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Honoured to have been given OBE for services to higher education. I want to use this opportunity to draw further attention to suppression of critical thought about gender identity ideology and trans activism in UK Universities - so here’s a thread. 1/
Most UK Universities are Stonewall Diversity Champions. Translation: effectively they’re now trans activist institutions. This significantly limits free thought and free speech of gender-critical academics. I describe how here https://quillette.com/2019/07/06/stonewalls-lgbt-guidance-is-limiting-the-free-speech-of-gender-critical-academics/ 2/
And yet academics and students in Universities urgently need to be able to discuss the social importance of biological sex, and to criticise gender identity ideology and trans activism. Both freedoms are of crucial importance given issues of pressing public interest such as.. 3/
/… rapid increases in trans-identifying kids; erosion of single-sex spaces; threats to women’s sport; medical ignorance about female bodies; effects on gay population; trans women - some, sex offenders - in female prisons; & failures of data collection on sex and its impacts. 4/
These anonymous testimonies I gathered in 2019 give flavour of Uni environment: e.g. disciplinary investigations for tweets/ letter-signing; removal from editorships; failure to act against student harassment; rejection of publications for "transphobia" https://medium.com/@kathleenstock/are-academics-freely-able-to-criticise-the-idea-of-gender-identity-in-uk-universities-67b97c6e04be 5/
Elsewhere: at Oxford University (Stonewall Diversity Champion), feminist Professor Selina Todd needed security for her lectures https://www.bbc.com/news/education-51248684 6/
At Essex University (Stonewall Diversity Champion) Professor Jo Phoenix’s talk on trans women in female prisons was cancelled after complaints https://www.theguardian.com/education/2020/jan/14/sacked-silenced-academics-say-they-are-blocked-from-exploring-trans-issues 7/
At the Open University (Stonewall Diversity Champion), a conference on prison reform was cancelled after an organiser’s gender-critical views drew threats https://www.telegraph.co.uk/education/2019/03/20/open-university-forced-cancel-conference-following-threats-transgender/ 8/
At Oxford Brookes (Stonewall Diversity Champion), feminist artist Rachel Ara was no-platformed for her gender-critical views https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/oxford-brookes-university-cancels-feminist-speaker-rachel-ara-after-students-accuse-her-of-transphobia-3tdkxscz6 9/
At Edinburgh University (Stonewall Diversity Champion), a conference on trans-identified kids in schools was cancelled as speakers’ safety could not be guaranteed: https://www.scotsman.com/news/scottish-news/scottish-schools-transgender-event-cancelled-amid-fears-speakers-safety-1400793 10/
… and feminist speaker Julie Bindel was physically attacked at a campus meeting on sex-based rights https://www.scotsman.com/news/scottish-news/feminist-speaker-julie-bindel-attacked-transgender-person-edinburgh-university-after-talk-545841 11/
At Imperial University (Stonewall Diversity Champion), Professor Simone Buitendijk was forced to make “grovelling apology” for retweeting material defending women’s sex-based rights https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2019/05/31/imperial-college-professor-issues-grovelling-apology-promoting/ 12/
At UCL (Stonewall Diversity Champion), signing a letter to the Guardian expressing concern about academic freedom and trans activism drew student complaints https://uclpimedia.com/online/five-ucl-professors-sign-a-letter-to-the-guardian-detailing-concerns-about-reforms-to-the-gender-recognition-act 13/
And at UEA (Stonewall Diversity Champion) my talk on womanhood was postponed by managers after complaints https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2020/01/17/university-cancelled-seminar-feminist-speaker-following-threats/ 14/
(Aside: Observant readers will notice that nearly all the people described above have something in common. Hint: it’s not a shared gender identity. Further hint: it’s a thing that never makes difference, their critics say, and whose negligible effects shouldn't be tracked). 15/
Meanwhile, University managers pay lip service to goal of academic freedom but - looking with longing eyes at Stonewall Top 100 Employers Index - they continue to greenlight repressive trans policies such as those gathered on my blog here https://kathleenstock.com/highlights-of-trans-policies-in-uk-universities/ 16/
Highlights include: “Think of the person as being the gender that they want you to think of them as”(Edinburgh) and.. 17/
...”If a trans person informs a staff member that a word or phrasing is inappropriate or offensive, then that staff member should take their word for it, and adjust their phraseology accordingly” (UCL) 18/
Upshot: Stonewall doesn't belong in UK Universities (or schools, or gov departments, or local authorities, or judiciary, or police forces..) Once a great organisation, they’re now a threat to freedom of speech/ public understanding. Get them out https://www.stonewall.org.uk/diversity-champions-members /End.
