the storm created by an attempt to introduce gender self-ID by Nicola Sturgeon, and how they were affected. It was a Sunday Times bestseller last year and received double the required public nominations for it to be included in the exhibition.
However staff in the library's LGBT+ organisation objected to its inclusion in the exhibition alleging it would "cause severe harm" and threatened to "notify LGBY+ partners of the library's endorsement of the book."
As a result the National Librarian, Amina Shah, decided it should not be included because of "the potential impact on key stakeholders who could withdraw support for the exhibition and the centenary."
The decision was taken despite works which offer a different perspective on trans rights are included in the exhibition.
Editors of the book, Lucy Hunter-Blackburn and Susan Dalgety have now written to the Library demanding a meeting and an explanation.
A spokeswoman for the NLS said: "Anyone can visit our reading rooms and access this book as well as the 200 other titles not selected for display."