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To be perfectly honest I’m not sure I agree with her view but this is a space where you can have these views.”

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Maxmilian Dierner, 22, who is doing a history Master’s degree, said: “I’m supporting it from a free speech point of view.

Others supporting Prof Stock carried Suffragette flags or wore “adult human female” T-shirts, while others who had tickets to the event said that regardless of Prof Stock’s views, she had a right to be heard, even if they did not agree with her. I’m a sportswoman at heart and we had to deal with drug cheats back in the Seventies and Eighties and seeing men in women’s sports has really got me going.” ‘I’m supporting it from a free speech point of view’ I’m part of a second wave of feminists from the Seventies. Mrs Baxter said Prof Stock was “so brave”, adding: “Most people are terrified to speak out. They were met by a small number of counterprotesters including Hilary Baxter, 64, a former IT worker from Brackley, who held a placard saying “We support Kathleen Stock. Protesters carried placards stating that “Hate speech is not free speech”, “The Oxford Union is transphobic” and “Take stock of trans rights”. Prof Stock said it is “not fair on females” for trans women to enter their spaces, asking: “Why should females take this burden on?”Īhead of Prof Stock’s talk, a few hundred people turned out for a rally in nearby Bonn Square where speakers said they were “fighting for their rights” and took part in chants of “trans rights are human rights” and “no borders, no nation, trans liberation”.Īctivists attempted to drown out the talk as they played These Boots Are Made For Walking, and Girls Just Want to Have Fun. She said that “at least 50 per cent” of trans women in prison were there for sexual assault. Upon release the activist was greeted at the back entrance by cheering protesters before returning to the front of the venue where the crowd chanted “Terf lies cost lives”.Īsked about her views that transgender women who were born male should not be allowed in women’s changing rooms, Prof Stock told the Union that those who think trans people are not violent “should speak to a criminologist”. Thames Valley Police was contacted for comment. The protester told reporters that they had been arrested and then de-arrested by police, pending further investigation. Possnett said trans rights “should not be up to debate” and wrote on Twitter that those who had come to listen to Prof Stock should consider the “dangerous consequences” of her views, after the academic was accused of transphobia by the Oxford University LGBTQ+ society in the lead up to the event. In response, more than 100 Oxford academics and staff signed a letter supporting students who opposed the talk by Prof Stock. More than 100 students also wrote to the Telegraph supporting free speech. It was backed by more than 40 academics who warned students in a letter to the Telegraph that free speech was at risk over attempts to block Prof Stock from speaking at the Union. The Union, a fee-paying members club which is independent of the university, refused to cancel the event and said it would protect free speech. Oxford University’s LGBTQ+ society and a group of junior common rooms had urged the Union to cancel the planned event with Prof Stock, arguing that her belief that trans women are not women is harmful to the trans community. She told the Union said it would “take courage” for people to realise that “the world does not end” when you have disagreements. She said that had happened in some universities. “Generally what I find more worrying is when institutions listen to protesters and take that voice through into the institution and basically become propaganda machines for a particular point of view and then everyone else in that institution feels that they can’t say what they want to say,” she said.

She said she did not find it “traumatic” to have protesters outside the event and said that students in her generation staged similar protests. Prof Stock told the Union that some universities were “becoming propaganda machines for a particular point of view”. The Prime Minister said: “Kathleen Stock’s invitation to the Oxford Union should stand”. In a rare intervention in a campus free speech row, Rishi Sunak warned on Sunday that “a free society requires free debate”.

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