Queen’s: Inequality and Uniformity

Queen’s University in Belfast is an institution I respect and visited a couple of years ago in a professional capacity. It enjoys a fine location in Belfast and its students benefit from world-class facilities. Recently, a Christian charity, the Core Issues Trust, booked Queen’s film theatre to show a screening of Voices of the Silenced, a film about people who change their sexuality. This shouldn’t have been a problem to the good folk at Queen’s Film Theatre, whose mission is to ‘widen access to film through the delivery of a varied programme that actively encourages appreciation, enjoyment, debate and understanding’. It is committed to ‘provide and respect equality, diversity and inclusion’. This all sounds a little cliched and passé, but it surely means well. That is, until the Film Theatre decided against screening the movie as it apparently breaches these values. 

In the UK, free and frank debate is fine so long as you don’t say anything that goes against the flow. I’m disappointed that Queen’s University Film Theatre only shows material that fits the current liberal agenda. Diversity must mean uniformity in Ulster English. 

Image by Clker-Free-Vector-Images from Pixabay