Warwickshire Pride is an event for the region's LGBTQ+ community to promote acceptance, equality, and raise awareness, but a row has broken out between the organisers of this year's parade and a lesbian group from Leamington called the Spa Sisters.
They say they have always had a stall at the event to help raise money for charity, but this year they've been banned from doing that as Warwickshire Pride has accused them of being transphobic.
BBC CWR's Richard Williams spoke to Chris Doherty, a member of the Spa Sisters, about these allegations.
We reached out to the organisers of Warwickshire Pride for an interview, but they declined that offer. Instead, its board of trustees sent us a statement that says:
"Earlier this year, a decision was made to not allow Spa Sisters to have a stall at the Warwickshire Pride festival or participate in the Warwickshire Pride March.
The decision was made due to members of Spa Sisters and its leadership posting transphobic hate, including labelling trans people as: fetishists' and "Men claiming to be 'women'.
Many of Spa Sisters' own members reported the transphobia to us due to feeling unsafe. We have not banned anyone from attending the Warwickshire Pride festival, but we have not given a group who breached our code of conduct regarding hate speech, a platform at this year's event."
We did ask Warwickshire Pride why they hadn't shared the alleged screenshots with Spa Sisters, and they said:
"The screenshots have not been sent to them to protect the members of Spa Sisters who raised the complaints with us (and it was many of Spa Sisters own members who complained to us). Members of Spa Sisters are in fear of repercussion because they have reported the group and its leadership for anti-trans hate speech."
Posted: Thu Aug 22, 2024 4:39 am