Pro-trans activists walk out of gender-critical author's Oxford talk
A group of pro-trans activists staged a walkout of a gender-critical author's talk at the University of Oxford.
Journalist Helen Joyce, who describes herself as a 'sex realist' and declared perceived transgender ideology as 'the medical scandal of the 21st century', had just entered the Balliol College building on Thursday night when there was a mass exodus of attendees.
Activists were seen holding aloft signs which included messages saying 'trans kids deserve better' and 'sex-based concerns are the thin end of the fascist wedge'.
Ms Joyce, 56, had been invited to speak at the college's Philosophy Society to discuss transgender issues.
Before the event, the journalist and author, who was previously an editor at The Economist, said that the 'crybullies' would think her 'mainstream and factual beliefs are the most extreme hatefulness'.
More than 650 people have now signed a petition to 'protest transphobia' at the university, which it said was giving a 'platform [to] transphobic speakers'.
Ms Joyce wrote the 2021 bestseller, Trans: When Ideology Meets Reality, and is also the director of advocacy at human rights charity, Sex Matters.
She has been a vocal critic of trans women in women's sport and advocated for women's only spaces, as she claims that currently 'the desires of a tiny minority of men outweigh the rights of women'.
At the talk, she was questioned about remarks she made in 2022, in which she suggested 'keeping down or reducing the number of people who transition to limit the harm done' and that those who believe in 'gender identity ideology' are a 'huge problem in the sane world'.
'That's going to be my epitaph, I'm very proud of myself,' Ms Joyce responded.
Speaking of the empty seats left by the protesters against her talk, she continued: 'Look at this, it's absolute insanity. It is not good for you to cut off body parts or to take hormones. If you can live with the body you were born with, that's a better outcome.
'People who believe that men can be women and women can be men and believe in it sufficiently strongly that they act on it are rights destroying people.
'They are people who advocate for men to go into women's spaces… they advocate for children to be sterilised.
'If you believe you can tell children lies about what sex is and you can put children on the path to sterilisation before they are old enough to have an orgasm, you are… what I said was it was a 'huge problem in a sane world.''
But Charlie McEvoy, 23, who attended the event, told The Times: 'She [Joyce] loves to repeat the idea of ideology and imposition, but most transgender people don't want to be noticed.
'Transgender people at Oxford just want to live peacefully. I just want to live my life and be safe.'
Balliol College's master told the university's student paper the event had been organised by a student society meaning it 'saw no grounds to refuse permission for the talk to take place'.
Ms Joyce told The Telegraph she had been greeted with far less hostility than a previous university talk and believes things have got a 'lot better'.
'People with views that are unpopular on campus should get a good deal braver,' she said. 'The crybullies are still crying, but they are not bullying.'
She said she would prefer if those who walked out had stayed in and engaged in discussion of the topic.
'They think that I'm some massive bigot,' she added. 'The thing is, most people think like I do – hardly anyone thinks what they do.'
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(archived) – Entry clearance visas granted outside the UK (archived page and spreadsheet, using tab Data_Vis_D02) Australian Department of Home Affairs – Visitor visa statistics (archived) Australian Department of Home Affairs – Working Holiday Maker visa program report (archived) New Zealand Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment – Migration data explorer (archived page and downloaded spreadsheet. To download the correct spreadsheet, instructions can be found at (archived): In dataset select 'W1 work decisions', in time period select 'calendar year' and in variables select 'application substream', 'application criteria' and 'decision type') Canadian data provided to PA news agency (archived) Madeleine Sumption profile (archived)
