📣🚨 FSU MEMBER TESTIMONIAL “The Free Speech Union has just helped me secure a public apology from disability charity Scope after my choir was dropped from this year’s London Marathon because of my gender-critical views.” Janet Murray is a journalist and founder of the Singing Striders, a choir that performs at running events and helps runners raise money for good causes. For the past two years, the choir had been part of Scope’s “cheer squad” without incident. But a few days before this year’s marathon, Scope dropped the choir after receiving two anonymous complaints about Janet’s public expression of her gender-critical views. Gender-critical beliefs are protected under the Equality Act 2010. They are lawful and were reaffirmed by last year’s landmark Supreme Court ruling, which confirmed that “sex” refers to biological sex. Janet is clear that these are her personal views; she does not know what the other choir members thought. Janet tried to resolve the matter privately with Scope before informing her fellow choir members. After the Free Speech Union intervened, Scope reinstated the choir — but only the night before the marathon. Janet put together a small group at short notice, which performed elsewhere along the route, separately from Scope. Scope has now apologised and publicly acknowledged that its decision was wrong. But the ordeal caused considerable upset to Janet and the choir, who did not deserve to be treated this way. Women should be able to speak freely about their sex-based rights without being punished for doing so. Janet said that when she first joined the Free Speech Union, she never thought she would need us. She’s grateful she did. We’re delighted we could help @jan_murray. Watch Janet’s story below, and join the FSU 👇