A Cardiff hotel has cancelled a debate organised by the campaign group, A Woman’s Place.
The Mercure Cardiff Holland House initially explained, via a tweet, the cancellation of the 12 April booking was because it did not tolerate any “racist, sexist or bigoted behaviour”.
Organisers said the event had been organised to discuss proposed changes to the 2004 Gender Recognition Act to make the process of legally changing gender more simple.
A Woman’s Place response tweet said the group had planned to have a “respectful and evidence based discussion about the impact of proposed changes to the Gender Recognition Act”.
The group also said: “The accusation of transphobia should not be used to shut down women’s voices”.
There had been calls for the event to be cancelled from transgender support groups.
The hotel’s twitter feed added that all members of its team are committed to eradicating any instances of discrimination.
One of the event’s advertised speakers, union organiser Ruth Serwotka, alleged that the hotel’s tweet was “defamatory”.
Contacting the Mercure Cardiff Hotel one Twitter user said: “Please can you explain why you are hosting the Woman’s Place meeting this evening when it is a transphobic hate group, and nothing at all to do with womens’ rights. It goes against your LGBTQ policy.”
Another said: “Really disappointed that Mercure Holland House is hosting transphobic hate group A Woman’s Place tonight.”
The hotel subsequently deleted its original tweet and a spokesperson told CN: “The decision to cancel an event on Thursday 12th at the Mercure Cardiff Holland House was taken in the best interests of hotel guests and staff after concerns were raised about their safety, which is our priority, due to potential disruption and protests.
“The decision in no way implied any judgement on the views of those organising the event, or those protesting against it. While we are a leader in encouraging diversity and inclusion in all its forms, it is not our policy to pass comment on the view of others.
“Regrettably an unauthorised tweet was posted on behalf of the hotel which did not accurately reflect the position of the hotel the Mercure brand or AccorHotels, and which has since been removed. We have taken action to ensure this can’t be repeated and are reviewing our processes. We apologise unreservedly for any offence caused by this miscommunication.”
