Another venue in Edinburgh has refused to stage a comedy event featuring the Father Ted creator Graham Linehan, and organisers have found a third location for the show.
The first venue, Leith Arches, cancelled on Tuesday, sparking a fresh row about the law around gender-critical beliefs.
Linehan, seen by trans rights activists as hateful and extreme in his stance, said he was considering legal action against Leith Arches for discrimination on the grounds that gender-critical beliefs are protected under the Equality Act.
Comedy Unleashed told ticket holders that it had arranged for a second venue to host the show on Thursday evening, but on Thursday afternoon it said the new venue had also cancelled.
Andy Shaw, Comedy Unleashed’s co-founder, said he carried no ill-will towards the second venue. “I just think it’s become such a big issue that people are just getting cold feet and don’t want the attention, and I understand that,” he said.
“It’s not ideological at all. They just want a quiet life. It has been the hardest gig I have ever organised in my life. It should be a lot easier.”
Shaw said they had finally found “a very unusual place” at very short notice. He said the show, which features five comedians including Linehan, normally ran for 150 minutes with two intervals. Thursday evening’s show will be significantly shorter.
Earlier this summer there was a row over the cancellation of an interview-based event involving Joanna Cherry, the gender-critical Scottish National party MP, as part of this month’s Edinburgh fringe.
The venue, the Stand, cancelled the show after its staff complained about Cherry’s gender-critical beliefs. It had to reverse the ban after Cherry produced a legal opinion, based on recent court decisions, that the venue was unlawfully discriminating against her.
After initially failing to explain its reasons for banning the Linehan event, Leith Arches published an updated statement on Instagram. It said: “We work very closely with the LGBT+ community, it is a considerable part of our revenue, we believe hosting this one-off show would have a negative effect on our future bookings.”
Michael Foran, an expert on equalities law at Glasgow University, said Leith Arches could defend its decision in law if it could prove the event was cancelled for reasons other than Linehan’s gender-critical views.