Women’s rights campaigners were all refused service at a pub after a manager claimed he heard one of them insult the Pride flag.
The fiasco went down at The Castle in Nottingham yesterday evening when a group of punters stopped by for a pint in the aftermath of a Let Women Speak event.
It comes as some had been wearing T-Shirts with slogans like ‘adult human female’ and ‘save women’s sports’.
But a member of staff alleged one of the pubgoers had referred to a Pride flag at the counter as the ‘pedo flag’.
Writer and campaigner Jean Hatchet – who said she had nothing to do with the alleged comment and ‘didn’t know who said anything’ – described the situation as ‘bizarre’.
She told MailOnline: ‘I have no idea why I was meant to be accountable. He was putting views on women that were not evidenced and I felt it was an issue with me and my partner (girlfriend).
‘I was just a woman stood at the bar asking for two pints of lager. It felt pretty hostile and was upsetting actually – there wasn’t any basis to refuse us.’
In a recording of the confrontation the man refusing service gestures to a Pride flag at the counter.
A female staff member had told Ms Hatchett and her partner prior to the male bartender’s intervention: ‘If you’re with that big group we’re not serving you anymore’
In a recording of the confrontation the man refusing service gestures to a Pride flag at the counter
He says to Ms Hatchet: ‘You’re sat with the same group. I can’t have comments like that.
‘She [the customer] called it a pedo flag. She said “that’s my flag except for the bit at the bottom”.’
A woman in the recording can be heard in the distance clarifying: ‘I never said that. I said that’s my flag not the other one – not the pedo flag.’
Distraught, the bartender replies ‘she’s just said it again’.
The ‘other’ flag referred to is understood to be the ‘progress’ Pride flag – a modern rendition of the original which includes a part on the side meant to represent transgender people.
A female staff member had told Ms Hatchett and her partner prior to the male bartender’s intervention: ‘If you’re with that big group we’re not serving you anymore.’
She added: ‘I have the right to refuse service to whoever I want. I’m not comfortable with serving you.’
The male bartender then said: ‘I’ve been told to refuse you service for that comment’.
The fiasco went down at The Castle in Nottingham (pictured) yesterday evening when a group of punters stopped by for a pint in the aftermath of a Let Women Speak event
Ms Hatchet pictured with her partner. She told MailOnline: ‘I have no idea why I was meant to be accountable. He was putting views on women that were not evidenced and I felt it was an issue with me and my partner’
Ms Hatchet responds: ‘Why are you refusing me service for a comment I have not made?
‘You don’t know who is my friend and who is not. I’ve done nothing wrong I’ve just sat there and quietly drank my drink.’
Ms Hatchet later told MailOnline she thought the actions of staff were ‘clear discrimination’ under the 2010 Equality Act.
The act states a business cannot turn away a customer on the basis of sex, sexual orientation and religion and belief, among other protected characteristics.
Ms Hatchet, who said she had walked into the pub only with her partner, added there had been ‘nothing inflammatory’ about her clothing but that she thought ‘other women were being judged’.
She said: ‘There wasn’t any basis to refuse us. He was putting views on women that were not evidenced. I wasn’t drunk. It was very odd behaviour.’
Let Women Speak is a group that campaigns on the premise ‘it is essential’ the word ‘woman’ is retained to mean ‘adult human female only’.
The group adds on its website: ‘Our sex is female. The sex that bears children. The sex that requires maternity rights, privacy rights, equality with the male sex in the work place, specific health care issues, reproductive rights, and so on.
Ms Hatchet wearing a sweatshirt that reads ‘Save Women’s Sport.’ Let Women Speak is a group that campaigns on the premise ‘it is essential’ the word ‘woman’ is retained to mean ‘adult human female only’
‘If our rights become dependent upon “gender” then they are no longer women’s rights, they are “feminine” rights.’
A rally held by the group yesterday saw a clash with counter campaigners who waved the Transgender flag and modern Pride progress flags.
MailOnline has approached The Castle pub for comment.
