UCU must stand up for academic freedom on sex and gender

I totally agree with academic freedom and uphold the right of these women to oppose transgender ideology without reprisal or hindrance. But these have ALWAYS been the tactcis of the LGBT movement., There is nothing new here! The article claims "These scholars have faced campaigns of blacklisting and smears, no platforming and professional disinvitations, organised efforts to get them fired, and rape and death threats. The level of hostility, hatred and often overtly misogynistic bullying faced by these scholars does not compare to anything we have seen in other debates within academia, even the most contentious." Wrong. LGBTs have been using these these tactics for at least 20 years to bully their way into dominance in academia and elsewhere. They have bullied many doctors, medical researchers, teachers, lecturers, and other professionals out of their jobs. They bullied Brendan Eich out of Mozilla, and bullied the CEO of Chick-fil-A literally to death. They bully many other people to death all the time. They bullied August Ames to death last year, and there are endless examples. The whole LGBT movement is an ugly, nasty, tyranny that is opposed to moral and intellectual freedom. I bet you delete this message because they control your webpage as well.

Great and timely article. Debate should be open, reasonable and slogan-free. No woman academic should feel afraid of expressing her opinion, and heads of school and university administration should take a much more proactive role to make sure threats of retaliation and demands for silencing are met with the contempt they deserve.

I have been following this issue for about two years now. I came to the issue through concern for freedom of speech - and the more important freedom of thought - and not through feminism. It is clear that the questioning of 'trans agenda' is being mostly carried forward by feminists, but this could be because feminists have, through existing feminist networks, channels where they can discuss and campaign on this issue. But are the (various) lines of feminist though the right hammer to hit the nail with? Could it be that whatever is happening and the answers to what is happening lie outside feminist thinking and may need a totally different way of examination?

There is so much I am tempted to say here, but as a parent of a trans teen, I'll focus on accuracy. I note the misleading reference to the Tavistock's work. GIDS does not offer surgical procedures to children. Surgical procedures are only available to those over 18. Hormonal intervention does take place in a relatively small number of cases of the children who present at the Tavistock. It does not happen lightly and starts with a year of puberty blockers, several assessments of both the child and their family situation. The waiting list to even be seen is now over 20 months, which means that even when puberty blockers are felt to be appropriate, the majority of children has already started puberty, and teenagers have lived as their preferred gender for at least twenty months. In practice, the child has lived through gender change much longer, as children often take a long time to come out to their parents, and parents rarely go down the referral route immediately. In short, academic freedom is a great good worth fighting for, but so is accuracy, especially by academics. Surgical procedures are not offered to children, and hormonal interventions only to a small number of highly tested, assessed and monitored part of the many children coming forward with gender dysphoria. If nothing else, let's be accurate. I will leave it to biologist or endocrinologist to explain the 'there are only two sexes' assertion, which is also inaccurate.