EHRC boss criticised for celebrating award win from right-wing publication The Spectator
Baroness Kishwer Falkner, chair of the Equalities and Human Rights Commission. (YouTube/ UBS Centre)
The Equality and Human Rights Commission’s (EHRC) boss, Baroness Kishwer Falkner, is facing new criticism for celebrating an award win from right-wing publication The Spectator.
In July, an investigation into Falkner was reopened, following complaints including accusations of discrimination, transphobia, bullying and harassment at the human rights group.
It is also currently under investigation from international human rights watchdog, the Global Alliance of National Human Rights Institutions (GANHRI), after allegations its work is “harming” trans rights in the UK.
On Thursday (30 November), Falker posted on X to share her delight at receiving The Spectator’s Peer of the Year award for her role at the EHRC.
Recent anti-trans articles published in The Spectator include ‘Is the rise in trans viability something to celebrate?’, ‘The interview that exposed the ridiculousness of trans ideology’, ‘Trans activists don’t help themselves’, ‘Trans activists will regret picking on Joanna Cherry’, ‘Riley Gaines and the misogyny of the trans-activist mob’ and many, many more.
People were quick to criticise the chairwoman and counter her celebration with trans broadcaster India Willoughby claiming that The Spectator is a “hard-right, anti-choice, anti-minority”, publication.
Another social media user claimed the award was equivalent to “getting employee of the month at the EDL [English Defence League]”.
In December 2021, students at Durham University walked out of a Christmas formal dinner upon learning that The Spectator’s associate editor, Rod Liddle, had been invited to speak as a guest of the college principal.
Liddle, who in 2018 said that he is “identifying as a young, Black, trans chihuahua”, is a controversial journalist, and in 2003, infamously posed the question: “Should it really be a crime to look at child pornography?”
In 2017, The Spectator magazine in Australia unforgettably sparked outrage when it compared same-sex marriage to marrying the devil.
In October this year, the EHRC was fiercely criticised after it appointed two people seen as being opposed to advances in trans rights to its Scottish committee.
In May, it faced further scrutiny over its advice on making “sex” mean “biological sex”, after it admitted its only current definition for the term is “not trans”.
Despite the EHRC claiming it has “championed the rights of trans people” over the last two years, some continue to claim it has done the opposite.
PinkNews has contacted the EHRC for comment.
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