Authors call for removal of Booker prize vice-president over 'homophobic' views
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Version 0 of 1. Emma Nicholson’s views on same-sex marriage raised as concern by writers and one former Booker winner Damian Barr is leading a charge of writers, including one former Booker prize winner, who are calling on the Booker Foundation to remove the allegedly “homophobic” peer Emma Nicholson from her position as vice-president. Lady Nicholson of Winterbourne, who voted against the same-sex marriage bill in 2013, is the widow of the late former chairman of Booker, Sir Michael Caine, who helped establish the prize. She is currently a vice-president of the Booker Foundation, and a former trustee of the prize. Barr, a novelist, memoirist and host of the Literary Salon, learned of her association with the prize earlier this week, after Munroe Bergdorf, the model and transgender activist, said she was referring Nicholson to the Parliamentary Standards Conduct Commissioner over Nicholson’s posts on social media about the trans community. The peer also drew fire earlier this month over her views on same-sex marriage. Barr immediately challenged the Booker on Twitter, writing that “as a gay writer I feel very concerned that a person who is actively and publicly propagating homophobic views holds a position of such power & prestige in your rightly esteemed organisation”. As major writers including the Booker prizewinner Marlon James and the bestselling novelist Sarah Perry lined up to condemn Nicholson’s position with the Booker prize, the foundation released a statement on Tuesday in which its trustees said that “the views expressed by Baroness Nicholson on transgender issues are her own personal views”. “Baroness Nicholson has herself recently said that she retired as a trustee of the foundation in 2009,” the statement continued, “and was then made an honorary vice-president. She has no role in the governance or operations of the foundation. She is not involved in selecting the judges nor in choosing the books that are longlisted, shortlisted and win.” Barr, who is calling for the Booker to remove Nicholson from her post and conduct an immediate diversity review, told the Guardian it was “shocking” that the prize had released a statement “which doesn’t address any of the points I made to them about her very public and very powerful homophobia”. “How can we have any faith in a prize that has a person like this at the top of their organisation?” he asked. But Nicholson, who now sits in the Lords as a Conservative peer, told the Guardian she would “very much regret any move to remove me from an organisation I have been associated with for so many years” and rejected the accusation of homophobia. “I did indeed vote against same-sex marriage in 2013,” she said. “I have not yet learned from my critics how I am offending by perceived homophobia. In other words, they have offered no evidence.” Former winner Marlon James, who took the prize in 2015 for A Brief History of Seven Killings, also slammed the Booker’s response. “While we’re at it, as a Booker prize winner myself, lets talk about your shitty response to having a hate monger on your board,” he said on Facebook. “It’s not enough to distance yourself from her views, you have to distance yourself from her and condemn HER. There’s certain kind of supposed liberal/moderate who still thinks that speech calling for my erasure deserves as much rights as speech call for my survival. Don’t be those people.” Other critics include bestselling author Sarah Perry, who asserted that there was “a world of difference between someone merely holding views, and someone in a position of power affirming those views publicly and irresponsibly and with no regard for distress caused to individuals or disrepute brought on an institution”. The Guardian understands that members of the Booker’s advisory board are unhappy with the current situation and response. A spokesperson for the prize said that “the trustees of the Booker Prize Foundation will be reviewing the situation again today”. |