Last week, a Sheriff's Court in Scotland handed down an initial decision in a suit by evangelist Franklin Graham whose appearance at a large arena in Glasgow was cancelled by the arena operators after the Glasgow City Council complained that there was a potential for Graham to make homophobic and Islamophobic comments during his appearance. In Billy Graham Evangelistic Association v. Scottish Event Campus Ltd., (Glasgow Sheriffdom, Feb. 16, 2021), the court held that it needed to hear evidence on Graham's claim that the cancellation of his event violated the Equality Act's prohibition on religious discrimination. Summarizing the arguments of the parties, the court said in part:
The defender’s case includes ... averments that there was potential for public order issues with the event....
The defender also avers... that "the staging of the event would bring the defender into disrepute and terminated the Contract on that basis. It did not terminate the event as a result of the religious views of the pursuer or Mr Franklin Graham."
Further ... the defender avers that: "It does not discriminate against any group or individual when deciding on whether to accept a booking. It was irrelevant to the defender that the pursuer was seeking to express religious views. The reason the Contract was terminated was due to the risk to the defender’s reputation arising from the risk of violent protests at a public event....
[However] The pursuer avers that the event was a forum for the proclamation of the Christian gospel in accordance with mainstream evangelical Christian teaching....
“The fact that the defender now avers that it does host a range of faith-based events to which it takes no objection – the defender offers as an example the annual conference of Jehovah’s Witnesses – shows precisely that the defender does operate a policy of discrimination against groups or individuals in that only those with views or religious positions which the defender deems to be ‘acceptable’ will be permitted to hire its premises.
Scottish Legal News reports on the decision. [Thanks to Frank Cranmer for the lead.]
