Sweden's Statement Festival, an occasion billed as "the world’s first main music pageant for girls, non-binary and transgender solely" individuals, has been discovered to be in breach of Sweden's gender discrimination legislation.
Despite the truth that an investigation into the occasion discovered that Statement Festival didn't implement the "man-free occasion" and allowed individuals in no matter gender, Sweden's Equality Ombudsman dominated that organizers nonetheless violated the legislation as a result of the occasion “discouraged a sure group from attending the occasion,” experiences.
Due to the truth that this supposed "gender discrimination" got here within the type of phrases and no person suffered harm from the pageant’s restrictions, Statement Festival is not going to be penalized.
The inaugural version of Statement Festival was held in Gothenburg in August after a profitable crowdfunding marketing campaign reached its funding goal of 500,000 kronor ($61,000) again in October of 2017.
The “man-free” occasion was initially proposed by Swedish comic Emma Knyckare in response to the latest surge of rapes and sexual assaults which have plagued the nation’s largest music festivals - Bråvalla and Putte I Parken. According to Knyckare, the aim of Statement Festival was "to create “a secure house for the individuals who wish to attend a pageant with out feeling scared for his or her private security.” Bråvalla was canceled indefinitely again in June after the 2017 version of the pageant was the scene of 4 rapes and 23 sexual assaults.
"It’s unhappy that what 5,000 girls, non-binaries and transgender skilled as a life-changing pageant made a number of cis males lose it utterly," reads Statement Festival's Facebook response to the ruling. "The success of the Statement Festival reveals that's precisely what we want and the DO’s verdict doesn’t change this truth. Otherwise, we've got no feedback. We are busy altering the world.”
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[Photo: Frida Winter/AFP/Getty Images]
Cameron is Mixmag's Jr. Editor. Follow him on Twitter right here