Mick Hartley

The trans capture of the Globe:

In summer 2022, the Globe staged a controversial production, I, Joan, which ‘reimagined’ Joan of Arc as nonbinary. To prepare us as staff to tackle the thorny topic of gender identity, we received training from a trans lobby group called Gendered Intelligence. This organisation works closely with disgraced trans-youth charity Mermaids (currently under investigation by the Charity Commission) and had previously advised the now defunct Tavistock gender-identity clinic.

During these training sessions, Gendered Intelligence told us to ‘remove unnecessary gender divisions’ by making toilets gender neutral and to keep a child’s trans identity secret from their parents, which might come up during one of the workshops the Globe runs for schoolchildren. Obviously, this goes against basic safeguarding principles (and the new government guidance on trans issues for schools agrees). This was particularly concerning given that the theatre welcomes thousands of children every year.

Soon after these sessions, signs went up on the toilets, declaring them all to be ‘gender neutral’. Neither staff nor customers were consulted about this. To make matters worse, sanitary bins were not provided in what were previously the men’s toilets, rendering them effectively useless to women.

This goes against health-and-safety requirements. If women cannot depend on finding adequate sanitary provision, they will avoid going out in public. This is one step towards reinstating the ‘urinary leash’ that historically kept women at home. Perhaps the Globe is taking its mission to preserve the past a little too seriously.

So men can use the women's toilets, but women can't use the men's. Perfect. 

In 2022, the Globe’s official X account posted a poem calling gender-critical women ‘bitches’. And at one point during I, Joan, Joan of Arc herself tells the audience that: ‘Women are worried about the wrong things; Twitter and toilets.’

Even more on the nose, the programme for the show contained an article that claimed that the real-life Joan ‘died for the right to crossdress’. It also declared ‘death before detransition’. This is particularly offensive, given the growing number of detransitioners who deeply regret undergoing gender-reassignment treatments….

My battle with the Globe’s management opened my eyes to the brave new world we seem to be living in. Raising concerns about women’s rights and child safeguarding is viewed as trouble-making. Refusing the play along with outrageous lies makes you a ‘bigot’. Speaking out against trans orthodoxy can get you cancelled and risk your career.

The author, writiung under a pseudonym, no longer works at the Globe.