Sub Club has released a statement after facing criticism over use of the term "safe space."
The controversy began on Friday with a post from Sub Club's official Twitter account, which stated that the club has been a "safe space since 1987." Numerous Twitter users took issue with the claim, stating that they, and others they knew, had been assaulted at the club on numerous occasions. A heated debate then took place over Twitter, during which Sub Club was accused of, among other things, "victim blaming." Soon afterwards, A Thousand Flowers ran a piece criticising the club's initial comments and response.
The issue moved to Facebook with a post from Sub Club's account on Sunday evening. In it, the club appeared to link the backlash it had received with the recent Orlando massacre and murder of Jo Cox MP, signing off with: "It's important never to be complacent in the face of deliberate and poisonous campaigns of misinformation," posting a clip of Heaven 17's track "(We Don't Need This) Fascist Groove Thang."
Today, in a lengthy post, Sub Club apologised for any misunderstanding arising from that earlier Facebook statement (which has since been deleted). The club also promised to improve safety for attendees. Here's the statement in full.Yesterday evening we shared some words reflecting on the tragedies that have happened in the UK and around the world this past week. Our comments were not intended to refer to anyone speaking out about harassment. We are deeply sorry for any ambiguity around this. We have since removed this post to avoid any further upset being caused and would also like to apologise if this post was perceived as victim-blaming, or an attempt to silence our critics.
We believe we are all striving for the same thing: To make night life and in particular the Sub Club more inclusive, open and safe—completely free from discrimination and prejudice. The conversations over the past week on social media have opened a constructive and thoughtful process within the team—how can we do better?
We are listening to all comments made in person, on social media and are re-evaluating our policy and procedures on safety and inclusion. We would love to hear all constructive comments and suggestions on how we can improve. If you want to contribute please email
[email protected] at any time.
At Sub Club we consider ourselves a community of forward thinking, open minded and respectful music fans; so it is deeply saddening to read of any experiences which are at odds with this ethos.
To make one thing absolutely clear: Any form of harassment is completely unwelcome at the Sub Club.
We want you to know that no matter how small you might feel an incident is, we always want to hear about it—whether it was last weekend or a number of years ago. In the club, speak to any of our staff or write to
[email protected] when you get home. Please know that any problems will be dealt with seriously and handled with care and sensitivity. We are sorry to anyone that has felt they could not approach us in the past and would love to hear how you think we can do better.
It saddened us to read that some of you think nothing is done to address these issues currently and we agree that we haven’t always been vocal on our safety policies or existing procedures. We work very closely with relevant agencies to ensure all our staff are trained to proactively look for people who are not contributing to a positive environment in the club.
We have a zero tolerance approach to harassment and exclude people without hesitation for this behaviour.We care, we hear you and we are listening. We will come back soon with concrete actions and will invite the community to be part of this process. Together we will fight these issues with the aim of making Sub Club and Glasgow the safest, most inclusive and progressive club and city we can.