A group of Oxford academics claim “coercion and financial threats” are being used to force the Oxford Union debating club to cancel an appearance by Kathleen Stock.
Stock, a former university professor who argues that transgender people cannot expect all the rights afforded by biological sex, is due to speak at the Oxford Union later this month. Her appearance is opposed by several LGBTQ+ groups and student organisations in the city.
In a letter published in the Daily Telegraph, the group of academics said they “wholeheartedly condemn” a decision by the Oxford University student union (OUSU) to bar the Oxford Union from having a stall at the freshers’ fair, which the group say is an attempt to cut the Oxford Union off from recruiting new members as a result of the invitation to Stock.
“This is dangerous territory. Universities exist, among other things, to promote free inquiry and the disinterested pursuit of the truth by means of reasoned argument. To resort to coercion and financial threats when unable to secure one’s preferred outcome in debate would represent a profound failure to live up to these ideals,” the letter states.
The 45 signatories include the author Richard Dawkins; Timothy Williamson, the university’s Wykeham professor of logic; Nigel Biggar, a professor of theology; and Prof Carl Heneghan, director of the Centre for Evidence-Based Medicine.
