Union leaders at the University of Edinburgh are calling for the launch of a new book of gender critical essays to be cancelled, claiming the institution must act against an “event that contests the legitimacy of trans people and their rights”.
In a letter to Edinburgh’s principal Sir Peter Mathieson, the local University and College Union branch committee asks the university to stop a public event to mark the launch of a new Routledge book, titled Sex and Gender: A Contemporary Reader, due to be held on 11 October.
The book, which is billed by its publisher as a “much-needed exploration of the relationship between sex, gender and gender identity”, includes essays by some of the UK’s best-known gender critical feminists such as philosopher Kathleen Stock, University of Reading law professor Rosa Freedman and the writer Jane Clare Jones.
However, the letter, which has been circulated to about 2,000 local UCU members, claims Edinburgh has a duty to halt the event because it would conflict with the university’s “trans equality policy” that “protects trans staff and students from attacks of delegitimisation” and which states that “transphobic abuse, bullying or harassment will be treated very seriously”.
