Latest news with #KathleenStock
Telegraph
4 days ago
- Business
- Telegraph
‘I was hounded out of my publishing job over gender-critical beliefs'
A publisher has claimed she was hounded out of her job because of her gender-critical beliefs. Ursula Doyle sued Hachette, a large publishing house, where she worked until coming under fire from pro-transgender activists for publishing the 2021 book Material Girls. The work by Kathleen Stock is critical of gender ideology, the belief that people can self-identify as men or women. Ms Doyle claimed she was 'effectively punished' by Hachette for publishing the book and for her own gender-critical beliefs. She resigned last year after being 'hounded out' of the company, which had 'created a hostile working environment for me and anyone else who shares my views'. 'Battle for sex realism' She claimed this included Hachette rolling out a transgender inclusion policy that allowed biological men to use women's bathrooms in the office. Following a legal battle funded by £63,000 in donations, Ms Doyle has now reached an undisclosed settlement with Hachette, according to her legal team. She said in a statement: 'In bringing this case, I hoped to demonstrate conclusively that employers cannot allow staff to be subjected to abuse because of their lawful views, nor ignore women's rights to single-sex spaces. 'The battle for sex realism continues,' she added. When launching her crowd-funded legal battle last year, Ms Doyle raised concerns that activists deliberately targeted the publishing industry to suppress free speech and stifle criticism of gender ideology. She wrote: 'When you consider the impact these books have had on the conversations around sex and gender, it is easy to understand why publishing has been a key strategic target for gender identity activists. 'Their attempts to suppress all dissent at source have made the sector a hostile environment for anyone who dares to stand up for reality and freedom of expression. 'These tactics mean it is difficult for gender-critical books to find a publisher, and almost impossible for any authors who want to sell books on other topics to speak up on this subject.' Online abuse Ms Doyle claimed Hachette did nothing to protect her from online abuse directed at her for publishing Material Girls. She said the policy allowed 'men who say they are women to use women's toilets and shower facilities', adding that it discriminated against women who worked for Hachette. She also claimed Hachette undermined her by shifting responsibility for the paperback editions of Material Girls to another part of the company, which damaged her reputation as a publisher. 'Heavy five o'clock shadow' Ms Doyle's legal battle came following a string of other rows over the influence of gender ideology in publishing. In 2023, Gillian Philip, the children's author, claimed she was dropped by her employer after publicly supporting JK Rowling's critical views on transgender issues. She ultimately lost her legal battle. That same year, Sibyl Ruth, the gender-critical editor, said she was dropped by a literary consultancy after stating that the idea of someone with a 'heavy five o'clock shadow' being a woman 'blows my mind'. Works by authors sceptical of transgender activism became the subject of an internal 'grievance' within the library service of Calderdale council, a local authority affiliated with the controversial LGBT charity Stonewall. The Telegraph revealed in 2023 that books critical of gender ideology were removed from public view by staff working for the council libraries service, and stashed out of sight in an off-limits storage space. Hachette has not admitted any liability, Ms Doyle said despite the settlement.
Times
21-05-2025
- Health
- Times
Sunday Times letters: Assisted dying and its effects on the NHS
Write to letters@ Balancing the books is not the only concern in end-of-life care — our priority is, and must remain, quality of life for patients and their loved ones. While Kathleen Stock raises important concerns about the assisted dying bill, her conflation of this legislation with the discontinued 'Liverpool care pathway' (LCP) is misplaced ('So this now counts as equality: making it easier for the poor and the vulnerable to die', comment, May 11). The LCP did not fail because hospitals were paid to withdraw treatment, fluids or nutrition. These were unintended consequences. Rather, it failed because of serious shortcomings in its implementation, including insufficient staff training, lack of individualised care and — critically — an absence of robust evaluation of its
Irish Times
04-05-2025
- Politics
- Irish Times
Why do we have a charter for thought control in Irish universities?
Last March the regulator for higher education in England issued a record fine of £585,000 (€685,000) to the University of Sussex. It found that Sussex's trans and non-binary policy statement had created a 'chilling effect' that was stifling free speech on sex and gender. The investigation came after events of 2021 when philosopher Kathleen Stock was forced out of her job at the university following a police warning that she was no longer safe on campus. She had been subjected to a sustained campaign of harassment for expressing her belief that males cannot become women. The most egregious parts of Sussex's policy were cut-and-pasted from a template created by UK charity Advance HE. As obscure as this charity may seem, it wields considerable power over Irish universities and its advice is already having a chilling effect on academic freedom in Ireland. Advance HE run a gender-equality award scheme called Athena Swan. Ireland's Higher Education Authority has decreed that all Irish universities must sign up to the Athena Swan Ireland Charter and will stand to lose access to research funding if they do not achieve an Athena Swan award within a specified time frame. Notably, participation in the charter in the UK is not mandatory and it is not linked to research funding. [ University changes gender identity policy that said refusal to use pronouns was 'unlawful' Opens in new window ] To be eligible for an award, Irish universities must commit to 'fostering an environment that creates collective understanding that individuals can determine and affirm their gender'. Universities are similarly required to promote the theory of intersectionality, an approach to equalities described by its creator as 'a provisional concept linking contemporary politics with postmodern theory'. READ MORE The Athena Swan Charter was adopted in Ireland 10 years ago to promote laudable goals of equality and diversity and to address the long-standing underrepresentation of women in sciences. Over time, however, its focus has shifted. While the Athena Swan Ireland principles require the active promotion of gender self-ID and intersectionality, they do not mention women at all. Arif Ahmed, who is responsible for ensuring academic freedom in the UK, has raised concerns about the risk Athena Swan poses to academic freedom. He has pointed out that 'the job of a university is to facilitate open debate – not to 'foster collective understanding' on any controversial matter'. Advance HE listened to concerns and changed the wording of the UK Athena Swan Charter. Strikingly, however, the wording of the Irish charter was not changed even though the Universities Act 1997 requires universities to preserve and promote academic freedom. It is hard to understand why a commitment which has been described as 'a charter for thought control' by the UK's academic freedom tsar could be viewed as acceptable in Ireland. How does one 'foster an environment that creates a collective understanding' other than by rewarding conformity and stigmatising dissent? In response to the fine levied against Sussex, Advance HE has written to UK universities to warn them of the dangers of using their template document. This is not the first time Advance HE has changed its guidance due to legal concerns. In 2021 Advance HE pulled its UK guidance on data collection on sex from its website. This was after the press highlighted that Advance HE had been telling UK universities to avoid collecting data on the sex of staff and students in favour of gender-identity data instead. This was despite UK universities being required by law to gather data on sex discrimination. Athena Swan Ireland continues to recommend disaggregating data on 'gender, presented by male, female and non-binary staff and students' despite the 'gender ground' in Ireland's equalities legislation referring to a binary category of male and female (allowing for a gender recognition certificate). This means that despite all the data collected for Athena Swan by Irish universities, there are no accurate statistics on the male/female breakdown in higher education. Numerous other concerns with Advance HE remain unaddressed. Their current guidance appears to be the source for gender identity and expression policies that have sprung up in Irish universities (including Ireland's oldest – Trinity College Dublin – and Ireland's largest – UCD ) which wrongly claim that it is unlawful discrimination to refuse to use a person's gender pronouns. According to Advance HE's guidance , preferred pronouns may include 'che/chim/chis/chimself' and 'Xe/hir/hirs/hirself'. If Advance HE cannot be relied upon to provide legally compliant guidance, HEIs might well question what they gain from the scheme at all. The statistics on Athena Swan do not show any positive impact of Athena Swan upon the representation of women in senior roles. In fact, they show that the higher the level of Athena Swan award achieved by an institution, the lower the representation of women in senior roles. Over the 20 years that the Athena Swan scheme has been running in the UK, the rights of women in UK universities have dramatically declined. Kathleen Stock is simply the most high-profile of a seemingly endless succession of belief discrimination cases caused by attempts to silence academics whose views don't align with policies that Advance HE has promoted. In the UK, however, at least women with different perspectives are now being heard. In Ireland, the chilling effect is so powerful that many women simply do not dare to speak. Colette Colfer is a lecturer in religions at South East Technological University . John Armstrong is a reader in financial mathematics at King's College London
Telegraph
18-04-2025
- Politics
- Telegraph
Stop weighing in on politics, universities told
Universities have been urged to stop weighing in on politics after a gender-critical academic was hounded out of her job. In a letter sent to all British universities on Wednesday, seen by The Telegraph, seven free speech organisations called on vice-chancellors to 'adopt a policy of institutional neutrality on social and political issues' that do not directly concern core academic matters. The groups cited the recent case of Prof Kathleen Stock, a gender-critical academic who was driven from her post at the University of Sussex after she raised the alarm over the institution's transgender policy. The letter, signed by groups including the Committee for Academic Freedom and prominent academics such as Prof Jo Phoenix, warned that universities had increasingly taken official stances on contentious issues in recent years. It said: 'This trend has contributed to the politicisation of higher education and created an untenable expectation that universities must weigh in on every major political or social debate. 'To ensure that all members of the academic community feel free to express their ideas without fear of repercussion, universities must remain neutral on matters of polarising public debate.' It comes after Prof Stock quit her job following criticism of Sussex's policy, which stated that academics must 'positively represent trans people and trans lives' in all relevant teaching. She said this prevented her from discussing gender-critical arguments with students. The Office for Students (OfS) ruled last month that Prof Stock 'felt unable to teach certain topics' as a result of the policy and hit the University of Sussex with a £585,000 fine for breaching free speech duties – the watchdog's largest sanction on record. In their letter on Wednesday, which was also sent to the OfS, free speech groups said the University of Sussex would likely have avoided this fine if it had 'remained neutral on what is a contested subject'. They claimed such instances created 'a chilling effect' on university campuses and helped foster 'an environment where attacking people for their viewpoints becomes acceptable'. The group of academics, which also includes Lord Young, the head of the Free Speech Union, and Lord Biggar, a philosophy professor at the University of Oxford, urged UK institutions to instead adopt the principle that 'the university is the home and sponsor of critics; it is not itself the critic'. This idea derives from the Kalven Report, a document produced by the University of Chicago in 1967 which called for US campuses to adopt positions of neutrality as they were rocked by violence during the Vietnam War. Just a handful of UK universities currently have 'institutional neutrality' policies in place, including Queen Mary University, the London School of Economics, and Imperial College London. By comparison, around 140 US universities have chosen to adopt impartiality clauses. It comes as American institutions gradually reverse a trend of issuing statements on hot-button issues, which accelerated around a decade ago in the wake of the Black Lives Matter movement. Some have claimed the shift towards neutrality at US universities has also been hastened by the Israel-Hamas war, which saw some institutions, including Harvard, chastised for taking a view. Institutional neutrality refers to when universities formally adopt a statement of impartiality in their governing documents or policies. The term also means universities refrain from adopting 'particular political, social or ideological viewpoints or agendas', flying flags associated with them, or pressuring staff and students to support certain agendas. The free speech groups said exemptions should apply only when the topics in question relate to a university's 'core functions', such as education, research, and the pursuit of its charitable objects, or when legally required to do so. Lord Hague, the new chancellor of the University of Oxford, appeared to voice his support for institutional neutrality earlier this year, saying in his inaugural speech that Oxford did 'not need to agree on everything'. He said: 'Indeed we should not. I am pleased to say we do not need a foreign policy: we are not a country.' Prof Arif Ahmed, the Government's free speech tsar, also spoke in favour of institutional neutrality prior to his appointment as the director of academic freedom at the OfS in 2023. In an article for Unherd in 2022, Prof Ahmed said the OfS 'should recommend both the scrapping of political training and the adoption of institutional neutrality'. He wrote to a select number of universities with similar transgender policies to the University of Sussex earlier this month urging them to review their guidelines. It comes after the University of Sussex condemned its treatment by the OfS and said it is 'being made an example to other universities' as part of efforts to stoke the 'culture wars'. Critics of institutional neutrality more broadly argue that it prevents universities from taking a firm stance against issues such as anti-Semitism. They also say that neutrality clauses allow vice-chancellors to sidestep difficult subjects, often for fear of deterring donors. William Mackesy, the founder of the Alumni For Free Speech group, told The Telegraph: 'One of the best ways for universities to detoxify their campuses is to stop taking sides. But do they really care enough? 'Legal and regulatory catastrophes are coming for our universities, like that recently suffered by Sussex. These are caused by the various ways they are failing to protect people with sometimes controversial views. The risk can, though, be minimised by adopting a mindset of neutrality.'
Telegraph
18-04-2025
- Politics
- Telegraph
‘We are called fascists because we believe lesbian events have a right to be women-only'
'There used to be loads of venues in London for lesbians,' says Lyndsay, a 30-year-old investment banker. Note that the bank she works for has been shortlisted for one of the growing number of equality and diversity awards – yet she, as a lesbian, doesn't feel safe. 'Unless lesbians go out of our way to say we believe that trans women are literal women,' Lyndsay says, 'the assumption is that we are transphobic bigots, and our reputations are trashed.' 'Please just use my first name,' she says, 'because if I am identified as being in any way gender critical, trans activists will never leave me alone.' We meet at Sapphic Central, a spacious pub in central Balham, south-west London, which hosts a lesbian night once a month. The popular evening is always packed, with a DJ in the basement. Rickety stairs lead up to an outdoor space, lined with empty beer barrels, where half of the women congregate to smoke and chat. In 2022, I founded The Lesbian Project (co-directed by former philosophy professor Kathleen Stock), to focus on the needs of same-sex attracted females as distinct from gay men and gender identity. We, alongside other interested parties, are currently awaiting a decision from the Supreme Court as to whether it is legal for lesbians to assemble in groups of more than 25 at a public venue. Over the past decade and more, extreme trans activism has influenced our major institutions, from charities to universities – even our legal system. And as a result of the mantra 'trans women are women', alongside 'no debate', lesbian dating has been driven underground. But on Wednesday, judges sitting in the Supreme Court ruled that a man claiming to be a woman, even if he has a Gender Recognition Certificate, cannot claim to be legally a lesbian. This means that trans women (biological men) cannot demand entry to a lesbian-only event or venue. And if a space or service is designated as women-only, such as a lesbian bar, a person who was born male but identifies as a woman does not have a right to use that space. The ruling is a huge relief, as although venues might still choose not to host lesbian-only events, they will be able to cite this ruling to trans activists who put pressure on them to cancel. The Lesbian Project officially intervened in the case, brought by For Women Scotland. In our submission, we argued that men being able to identify as women, and therefore as lesbians, created a 'chilling effect', because it prevents us from having events free from men. Back in the 1980s and 1990s, the biggest threat posed to lesbians gathering at a publicised social event was that of thuggish, straight men, boozed up on cheap lager and angry that some women rejected their charms. But today, the danger is from social justice warriors, intoxicated on rigorousness, and an insistence that men claiming to be women can also be lesbians and should not be excluded. 'Every single tactic we use to meet in person, trans activists have done their best to spoil it,' says Lucy, (who does not wish to use her second name). Lucy, 44, a former firefighter who attended the Grenfell disaster, has now retrained as a family law barrister. 'They purposely stand in our way. And in recent years, it has got worse.' In 2020, Lucy was thrown off Hinge, the popular dating app, for stating that she was only interested in meeting biological women. Hinge disagreed – within 24 hours, she was permanently suspended, saying that she was banned for 'breaching their guidelines'. In response, Lucy took the story to the media. When I contacted Hinge for a right of reply, they said: 'We understand that dating is personal. Users are encouraged to show up as their most authentic selves, and are welcome to share their beliefs, values, and preferences on Hinge. What we do not tolerate is hate speech or harassment. 'This includes making false reports against any user for reasons around their sexuality, relationship preferences, and (actual or perceived) gender identity.' A lack of lesbian-only spaces There is one dating app specifically for lesbians: it's called Her, and Lucy had already given it a try. But she encountered a new problem. 'Every other profile is a man claiming to be a woman, and presenting themselves as ultra sexualised.' It was on Tinder that Lucy eventually met her girlfriend, but even there 'you are getting a ton of profiles that are meant to be female-seeking-female where it is just men pretending to be females'. She feels that there needs to be a major step change in the way these apps are run. 'The apps need to be policed so that men are identified early on, when they attempt to join. There is good facial recognition software being used in other countries.' Lucy recalls the early days, in the late Nineties, when she first came to London. 'It was magical. On Lewisham High Road, where I lived, there were three lesbian bars.' Twenty years ago there were dozens of lesbian-only bars across London, and several in towns and cities elsewhere in Britain. Today, aside from the odd pop-up evening, there are virtually none that are exclusively for lesbians. For seven years Jenny Watson, 33, a former town planner, ran twice monthly women-only speed-dating events at the College Arms in Bloomsbury, central London, often attracting more than a hundred women. But in an abrupt turn of events, in July 2023, a new general manager John Mason was appointed, who had a very different view of what should constitute a night out for lesbians. As Mason, the incoming general manager of the College Arms wrote in the 'London against transphobia' WhatsApp group, set up to oppose the women-only gig, 'I want their bookings cancelled'. He continued with: 'F---ing f---ers if they are using my new pub they are f---ing gone terfy a--holes.' After identifying himself as 'non-binary' and stating that he has a 16-year-old 'trans child', he continued: 'In a worst case scenario where I'm told I have to honour those bookings, I'll be in the market for a bunch of trans flags to redecorate the basement with… Just to reiterate and when I run any dating s--t... for lesbians, it'll be defined as anyone who identifies as a lesbian... Trans or cis.' Directly before posting in this group, he said to Watson, 'I'm not making part of my venue exclusive where certain people can't attend'. When she asked him whether, in principle, he would agree to the venue hosting a female lesbian-only event, he responded: 'Not if it's during open trade.' No notice was given to Watson, and she was forced to cancel the next advertised evening. She contacted a lawyer from solicitor firm Doyle Clayton who sent a formal legal letter on her behalf to the venue, arguing that what they had done was discrimination under the Equality Act. The company that owned the venue at the time, Stonegate, reversed the cancellation on paper – but the venue had become 'toxic' said Watson, and she was too scared to continue the event, knowing it was under the radar of trans activists. 'These events were community lifelines,' says Watson. 'It wasn't just dating – it was safety, connection, and joy. No one gave lesbians space like that, so I built it. Now I'm building it again – but this time, no one gets to pull the plug.' Austin Whelan, the CEO of Whelan Pubs told me by email that, 'We would like to clarify that we took over the business in August 2024 and have no involvement with any events or matters from previous years. As a result, we are unable to provide a statement regarding past occurrences'. These activist groups are mainly nascent and face this same struggle to find venues. One group, Queer Nerds for Anti-Fascism, talked about infiltrating Watson's events, presenting this as a perfectly legitimate strand of anti-fascist activism. 'They say we are fascists because we believe lesbian events have a right to be women-only,' says Watson. Since then she has been hard at work on her latest project, L Community, a unique online platform that acts as a meeting place for lesbians, both virtually and in person. L Community events are word-of-mouth only, and kept off social media. 'It's the only way, because they [trans activists] just turn up.' She realised that relying on the venues formerly used wasn't going to work, because trans activists would always try to close them down. Watson is very clear about one thing: 'I want the cornerstone to be physical spaces and women interacting in person, not just online.' Kelly Frost, an artist, aged 49, is another lesbian who has learnt from bitter experience that running a women-only night at a so-called LGBTQ+ venue is unlikely to end well. Heated campaigns against such 'transphobic' and 'trans-exclusionary' practices are quickly initiated, and venue owners, managers and even bar staff, inundated with threats and complaints – and fearful of losing their livelihoods, tend to cave in to the pressure. This is what happened to Frost, who had been successfully running regular 'Shabby She' events at the Bridge House in Penge for eight years. In February 2023 she announced that Shabby She would be strictly for 'biological women' only. Frost's decision was because the presence of trans-identified men had been intrusive, and had been causing women to self-exclude. These events offer much-needed relief to lesbians. 'Women come to us and say, 'oh my God, it's so great to find a women-only space',' says Frost. But very soon after announcing that the group (which had previously tolerated the presence of the occasional trans woman) would henceforth be for women only, she was informed by Scott, the publican, that complaints were coming in. 'The complaints made to the pub were that we were 'transphobic' 'exclusionary' and 'making trans women unsafe', says Frost. At first, the staff told Frost that she needn't worry because they were such long-standing, valued customers. But 24 hours after the first complaint, they were thrown out – on the basis that their event was 'too risky'. 'We had a strong feeling that we would lose the venue and so, whilst we were gutted and worried if and how we could bounce back, at the same time, there was relief. The lie that men were welcome at Shabby She was over,' says Frost. Frost has had to find an alternative venue and start over, though 'we've never got numbers anywhere near what we had'. She is reluctant to make public the name of the venue, in case it is similarly targeted. This time Frost decided to 'go underground', to not advertise except by word-of-mouth, and book the space as if it was a personal get-together. A staff member from Bridge House, who refused to give his name, told me how management made the decision to cancel the arrangement with Frost and cited a notice on social media she had posted, announcing the strict women-only policy. 'The fact it was sent around to all the people who were in the group and it made it quite clear in it that she wasn't interested in having trans ladies in the group,' he said. 'We are an all-inclusive business, and everyone is welcome. Because, sorry, no offence, but we're paying the rent, we're paying the wages.' 'Lesbians are nothing if not brave' LGB Alliance (LGBA) is a charity providing support, advice, information and social events to people who are same-sex attracted. It currently has 36 LGBA Friends' Groups, with most (not all) very much lesbian-dominated, and the vast majority lesbian-led – possibly because gay men have not lost their spaces in the same way. LGBA has (unjustly) been described as 'anti-trans' by PinkNews, and a 'hate group' by Guardian hard-Left columnist Owen Jones, and the lawyer Jolyon Maugham. La Camionera on Broadway Market in Hackney, east London, is a very publicly 'trans-inclusive' bar; its name means 'female truck driver' or 'butch lesbian' in Spanish. It has a different feel than a women-only space exclusively for lesbians as it has to cope with men sporting earrings, lipstick and a penis. At least here, there is an openness – and perhaps it doesn't feel that different from the old days, when we could bring gay men as guests, and often a drag queen or two would show up. Alex, the co-owner of La Camionera is transgender, and uses male pronouns. He tells me, when I ask how he feels about the fact that some lesbians are upset at losing women-only space: 'We've said, 'anyone can come', but it's more than 99 per cent of the time just women in there. When we first opened, we got a lot of people commenting on us being, are you trans friendly? Are you bisexual friendly? I didn't really feel the need to confirm all that.' 'By calling the bar a lesbian bar, everyone's 'oh yeah, being a lesbian is cool'. And the default should be that we don't have to extrapolate massively on these terms.' 'In some ways we have gone backwards,' admits Lucy. 'But we are not giving up. We will keep opening and running lesbian events, whatever trans activists throw at us, and however hard they try to shut them down. Lesbians are nothing if not brave.'
