Hundreds of transgender rights campaigners on Tuesday demonstrated in the UK against a university debate involving a gender-critical feminist academic.
Opponents of Kathleen Stock accuse her of transphobia for asserting that gender identity cannot trump biological sex.
The protest comes with trans issues featuring increasingly prominently in political discourse in the UK, and a wider debate about free speech, including at universities.
Among those on the receiving end of harsh criticism for her views on transgender issues has been the Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling.
Stock, a philosophy professor and writer, resigned from her post at the University of Sussex in southern England in 2021 after criticism by colleagues and students of her views.
She denies transphobia but campaigners have been incensed at an invitation for her to appear at the Oxford Union Society.
One protester glued themself to the floor at the talk and had to be removed by police.
The union, whose members are drawn from Oxford University, is independent of the institution and has hosted prominent speakers since it was founded in 1823.
“We’re standing up to hate and intolerance and a decision by the Oxford Union to amplify them and bring them to Oxford,” said Amiad Haran Diman, who chairs the university LGBTQ+ Society.
Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, a former Oxford student, waded in to the debate on Tuesday, telling the conservative Daily Telegraph: “A free society requires free debate.
“We should all be encouraged to engage respectfully with the ideas of others. We mustn’t allow a small but vocal few to shut down discussion.
“Kathleen Stock’s invitation to the Oxford Union should stand. Agree or disagree with her, Professor Stock is an important figure in this argument. Students should be allowed to hear and debate her views.”
Diman denied the demonstration, which saw between 200 to 300 people march through Oxford’s streets to the venue, was about stifling freedom of speech.
“She (Stock) is everywhere in the media,” they added.
“We’re not protesting her right to speech. We want to make that abundantly clear,” added Zoe-Rose Guy, vice-president of the student society.
“Free speech is free speech. You know, she has the right to say what she wants, but we’re allowed to protest.”
The protesters chanted slogans such as “Trans Power” and held up placards reading “Our existence is not up for debate” and “Trans lives matter”.
In the queue to attend the debate, Ian, a 69-year-old theology student who did not wish to give his surname, described the idea that Stock could be prevented from speaking as “absurd”.
He pointed out that the Oxford Union, whose controversial past invitees have included OJ Simpson and Marine Le Pen, has been defending freedom of expression for two centuries.
“They’re not going to stop,” he added.
