Multiple prominent gender-critical feminists have accused the Glasgow University Union (GUU) of denying them service and asking them to leave the venue as their “banners made the staff feel unsafe.”
The Organiser and Founder of Let Women Speak, Kelly-Jay Keen, told Hillhead Review that the group were told that “staff felt unsafe with [their] beliefs and opinions”.
Let Women Speak were hosting an event of “dinner, drinks and dancing” at the Union, following their free event which took place this afternoon outside of Kelvingrove Museum & Art Gallery.
The group decorated the Union’s Dining Room with banners including ones reading “we are all Sandie Peggie” and “women’s rights are not a hate crime.”
In a video shared to X/Twitter, Keen, can be heard addressing the room stating that the Union had “told us to leave…on the basis of our beliefs.”
A further video showed Union staff telling Keen that members of the event had been “confrontational towards staff” and as a result that they were “going to have to ask them to leave.”
Staff at the Glasgow University Union confirmed that the Police had been called, but that the group had left the building.
Let Women Speak campaigns for women’s rights to be rooted in “biological reality”, and aim to defend the rights of women, whom they describe as “adult human females.” However, many prominent critics claim their views to be transphobic.
Speaking to Hillhead Review, Keen said: “[The bar manager] said that his staff felt unsafe with our beliefs and opinions. The only evidence of these opinions were on signs that read: ‘I’m not a vet but I know what a dog is’, ‘Sandie Peggie is all of us’, ‘women’s rights are not a hate crime’ and the like.
“[The manager] claimed that they went against the conduct of the university. This is not the first time women have been refused service or kicked out of a venue for our belief that women deserve rights.
“I will be seeking legal advice about the quickest way to get these authoritarians to understand that discriminating against women is unlawful. Frankly, I can’t wait.”
Another atendee at the event, Kelly Oliver Dougall, told Hillhead Review: “We were meeting at the Glasgow student union after our Let Women Speak event which was held outside Kelvingrove Museum. We put the banners that we had been holding up on the walls.
“Several members of staff came in and said that if we didn’t take our banners down they would not serve us any more drinks. They stated that this was due to the beliefs on the banners and that their staff felt unsafe.
“They went on to ask us to leave. Which we did. We were due to eat there and had already paid for food.”
If the alleged claims are true, it is possible that the GUU has broken the Equality Act (2010). Generally, refusal of service based on political views can constitute unlawful discrimination, however, private member’s clubs such as the Union can be excluded in some cases.
The Glasgow University Union has been contacted for comment.
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