A growing number of University professors and academics are being sacked or choosing to resign for speaking out about gender, sex and freedom.
More and more academics are finding themselves in the centre of rows and oftentimes harassed over their views on gender identification and transgender rights.
Outlined below are ten cases which outline the problem of prejudice toward gender-critical staff and students widespread in higher education.
Heather Brunskell-Evans was no-platformed by university students after she discussed transgender issues on a radio show
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Heather Brunskell-Evans
Heather Brunskell-Evans, a research fellow at King’s College London, was no-platformed by university students after she discussed transgender issues on a radio show.
In 2017, Brunskell-Evans was asked by medical students from the Reproductive and Sexual Health Society at King’s to give a talk on the subject of pornography and the sexualisation of young women.
However, she was told that the event was cancelled because of concerns that her views on “transgender health . . . would violate the student union’s ‘Safe Space’ policy.”
On the radio show, the academic questioned the advice being given to schools by transgender organisations that positive affirmation was the only correct way to support children who expressed confusion over their gender.
Jo Phoenix
In 2019, Jo Phoenix was the target of harassment from her colleagues at the Open University (OU) after she raised concerns about the silencing of gender-critical voices in academia.
In 2021, she co-founded an academic research network for the explorations of issues of sex and gender.
This was followed by hundreds of colleagues circulating an open letter calling for the OU to withdraw support from the network and falsely claiming she and her co-founders were hostile to trans people’s human rights.
The stress and harm to her reputation left Phoenix in a state of trauma and unable to work.
In February 2024 an employment tribunal found the OU liable for more than 25 counts of belief discrimination and harassment.
The Open University did not adequately protect Phoenix, the tribunal heardTwitter/Jo Phoenix/Jaggery via Geograph
James Caspian
James Caspian, a psychologist specialising in therapy for transgender people, was barred by Bath Spa University to pursue research into people who reverse gender reassignment.
Caspian was told the subject was “potentially politically incorrect” and risked triggering attacks on social media.
Caspian tried to challenge the December 2016 decision in court but was advised to use the university’s complaint system.
The university delayed the process so it was not yet finished when it came to court and subsequently, the legal action was thrown out.
Caspian said: “Suppression of freedom of speech in universities has become a widespread problem and a threat to critical thinking and a democratic society. I believe that the only way we will change this is through the courts.”
Rachel Ara
In 2019, a feminist artist who was due to speak at Oxford Brookes University had her talk cancelled at the last minute after students from the LGBTQ+ society accused her of having transphobic views.
The event was cancelled after students wrote to the university’s pro vice-Chancellor to claim Ara was a “trans exclusionary radical feminist” who “frequently shares transphobic discourse on her social media.”
In 2020, Ara said she was prepared to sue under the government’s free speech law after her work dried up following the incident.
Ara said that her commissions were reduced and she was not invited to give any more lectures after the accusations against her stating: “It has completely affected my career. People assume I am actually transphobic.”
Dr John Armstrong had his academic research shut down after calling trans women “males”
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Dr John Armstrong
Dr John Armstrong, a scholar at King’s College London (KCL), was shut down after calling trans women “males.”
Dr Armstrong had applied to carry out a survey of elite athletes and volunteers on whether trans women, who were born male, should compete in women’s track and field categories.
However, the university’s ethics panel rejected his application over equality and diversity concerns.
In a rejection letter, the university said: “The language is not sensitive and the misgendering of athletes is not appropriate… there is obvious bias in the language and there is very little scientific reasoning underpinning the hypothesis.”
Armstrong said: “They appear to be trying to prevent me from using the concept of sex at all. I am not misgendering any individuals, I am just accurately using the terms male and female.
“I’m being blocked from conducting research and it’s impacting upon my academic freedom.”
Kathleen Stock
Kathleen Stock, a philosophy professor, resigned from the University of Sussex because of “a medieval experience” of campus ostracism and protests.
Stock found herself in the middle of a row over her views on gender identification and transgender rights after arguing transgender people cannot expect all the rights afforded by biological sex.
In an interview in 2021, Stock said a lack of support from her colleagues and the unions led her to resign.
She said her “personal tipping point” came after Sussex’s branch of the University and College Union responded to protests on campus against Stock by calling for a university-wide investigation into transphobia.
She said: “It was when I saw my own union branch’s statement, which basically backed the protesters and implicitly made it obvious that they thought I was transphobic and accused Sussex University of institutional transphobia.”
Stock has always claimed she is not anti-trans, despite what her critics say.
Simone Buitendijk
Prof Simone Buitendijk, Imperial’s Vice Provost of Education, was forced to issue a “grovelling apology” for causing “hurt or anxiety” after students noticed she shared articles on X branded “transphobic.”
Over 80 students signed a letter urging her to “publicly respond” to their concerns leading Buitendijk to vow she would stop any engagement with the accounts the students had an issue with.
One group students had a problem with was Transgender Trend, a group that describes themselves as a parent support network “concerned about the current trend to diagnose children as transgender.”
The group’s founder, Stephanie Davies-Arai, denied the account was transphobic and said: “It is a free speech issue. She has an absolute right to read and share what she wants and to speak in a personal capacity.”
Claire Fox
Baroness Claire Fox, the founder of the Institute of Ideas free speech think tank, was disinvited from a university debating society over her support of a Transgender joke by Ricky Gervais.
Fox was invited to speak at Royal Holloway, University of London, about the importance of discussion.
However, the university’s debating society argued it was “strong armed” and “bullied” into cancelling the talk by the Royal Holloway’s students’ union (RHSU).
Fox tweeted her support of a video of the comedian Ricky Gervais doing a stand-up routine in which he joked about “the old fashioned women, you know, the ones with wombs” and “the new ones we’ve been seeing lately with beards and c—-”.
Maia Jarvis, RHSU’s president, flagged this to the society branding the joke as “overtly transphobic.”
Claire Fox was disinvited from a university debating society for supporting a Transgender joke by Ricky Gervais
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Linda Bellos
Linda Bellos, a leading feminist, was barred from speaking at Cambridge University amid concerns that transgender activists could oppose her.
Bellos had been invited to speak by the Beard Society, a feminist group which hosts talks by leading feminists, at Peterhouse College back in 2017.
But this invitation was later withdrawn after telling organisers she would be “publicly questioning some of the trans politics…which seems to assert the power of those who were previously designated male to tell lesbians, and especially lesbian feminists, what to say and think.”
In response, a representative of the Beard Society responded: “I’m sorry but we’ve decided not to host you. I too believe in freedom of expression, however Peterhouse is as much a home as it is a college. The welfare of our students in this instance has to come first.”
Bellos, who has dedicated her adult life to liberation politics, also faced private legal action in 2018 for saying at a public meeting that if associates of a trans woman who assaulted a 60-year-old feminist approached her with hostile intent, she would fight back.
Kevin Lister
Kevin Lister was sacked for not using a 17-year-old biologically female student by their preferred male name and he/him pronouns in September 2022.
The teacher complained that he was unfairly sacked by New College Swindon but the case was dismissed by an employment tribunal.
Lister told the employment tribunal he “took issue with the demand on me to socially transition children who are unable to make an informed decision.
“That is the intention of the policy – to encourage children to socially transition and to push them towards transgender lobby groups.”
In a later social media post, Lister said: “Very bad news for the teaching profession and the thousands of families that have been destroyed by this ideology in schools. I lost.
“I represented myself because I had to, not because I wanted to. The NEU withdrew their support. My insurance company would not pay. And I didn’t want to draw down on anyone else.
“I do not know what to say to all the teachers who are horrified about having to support this terrible ideology, and have left the profession over it, nor to the families that have been torn apart by it.”
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