A GENDER- critical feminist Prof Kathleen Stock should be allowed to deliver a speech at the Oxford University, says PM Rishi Sunak.
Rishi Sunak, whose involvement comes ahead of predicted protests against Professor Stock’s speech at an Oxford Union event, said the discussion was a sign of a “tolerant society.”
“A free society requires free debate. We should all be encouraged to engage respectfully with the ideas of others,” said Sunak.
“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.
“A tolerant society is one which allows us to understand those we disagree with, and nowhere is that more important than within our great universities,” he said.
The Oxford University LGBTQ+ Society has stated that it is standing up for its “right to protest and for trans rights,” while the university’s vice-chancellor has supported Prof Stock’s presence as a question of “free speech”.
There has been an increasingly bitter argument about whether Prof Stock should be permitted to participate in the debate. Some people believe her ideas on gender identity are transphobic.
In advance of the event, the LGBTQ+ Society at Oxford University has scheduled a protest at the union.
Prof Stock said she was “very determined to go ahead” with the debate. Some organisations have demanded that her invitation be withdrawn.
She said it was “important that people can hear what I have to say”, adding that she is “standing up to authoritarians who want to silence debate.
“It’s not hate speech to say that males cannot be women. Controversial and difficult ideas need to be tested in the public square, we need to think about them properly and we also need to enable discussion of ideas that seem attractive to people because if you try and shut it down there will be massive public resentment.”
Stock has also claimed that her views do not motivate her to fight for transgender people’s rights to “live their lives free from fear, violence, harassment, or any discrimination.”
On Tuesday (30), a coalition of Oxford organisations and campaigners will hold a Trans+ Pride event in the city centre, ending in a demonstration and march outside the Oxford Union, where Prof Stock is scheduled to talk at the 200-year-old debating society.
Prof Stock is a philosopher and former professor at the University of Sussex.
She opposed the planned revisions to the Gender Recognition Act in 2018, which would allow people to self-identify their gender without a diagnosis.
This year, she also criticised the government’s decision to outlaw conversion therapy, claiming that trans youngsters may need a “chance to think again.”
She resigned from the University of Sussex in October 2021, citing assaults from colleagues and student groups such as Anti Terf Sussex, an organisation comprised of queer, trans, and non-binary students.
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