The importance of Joanna Cherry

Well, that didn’t take long. Barely had the ink dried on a lawyer’s letter from Joanna Cherry than The Stand comedy club performed a screeching U-turn on its decision to cancel an event featuring the SNP MP. Cherry had been due to appear in an ‘In conversation with…’ interview at the Edinburgh Fringe in August. However, The Stand nixed the function last week, saying ‘a number of The Stand’s key operational staff, including venue management and box office personnel, are unwilling to work on this event’. Cherry has become persona non grata among progressives for raising concerns about the interaction of legal gender reform and the rights of women and girls. 

However, rather than accept her cancellation lying down, Cherry, a KC, threatened to take The Stand to court. After all, the Equality Act says a person cannot be discriminated against on the basis of their beliefs alone. The courts have already established that belief in the biological reality of sex or disbelief in gender identity ideology are protected in law.