Trans rights: protests disrupt Oxford Union appearance by gender-critical academic Kathleen Stock

Protesters have interrupted a talk by a gender-critical academic - who says transgender women are not women - at Oxford University’s debating society.

LGBT+ campaigners had called on the Oxford Union to withdraw its invitation to Professor Kathleen Stock. Rishi Sunak had said the talk should go ahead, insisting that debate was a hallmark of a “tolerant society”.

Who is Kathleen Stock?

Stock made headlines in 2021 when she announced she would be leaving her job as a philosophy professor at the University of Sussex after what she described as a “very difficult few years”.

At the end of 2020, she was awarded an OBE for services to higher education. In response, more than 600 academic philosophers signed an open letter - criticising the government for honouring what they described as her “harmful rhetoric” on gender identity. Stock supports laws to protect transgender people from fear or violence, but has raised concerns about trans women having access to single-sex spaces like toilets and changing rooms, saying many of them are “still males with male genitalia”.

Following her resignation from Sussex, the university said campuses “must remain places where everyone - staff or student - has the right to, and benefits from, lawful freedom of speech” and Stock’s departure was “a loss to us all”.

What happened in Oxford?

Ahead of Stock’s talk on Tuesday (30 May), hundreds of LGBT+ protesters gathered in Oxford city centre and marched on the debating society.

Stock spoke for around 10 minutes before three protesters emerged from the audience shouting: “No more dead trans kids”. One glued themselves to the floor and was removed by police as security guards dealt with the others. Audience members booed the demonstrators, shouting for Stock to “carry on”.

Oxford University’s LGBTQ+ Society previously called on the Union to rescind Stock’s invitation, suggesting it was promoting and legitimising “hateful views”. It also accused the Union of “disregarding” the welfare of the society’s members under the guise of free speech - and more than 100 Oxford academics have signed a letter backing any students who wanted to challenge Stock. Earlier this month, 40 other academics wrote to the Daily Telegraph expressing their support for her.

What did Stock talk about?

Speaking after the demonstration, Stock said: “I actually don’t mind that protest. It wasn’t traumatic for me”.

“Generally what I find more worrying is that when institutions have listened to the protesters and then basically become propaganda machines for a particular point of view and everyone else feels they can’t say what they want to say.”

Stock then reiterated her view that trans women should not have access to female toilets and changing rooms, saying it was “not fair on females”, and cited statistics from the Ministry of Justice showing that “at least 50%” of trans women in prison are serving sentences for sexual assault.

What did Rishi Sunak say?

Speaking to the Telegraph ahead of the talk, the Prime Minister said: “A free society requires free debate. We should all be encouraged to engage respectfully with the ideas of others”.

“University should be an environment where debate is supported, not stifled. 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”.