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Edinburgh Live
Edinburgh Live
National
Press Association & Lee Dalgetty

Edinburgh club apologises to Joanna Cherry and reinstates cancelled Fringe show

A comedy club which cancelled the Edinburgh Festival Fringe show Joanna Cherry MP was set to appear in because of her views on trans rights has apologised to her and said the event will go ahead.

Ms Cherry had threatened to take legal action against The Stand in Edinburgh unless she receives an apology and the event is reinstated. On Friday The Stand said it had taken further external legal advice.

It said: "Having considered that new advice, we now accept that the previous decision that the event could not go ahead was unfair and constituted unlawful discrimination against Ms Cherry.

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"We now publicly and unreservedly apologise to Ms Cherry. We have sent a detailed response to Ms Cherry and her legal team and have spoken to the event's promoters to confirm that we will be able to host the event as originally planned."

Joanna Cherry is one of the leading voices of criticism against the Scottish Government's gender recognition legislation, which would allow trans people to change their gender without medical oversight. The cancellation of her show sparked online debate, with the comedy club accused of 'censorship'.

Earlier in the week, Joanna said in a statement: "I have received the opinion of the eminent and leading human rights advocate, Aidan O’Neill KC who considers that The Stand have acted unlawfully," she said.

“The actions of the Stand and all that has followed thereon are symptomatic of a wider problem in our society. I am very concerned that those who hold perfectly legitimate views on a variety of issues, including women like me are regularly being misrepresented, de-platformed and, in some cases, facing damage to or the loss of our livelihoods.

“This is often accompanied by online abuse and threats. The debate on gender self-identification is a very important one which must be allowed to take place, but I am a woman of many parts who was engaged to talk about my political life in general and I see the cancelling of my one-hour event as the thin end of the wedge."

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