CEFA

I always intended just to get my head down for the year and get on with it, but if this is how it’s going to be I don’t know if I can stand it. There are rainbows, rainbows everywhere, the visual signal that belief in gender identity is compulsory. It feels like studying in a one-party totalitarian state.

Earlier this week on the UCU picket line the group stopped their usual chants about pensions and relevant issues to spend several minutes chanting “No TERFs on our turf”. This was instigated by a woman and afterwards there was smiling and congratulations like a great statement had been made.

I am scared. This is McCarthyism

​I study at a university in Scotland. I believe the new trans movement is harming biological women, genuine trans people and lesbians. I am terrified to be called a TERF. It is particularly difficult because I have a friend who is transgender. I have cause to believe she is being groomed by another trans woman from her university. This is really concerning to me, yet I’m afraid to speak out. I feel isolated.

I write as a senior academic in a large university where I currently hold a high profile leadership role. My disciplinary background is in gender and medical sociology with my published outputs evenly distributed across these areas. That said, at my core I am a gender critical feminist with views about sex-based rights that have been developing over many years. I am relieved to have found this space. In my institution debate about sex and gender-based rights has been dominated by fear – all kinds of fear. Fear of harassment, fear of career destruction and fear of professional isolation. I too am fearful but not for too much longer. I am old (70 next year and, in the context of so much early death in my family, so happy to say that). So being here feels like the biggest achievement. I have no need to focus on career ambition or protecting my employment; soon it will be over. What is important is that we strive to ensure academic freedom to create an environment where dissenting views can be expressed in a climate of respect and tolerance. This is vital, especially for new and young career academics. For now I must be cautious and, on the advice of a small number of GC colleagues and because of the already controversial nature of my role, I will not publicly voice my GC views within the academy. I feel a sense of shame in saying this but so much would be put in jeopardy if I were to take the brave and authentic path. In less than a year I will be retired and I hope still able to contribute to this debate. For now, there may be workshops and seminars to join at which we can further develop and share ideas about how best to protect women and girls whilst at the same time providing support to trans gender people. The two must never be seen as mutually exclusive.

I teach feminism and, to the extent that I thought about trans issues at all, I was always supportive. I knew two trans women who were both sound, sensible people – I didn’t talk to them about trans issues because I wasn’t going to put them on the spot about personal and painful issues (those were the days when these things were personal). First trans student, about 2011, non-binary, AMAB, female presenting, later became she. No problem, great student, interesting, committed. Second trans student a year later, AMAB, transitioning to she, very quiet, again fine. Now a third of my students are women, presenting as non-binary, with either they/them pronouns or the even more asinine she/they. What began to peak me was an internet discussion, purportedly feminist, on trans women in female prisons. The particular people in question were convicted of rape, sexual assault and domestic violence, and, of course, were fully genitally intact males. One (brave) feminist opposed their inclusion in female prisons. She was rounded on immediately and accused of transphobia. An onslaught of ‘feminist’ questioning then began, did she not know that women were as capable as men of sex crimes? Feminists scooting around the internet trying to prove that women can rape! That was the first indication that I had of how misogynist this movement was. I really peaked then on another women’s support group, when children’s mothers were being congratulated by TRAs and trans people for affirming their children’s identity and any questioning on that, suggesting, for instance, that adolescence and puberty might just have some influence on identity, along with anorexia, ADHD, autism and so on, was instantly shut down as transphobic. This was on top of the inclusive language ‘chest feeders’, ‘menstruators’ etc. The group seemed to be composed mainly of trans people, trans women (logical, in that the support group is openly pro trans), but also trans men, who claim to be ‘triggered’ by the word ‘breast’ but stay in a support group with the word Women in it? The self-righteous, virtue-signalling cruelty exhibited on that site became too much to bear, with dissidents being shamed and directed to various ‘educational resources’. It was like a cult, very creepy. My university is not as bad as some, but we are all policing our language and thoughts; particularly those of us who are older as the current generation of students seems not only to believe in what I can only see as magical thinking, but is aggressive and provocative also, seeking to target and shame, with the help of younger colleagues, anyone tainted with second-wave feminism. I feel like a coward every day, and hate myself for not speaking up. I do so here, but anonymously. I hope if push comes to shove I do have the courage needed. Thank you for this site.

I am a graduate student in my late 30’s. I am currently completing my Master’s in the Humanities and hope to apply to a PhD program next year (2022). I am based on the East Coast of the United States.

I always had strong, nagging doubts about the trans and gender theory movements, but did not become fully gender critical until this year. Suddenly, “be kind” was no longer a viable strategy for me, as I saw trans and gender ideology intensifying among various people knew. I experienced a gradual buildup of resentment regarding women’s and lesbian/gay rights being eroded by trans ideology, which continues to be codified into laws throughout the Western world.

As a lesbian, I was initially hopeful about joining the university’s rainbow coalition during my first semester, until I realized that trans and non-binary issues were being highlighted at every turn. There was little to no diversity. No one seemed proud of being “just” gay, in a group that was supposedly centered on “pride”.

Gender theory surreptitiously creeped into my classes. I was made to read the word salad of Judith Butler or dissect the importance of terms like “Latinx” and neo-pronouns. Scholarships described as being for “female” students are quite literally open to all applicants; there is no requirement to actually BE female. Naturally, trans applicants are reassured that they are most welcome to apply. Trans feelings trump everything. Men who believe themselves to be women are permitted to apply for financial awards that should be uplifting women, and women only.

Since I am hoping to pursue a doctoral degree and career in academia, I am fearful that I will eventually be backed into a corner due to my gender critical views. I am afraid of being “cancelled” by trans and gender activists within academia who are offended by my refusal to abide by their belief system. I am horrified by the idea that my academic goals may be hindered or impeded by extreme ideology.

Thank you for bringing academic GC voices together

I was very shocked to see the very violent and sexualised nature of the attack on J. K. Rowling after she questioned the lack of common sense in referring to women as ‘people who menstruate’. Shortly afterward an email came addressed to all staff at Queen Mary, University of London. It was a statement against the ‘misogyny currently being directed towards transwomen’. There was no balancing statement deploring the misogyny directed towards women. It was quite unnerving to realise that overt and violent misogyny was being implicitly endorsed by my employer. Rape is ok again in 2020! It also made me realise that if I expressed out loud at work my concern about women whose level of English isn’t good enough to understand the word ‘menstruate’ accessing health care, I would be considered a transphobe.

I have already shared my story on here but I wanted to update with some thoughts following the events at Sussex involving Kathleen Stock. I work in legal academia and I was so heartened to see the letter from over 200 legal academics defending Prof Stock’s academic freedom. I had despaired when I saw the initial reports of her bullying. Plenty of fellow lawyers were flooding Twitter with comments that this was just a natural consequence of her ‘hate speech’ and denying that there was a conflict of rights involved in this issue. The notion of a lawyer claiming there is no conflict of rights even though the legislation explicitly acknowledges one is alarming. If there were no conflict, there would never be the need for any single-sex exemption under the Equality Act for a start.

Anyway, the letter gave me some strength although I did not dare sign it because there are a number of people in my department who, through their actions, have made it clear how they would treat me if I were more vocal about my views. I’m already unhappy at work and I fear that enduring workplace bullying would be the final straw. I’ve seen my colleagues denouncing the signatories, calling them transphobes, cancelling invited talks by signatories and changing the textbook for a forthcoming module because the author has signed the letter. They believe they are being progressive and inclusive but it’s chilling to watch and I feel so alienated from a discipline that I once loved. 

One of the worst examples I saw was a colleague from another institution openly likening those signing the letter to Hitler and comparing concerns over women’s safety to nazism on Twitter. I am astonished that this is tolerated: a white male academic calling feminists (and others with concerns about academic freedom) Nazis. I don’t even know where to begin with that but it has made me feel utterly despondent. 

I also saw that two signatories, both female and ECR, quickly withdrew their signatures and I would not be surprised that this was due to pressure placed on them, either by colleagues or students. For instance, one male colleague where I work has said that he will support in an official complaint any student who no longer wishes to be taught by any staff member who has signed the letter. 

I am pleased that there is some pushback but there is a long way to go. I wish I were braver but I am early in my career and I genuinely fear that my career would be badly damaged if I were more vocal. Seeing the behaviour from colleagues over the letter has confirmed to me that I am not being excessively paranoid in thinking this.

I was very shocked to see the very violent and sexualised nature of the attack on J. K. Rowling after she questioned the lack of common sense in referring to women as ‘people who menstruate’. Shortly afterward an email came addressed to all staff at Queen Mary, University of London. It was a statement against the ‘misogyny currently being directed towards transwomen’. There was no balancing statement deploring the misogyny directed towards women. It was quite unnerving to relise that overt and violent misogyny was being implicitly endorsed by my employer. Rape is ok again in 2020! It also made me realise that if I expressed out loud at work my concern about women whose level of Enlish isn’t good enough to understand the word ‘menstruate’ accessing health care, I would be considered a transphobe.

As a bisexual women and radical feminist I decided to take on the roll of President this year at my University’s Feminist Society. The Society had been dormant since Covid and prior to that was largely empty of any real discussion or academic insight – so my goal was to make it a more lively place and not just parrot mainstream or liberal feminist beliefs.

anyways we recently got an email from our Student Union saying there have been complaints regarding some posts – we’re not sure what posts these could be because all we have posted is quotes from various feminist texts/news articles on feminist issues – one of which was on Kathleen Stock – which we 100% support… it is disgusting that academic freedom is being stifled to such a degree and it is certainly not “feminist” to believe that this kind of censorship and erasure is based on “liberation”…affirming the reality of biological sex shouldn’t be equated with terrorism or a hate crime. it is ridiculous

anyways, what is even more ridiculous is that our Student Union is now wanting to meet and discuss “these posts” – in an attempt to silent and fear monger us. I don’t understand how there can be dozens of political and religious societies, yet we are not allowed to express our own views or post about political issues? I don’t understand how people disagreeing with a political position is now cause for “complaint”, it is disheartening and disgusting that we are trying to support the study of feminist theory and help vulnerable women, yet people are complaining and the Student Union is taking this position.

Early-career female academic here. Recently had a dispute with a trans-identified male who transitioned in middle-age after she’d (I use the pronouns trans people prefer out of politeness) had a family, and had achieved seniority and tenure in academia as a male. In middle age, she’d decided she was trans and threw around words like “my sisters” to describe the experiences of her and other trans-identified males. I cannot express how disrespectful if feels to have someone who has taken full advantage of their male privilege appropriate language that belongs to women and who have had to endure the experiences of being female embodied from the womb. Our sex matters – our biology matters. These are no small things. Trans-identified males as a whole will never know what it’s like to menstruate (and have that be a ball and chain until menopause), to be discriminated against because you’re of a child-bearing age, and then experience the menopause itself, which can leave some women a shadow of their former selves for years and on the brink of suicide (not an exaggeration). It feels like our embodied existence and embodied realities of being female are being erased to kowtow to the demands of a group who largely disrespect and ignore our genuine concerns.

As I started my Master’s degree I began to become more aware of what radical feminism and gender critical are. Previously, I had been very much in the throes of social media moral panic regarding this – carefully checking the sources of tweets and posts about feminism before I interacted for fear of social ostracisation and not wanting to be “one of those bitches”. Like my peers, I participated in spreading falsehoods and hysteria about women who spoke out about misogyny and homophobia.

But now that I have engaged with radical feminist texts and thought as well as actually critically reading about the subjects of this panic I have changed my mind entirely. I am deeply deeply concerned about this new form of misogyny and homophobia that is becoming increasingly commonplace. I am concerned about how thoughtful discussion is becoming impossible – those who wish to shut down feminists now have a potent weapon at their disposal, “TERF”. As soon as one is branded a TERF anything is fair game. Rape threats, death threats, intimidation, violence. Even if an individual supports and affirms the right of trans individuals to live free of violence and discrimination.

I am also afraid for my lesbian sisters. Lesbians are now expected to “unlearn their genital fetishes” in this repackaged homophobia. Denying someone sexual access to you is now an act of violence, rather than your right as a person to bodily autonomy. Nobody bats at eye at protest signs commanding TERFs to “suck my girl dick”. It is no coincidence that this largely affects women even though the majority of violent crimes against trans people are committed by men.

Women should not be afraid to advocate for themselves in 2021. But I am. I will speak out in private, but the threat of losing my future to online mobs hangs above my head. I have no desire to see trans people vanish, or to deny them safe and happy lives. But I will never stop advocating for women.

I read these brave testimonies with despair. I am a male sociologist teaching at a post-92 university. I am gender critical and have attempted to encourage my students to approach gender ideology in an open, critical spirit by doing a sociology of this whole conflict.

In my teaching I suggest that in order to do this justice students will need to scrupulously research and be able to accurately present all sides of the conflict. (Predictably, I have to caveat that what we are doing implies no endorsement of any particular ideology). I try to draw – and get my students to accept – a distinction between our critical-analytic investigation and (a) indoctrination, and (b) equalities ‘training’. So far this has not blown up in my face and students have been fairly receptive and engaged well, although, predictably, the final assignment – irrespective of academic quality – tends to bias towards trans ideology.

Despite being able to deal a small blow for open, critical sociological enquiry, I, like everyone else who has posted here, feel constant anxiety about the threat to my job security and reputation were my views to be widely known/shared. Like everyone else here I regard my thinking on these matters as sane and humane, even emancipatory. Reading everyone’s story here is final, frightening confirmation that gender critical views are now deemed as utter heresy by a very significant number of people who style themselves political progressives.

That the political right have been able to exploit the laughable demagoguery and cravenness of activists, ‘allies’ and their administrative enablers for the purposes of a cynical culture war – thereby able to pose as true defenders of freedom etc – is one of the real tragedies of this nightmare. The picture of the political left that this allows them to paint is both ugly and comically embarrassing – but worse, recognisable, whatever the gaslighters who write for the Guardian might say.

I too feel a strong urge to simply withdraw from much of wider life as an academic – partly in protest, partly to avoid/be able to ignore the wearisome reign of identarianism. That said, whilst I still have a job and can write, I’ll offer what resistance I can. I only wish, as others have said, that this could be of an open, collective movement. Being cast as a heretic is atomising.

I finished my undergraduate degree in English Language with a dissertation analysing the use of the term TERF, largely inspired by how new it was, and how it was used against JK Rowling, who was the one who drew my attention to GC and gender issues. My story is not really significant in comparison to other stories here. I was, however, very nervous going into the task, because I knew that the approach I took was very unpopular among university students. I always took care not to explain directly what I wrote about. I always said that I wrote about slurs used as a response to perceived hate speech. My advisor was very supportive, and I am very grateful for him. But I avoid even now to discuss the topic of my dissertation, as I fear how it would impact me or my future career.

My story is not as extreme as some here, given that I haven’t (yet) been discovered for my GC views, and I’ve been able to keep a low profile as a humanities postgrad student (in a very right-on UK university). Over the years that I’ve been a student there, I have felt the rising tide of a stifling authoritarian atmosphere with respect to gender ideology and its takeover of mainstream feminism.

When I started my course a couple of years ago, it was not uncommon to see female professors talked over or ‘corrected’ by young male postgrads on topics in their own areas of specialism. I know that a cabal of students in my department (largely male, some trans-identified), who are very much in favour of certain strains of ‘activism’, are monitoring the statement of support for a well-known GC academic for names of people they know and can denounce. In the past year, this particular group have become very strident in promoting openly misogynistic views, and taking part in social media witch hunts of women who deviate from the gender orthodoxy.

My ‘keeping a low profile’ has been a deliberate decision and come at personal cost – to the extent of having no social media presence, avoiding developing close relationships with other students (many of whom are heavily invested in the ideologies of queer theory), and avoiding expressing a view when this issue has come up in seminars, even in the face of slurs and smearing of ‘terfs’ as extreme, violent, and allied with the far right.

The need I have felt not to expose myself to harassment and possible discrimination has impacted my sense of self: I feel like a coward, with no meaningful voice, and I am increasingly frustrated with both the current situation, and with myself for not stating views which are neither extreme nor hateful, but based in material fact (however unpopular the notion of ‘facts’ might be). I have recently abandoned my long-held plans to pursue a career in academia, in part because of this issue. I no longer see a future for myself in the totalitarian atmosphere of censorship and misogyny which now dominates the field.

Outside of academic life, I am increasingly finding woke friends (usually male) seeking to probe/test my views on gender – presumably ready to ‘correct’ any betrayal of wrongthink that they might detect. I have decided that after leaving university, I will not collude any further with the project of silencing by fear, and will try to be as brave as others have been – but should not have to be – in speaking the truth and defending women’s sex-based rights.

I have been meaning to add my story since this site was launched and the recent attacks on Kathleen Stock have given me the push I needed. I am Academic #1 in the article Kathleen published in 2019: https://medium.com/@kathleenstock/are-academics-freely-able-to-criticise-the-idea-of-gender-identity-in-uk-universities-67b97c6e04be.

I am at a large post-92 university. I want to include my story on this website and also tell the rest of the story as it is relevant to the current interventions by UCU. This is what I wrote in 2019:

“My Head of Department called me into a meeting to discuss an anonymous complaint made about me, by someone claiming to be a student. The student claimed that two of my retweets were ‘transphobic’ and made them feel ‘unsafe’. I have been very quiet on social media on this issue because I am scared to speak out, so I was a bit confused as to how anything I’d retweeted could possibly be interpreted as transphobic. My HoD was also not clear on what was transphobic about them, and HR also could not answer this question. HR also confirmed that as it was anonymous complaint they couldn’t take any action anyway. Apparently, this did not satisfy the Equalities Group who pushed for me to be investigated for these two retweets. Left admitting there was nothing transphobic about the retweets, Equalities then pointed to the comments made by other people on the original tweets. Clearly I have absolutely no control over this, which they eventually admitted. This has left me feeling particularly vulnerable — it is not nice to know that unknown individuals and colleagues in Equalities (who should also be protecting female members of staff), are scrutinising every tweet looking for evidence against me. It also means that numerous people in HR and the Faculty Executive (who probably haven’t really looked into this issue closely) will associate me with a transphobic complaint from a student. When Equalities were asked what action they expected to be taken they said ‘none’, so I really feel this was just an exercise in letting me know they’re watching me. I had previously already tried to raise some of my concerns with our Equalities Group regarding our adoption of self ID due to the need to balance the rights of female students, particularly Muslim and Jewish students, and trans students in certain settings like residential field trips, changing rooms and toilets on campus and essentially been completely ignored, so I’m left wondering whether they had been watching me before this complaint came in.”

After I sent this to Kathleen it became apparent that this issue was not going to go away despite the support I had from my HoD. I decided to protect myself and find out exactly what the details of the complaint were and what was being said about me, so I sent a Subject Access Request to our Information Officer.

They took 4 weeks to reply and supplied me with redacted emails between EDI, complaints and HR. These confirmed that the complaint was anonymous and related to two retweets – that a Women Talk Back event about feminist writing had gone ahead despite protests, and an article by Kathleen Stock and others called ‘Doing Better in Arguments about Sex and Gender’, and attendance at an event (presumably the Women Talk Back one). As I said above EDI had gone through replies to these tweets and provided screenshots of those deemed to be offensive, despite not being by me. This included their commentary that the replies were ‘…generally upset / angry at a perceived anti-feminist event (rather than the intended anti-TERF protest)…’ and a screen shot of a Julie Bindel reply with the word ‘bellends’. They have then proceeded to trawl back through my Twitter account looking for other evidence, and commented that I was liking posts from DrFondOfBeetles, Women’s Place UK, and referred to a tweet of mine being ‘explicitly in defence of famous TERFs’. I couldn’t believe that EDI would use the term TERF to describe a colleague. (Assumingly, they also refer to me as her and she throughout despite not knowing how I identify).

I sought legal help from a friend, who advised I contact UCU. As time was running out between the initial event and the limits for tribunals they also suggested I register a claim to ACAS for direct and indirect discrimination on the grounds of sex and belief (this was pre-Maya’s case). I did both of these things.

I contacted the Women’s Officer in my branch and had an extremely positive and supportive conversation with her, in which she expressed sympathy and alarm at the way I had been treated, agreed that it seemed discriminatory and that the correct process had not been followed after an anonymous complaint was received. I explained that I had lodged a claim with ACAS and that this comes with a time limit, I left it with her to find out what support UCU would provide. In the meantime I spoke to ACAS about my claim, and advised that I was seeking UCU support before proceeding.

I heard nothing after a week or so and followed up. In this conversation, the same UCU officer was completely different – essentially told me it was just a case of not following process (i.e. no big deal), the replies to the tweets were ‘transphobic’ (again Julie Bindel’s ‘bellend’ one was highlighted despite having nothing to do with me) and that they would help me with internal processes. I explained that this wouldn’t work with ACAS timescales and that I would like to speak to a lawyer. She said she would get back to me. She didn’t and I had to contact her again several times. When we spoke again I explained again that I was on a time limit, she said the branch chair would get back to me. He didn’t.

By this point I felt I had to give up. I had run out of time with ACAS, couldn’t get through to a UCU lawyer and didn’t have the financial means to continue with the claim without their support. Now I know that I could have gone to regional etc for support, but at the time I didn’t, and I naively assumed this was exactly the sort of thing a union would provide support for. So, UCU’s recent behaviour comes as no surprise – they have repeatedly failed to do their job at defending academics against accusations of transphobia.

I am a professor at a Russell Group university in London. I’m a radical feminist and ex Greenham woman, with a history of feminist engagement, particularly when I was younger. My experience as a gender critical feminist has been one of disengagement with aspects of academia, in a series of steps over the last three years. My work does not focus on sex or gender, and I was largely ignorant about queer theory and how it had taken over until 2018, when the ‘get the L out’ protest at Pride occurred. I was curious about this, looked into it and was shocked by what I discovered in terms of the implications for women, and the ferocity of attacks on women and lesbians in particular. I eventually withdrew from all social media, as it became clear that supporting or expressing GC views would cause me problems personally and professionally. This of course has led to me being isolated from academic communities and friends.

I have signed a couple of open letters in support of GC positions, so far I have not been attacked, but I am cautious about continuing to be open, as women I know have been vilified. The lack of support from the university and the hostility of the union further erodes my confidence in terms of taking a stand. Ultimately, I’ve decided that I need to protect my mental health and wellbeing as my main priority. This makes me feel somewhat ashamed when I see other women academics taking a stand and being attacked for it. I feel I am forced to hide my principles due to intimidation.

In terms of risk avoidance and disengagement, I am now unsure about returning to the conference circuit post-pandemic, particularly in the US, as I do not want to be subjected to compelled speech around terms like ‘cis’, or to be forced to state pronouns. The latter may seem trivial, but I’ve decided it will be ‘the hill I die on’ if necessary – I simply won’t do it. So far, it has not been made mandatory, although senior staff have started to add theirs along with a highly normative justifications in emails sent to staff they line-manage, so I think that day may come. I feel very ambivalent about returning to campus, and frankly relieved I am not teaching much at this time due to my research commitments. I realise this is an artefact of being senior and on a permanent contract, and I feel great concern for GC ECRs, who do not have these freedoms.

I have around 10 years to go until retirement, and I anticipate spending them doing my writing in isolation, instead of being a more active member of the academic world, which really saddens me. I have experience a great deal of sexism and also class discrimination in my career, and used to be very motivated to be involved with issues surrounding equity, but would not go near it now, as women are being systematically erased. On a practical level, I feel very unsafe in shared sex toilets, as I have been sexually assaulted on the campus by a male colleague. If they are brought in through the whole building, I may have to work at home full-time, which is not my preference and will contribute further to my sense of isolation. So reflecting on this, I have not suffered direct abuse as others have on this webpage, but I have felt a more insidious form of damage in terms of alienation and lack of a sense of trust and safety at work. It’s taken away my sense of pride in my institution, and also a large part of the joy and curiosity I used to feel for academia. It feels that the universities are becoming dominated by fear, conformism, and totalitarian control, and the excitement and wonder of critical thinking and ideas are being lost as a result.

I am an educator in a community college. I am really reaching a boiling point because of the ubiquity of focus on gender identity issues in every other learning opportunity or meeting. Lately I’ve found that nearly every time I participate in professional development or seminar related to education, there is predictably 10-30 minutes at the start discussing gender identity and pronouns. Besides pushing a view of reality I don’t share in a manner that feels coercive and presumptive, these mini rants divert time away from whatever we were led to believe the session was going to focus on (usually some actually useful topic literacy assessments or classroom management).

But beyond the irritation, I’m feeling a growing sense of low level despair at being forced to choose between secure employment and the inner coherence and self-respect that comes from living truthfully. Speaking up in defense of acknowledging the biological reality of sex would only result in being instantly targeted but remaining silent makes me feel ashamed, as if myself and other women around me have been effectively “put in our place.” What can be done?

I’m a student at Aberystwyth University. I have been researching into queer theory and trans activism for a while now, and I’m absolutely appalled and equally saddened by how many of my fellow students are have been brainwashed by its ideologies.Going into second year, there will be a module on Queer Theory in Welsh literature, and I am rather worried that gender identity theories will feature heavily, if not exclusively in the module, and that there will be a very low tolerance for any GC analysis. Why should I, as a 20 year old lesbian be scared to criticise queer theory, or any theory for that matter,while at university? It’s absolutely bonkers. I wrote about the Bell v Tavistock case in an essay during first year, and much to my surprise, my lecturer was very supportive, and encouraged me to continue writing about similar issues.Gender identity theory has not yet seeped into everything at the university, although I fear that it will do, very, very soon.

Female gender-critical academic here working at a UK University. No longer intellectually / emotionally engaged or invested in my job due to wokeism in general and the erosion of sex and women’s rights in particular. Trans activism to me looks like late-stage patriarchy’s final clever way to subjugate us (biological women) for good. My response is to opt out mentally and not seek any promotion or career advancement whatsoever, so I can limit having to ‘engage with’ the nonsense from higher up (which keeps getting worse). Where I’m forced to do certain things, I give lip service with a smile. I also no longer do anything publicly (e.g., social media) or public engagement activity etc.; it’s got to the point now where I just look at it as a job where I collect a paycheck at the end of each month. But yes, viewpoint diversity when it comes to gender seems to no longer be acceptable. I deal with it by ticking all the boxes that I need to, while emotionally disengaging and withdrawing. I also fund pro-women’s rights groups who can fight the legal fight on behalf of all our biological sisters.

I attended University compulsory one day training run by a well known Trans rights group. I did not find the training helpful since there was no discussion or debate. I found the tone and the content patronising. I commented on the feedback form that I hadn’t found a whole day devoted to this useful and that I had already done a great deal of thinking about it. I also taught content on the issues involved. I would have preferred training on other topics which were more pressing and about which I knew less. I was then reported for being transphobic and although there was zero evidence and zero complaints I was placed under Disciplinary investigation. I had no choice but to resign from my post as the process was a Kangaroo Court. I am now terrified. I am so sad to see what is happening to women in academia and want to thank you for setting up this site

Two things that have contributed to my leaving academia despite the fact that working as a lecturer in my subject is something I’d always wanted to do, and despite loving teaching and working with students.

My PhD on feminist histories which I started in 2011, before much of this blew up, focussed on the generation of women now scathingly referred to as ‘boomers’ who are one generation older than me. I had a vague idea about learning from our mothers and about exploring societal hostility towards older women when I wrote my proposal. This generation of women lived through the huge policy changes of the 1970s and I wondered what they thought, what they’d achieved, how things had changed for them if they were born in the 1940s and so had been young women in the early 60s. I honestly had no idea what was coming, despite having done a lot of feminist reading, studying with a famous feminist academic during my Masters and working in the arts, so I was familiar with Foucault etc. And queer theory in general.

My supervisors were helpful but often said things or corrected me about things like the word ‘Mother’ or the idea of ‘Mother’ or the word ‘Female’ when I was speaking in supervision meetings in ways I didn’t understand. About a year in to my studies I discovered the reality of gender ideology and the extent that queer theory had influenced the humanities and the penny dropped. I carried on with my project but it became difficult to write it up. I took a break because I wasn’t sure how to proceed. When I came back I just patched it all together in a way I hoped would pass and submitted it. I’m very ashamed of my PhD because it’s not what I wanted it to be: a celebration of our mothers, of older women and what they went through, in the UK, before equality law, and how they not only survived but thrived and helped one another – at Greenham Common peace camp, with Women Against Pit Closures, in activism to change law and policy and in building women’s services, including the first women’s refuges. In the end I got through the viva by equivocating and biting my tongue at the smug, self satisfaction of my examiners. A queer theorist and an American ‘feminist.’

Then, when working at a university with a much higher than average number of students who were first in their family to go to University, students who had taken out student loans in the hope of escaping poverty, students who had never, not once in their life been inside an art gallery, a much higher than average number of students with disabilities, neuro divergences and other disadvantages, so our main challenge as an institution was making sure our students weren’t further disadvantaged by their social class or their disabilities, a ‘Trans student policy’ appeared at the bottom of the general Moodle page for all courses, obliging us all, staff and students, to consider our gender identities, our pronouns, our toilet facilities, with all the usual guff about ‘marginalised’ students. The ‘Genderbread’ person appeared on the student office wall and the administrator in charge there enquired about the gender identity of one of my autistic students, head titled to one side, excited smile on his face. I emailed my HOD to ask if there would be other policies appearing on Moodle for guidance for our disabled students or our students marginalised through poverty, but received no reply. I knew I wouldn’t, I just emailed because I was already so disappointed in academia, where I’d hoped to meet great thinkers, that I’d decided to leave.

The Head of Dept (line manager) recently called me in for a ‘conversation’ about my social media. It turned out some students had done screenshots of my Twitter interactions and then complained to the head that I was transphobic. My Twitter use (not even weekly use) is 75% related to literature and language (my field). About 20% relates to misogyny and violence against women (eg Counting Dead Women). Perhaps 5% is me ‘liking’ or commenting on threads that concern ‘gender identity’ or are GC. For e.g. a couple of likes and supportive comments in defence of J K Rowling, and a comment in response to Eddie Izzard deciding to identify as a woman (I always admired the wearing of nail varnish as a man – challenging stereotypes etc). Those students must have spent some time digging for something as there are so few GC comments in total. My line manager, while not critical, suggested I might ‘watch what I say’ given the climate of hostility and the possibility it could get worse. I’m a champion of freedom of speech but definitely feel I’m being warned to keep quiet to avoid further targeting by certain students. I also fear this incident could affect my application for promotion, given colleagues and management have shown how keen they are to assuage student agitation and in same cases promote an ideology that aligns with TRA. I’ve been teaching HE for 30 years this year and have only had praise from students and support from colleagues until this year; I now feel differently about the job I love and also fear for other academics who dare to question gender ideology.

At work we get a weekly internal newsletter, where it covers recent research, awards, initiatives, etc. Almost every week there is an item focussing on trans experience or awareness, but less so about other social issues relating to sex based inequality or homophobia. It seems transgender ideology gets a lot more focus at university than anyone else, disproportionately so. My eyes are wide open to the rising homophobia and misogyny in society. I am all for being aware of all social issues and want everyone to be happy but this hyper focus one one minority is, in my view, to the detriment of other groups such as same sex attracted men and women, and females.

I am a PhD student at a very “woke” university, the University of Toronto. I live in fear every day that other students will discover that I don’t wholeheartedly support gender ideology. Woke students have screenshot my ambiguous posts on social media and sent them to me, demanding I explain my position or be blasted as a TERF and reported to the administration.

A friend was invited to be a part of an Australian study on parenting. She found that while they asked respondents to state what their gender identity was they did not ask them to say what their sex was. Aware of the sex gap in research and concerned that the experiences of mothers would not be identified in this research, she wrote to the researchers expressing her concern. They responded saying, “We have based our questions on guidelines from a diverse gender, sexes and sexuality working group. In line with these guidelines, we provided an open space for text entry for gender. We were advised that this allows people to indicate if they identify as trans, non-binary or non-conforming if they wish to but that they are able to not disclose this if they choose not to. We were also advised that requiring people to reveal their sex would force disclosure and may cause discomfort to anyone who does not identify with their assigned sex”

Student at the University of Edinburgh, studying for a LLM. I don’t particularly voice my gender-critical opinions – it isn’t relevant to the course. However, one of my lecturer’s will strongly attack anyone who is perceived as using a non-gender neutral title. This could be anything from ‘Chairman’ to (to borrow a term from English law) the ‘man on the Clapham Omnibus’.

These are not simply gentle requests to use a different word, but are instead attacks wherein the lecturer will persistently press the issue until the student apologised, before adopting a smug expression.

For this reason (and others) I did not feel comfortable in voicing my opinions about certain issues, and self-censored to ensure I was not further criticised during the seminars. Other students did the same, with many complaining about the intensity of our lecturer’s attacks.

I was an early career lecturer at a UK university and I started the position at almost the same time as a slightly younger lecturer than myself and we shared an office. He brought up in our weekly meetings that we should start displaying our pronouns, I didn’t comment either way that I supported or was against this idea as in truth, I didn’t really register what this meant. One day I came in and found a badge that he had left on my desk that said “she/her” – I hadn’t been asked what my pronouns were. I put the badge to one side, deciding I didn’t want to wear it as my title (Dr) is already neutral.

A few weeks later I took a couple of days leave, when I came back he had changed our door sign to include both our pronouns, again I wasn’t asked what my pronouns were or whether I was happy to display them. He was quite an intimidating character and I was worried about his reaction if I brought up that I was uncomfortable with this. I did mention this to a colleague who sits on the Athena Swan committee for the university.

Some weeks later again the colleague came back to me to say she that he had contacted the committee to advise that all staff members in our school should display their pronouns on their email signatures and door signs. This had not gone down well at the committee because he had worded the email in what was deemed as verging for on forceful. At the meeting my colleague mentioned my experience (anonymously) and the committee rejected his request, emailing him to advise that it was not right to force staff to display their pronouns.

I was in the office when he received the email and he reacted very angrily. I was scared that he was going to confront me, but he ignored me completely instead calling others in so he could read the email aloud and asking them, “who have I forced into this?” I felt this was targeted at me, and became so uncomfortable I left for the day.

From then on I get uncomfortable sharing an office with him so shared my feelings with my line manager. She advised that we contact his line manager (who was the head of our team) and a mediation was organised, without the involvement of HR. We were both encouraged to apologise to each other (I’m still not sure what I was apologising for) and was told to move on, whilst still having to share an office.

After that, it became unbearable to work there. He would completely ignore me every day, members of our team would not speak to me in the same way, I felt ostracised. I was also on a temporary contract and had been told since the beginning that there was a good chance of a permanent position coming up. My contract was being extended on a bimonthly basis and around 3 weeks before it was due to end I handed my notice in. After this a permanent job was advertised which I was not told about or encouraged to apply for.

The whole experience completely knocked my confidence and has put me off pursuing a career in academia. He has since been promoted.

I work part-time at the University of Edinburgh, tutoring on courses relating to my profession (which is my main job). When I started tutoring several years ago the university was a breath of fresh air. I could encourage students to think outside of the box and examine their assumptions, before they were effectively ‘socialised’ into the profession and certain ideas ruled off limits or taken for granted as truth and how things just are.

Now the position is reversed and it’s the university where critical discussion is most constrained. I’m not ultimately responsible for course content, though I do contribute as part of course teams to the development of the curriculum. I’m struck by how fearful and risk-averse my university-based colleagues have become about what they can and can’t say, and what they can and can’t cover in their teaching. It’s not only in respect of sex and gender identity, but I do think that sex and gender identity is the topic which feels most as if you have to toe the party line and where the fear of stepping outside the permitted boundaries is at its most intense.

It’s quite hard to describe the source of the fear. The best way I can describe it is as though academic colleagues believe that there are some trans/trans ally students who are monstrous toddlers, ready to throw a strop if they should hear anything that invalidates their ‘true self’ and report the offending tutor to the Staff Pride Network Committee who are widely seen as bullies supported by spineless and/or ignorant managers who don’t care enough to address the situation. I’ve never actually come across any of these monstrous toddler students and I think they’re very small in number, and likely not on any of the professional courses I tutor on. But the fear, which is based on things that have happened to the most high-profile GC women academics in my school and others, is tangible.

The effect is that the extreme version of gender identity theory has to be taught as though it’s an unchallengeable orthodoxy. In my classes I do try to prompt a questioning approach, but I think students know quite well that they could be targeted if they say the ‘wrong’ thing so it’s almost impossible to get discussion going within what’s already a very slanted curriculum.

I think the damage being done is huge. In my profession (which the students are entering) the establishment of gender identity theory as the basis for policy and practice has all sorts of effects which need to be unpacked and examined. I’m not saying all of those effects are necessarily undesirable, but some of them may be, and students need to be helped to understand all the ramifications. Beyond that, we’re teaching students that some things can’t be questioned which is a really bad way to enculturate students into the profession – we should be giving them the skills to ask questions, seek evidence, evaluate evidence, and be open-minded to the questions of others. I fear for the future of the profession with a generation of what are effectively indoctrinated students now entering with fixed mindsets on gender identity and reduced capacity for critical analysis of facts.

US academic here. Fortunately, my research and teaching do not significantly intersect with gender-related issues, so I have been able to quietly get by without publicly performing allegiance to gender ideology. However, I am very keenly aware that I hold supposedly “transphobic” views that would jeopardize my employment if they ever became public. What are these terrible views, you ask? Do I want trans people to be denied housing, healthcare, employment, education, or any other fundamental human rights? No, of course not. But I also don’t believe that sex is fictional or changeable. I am insulted by the genderist tenet that “woman” is a psychological rather than a physiological state. I see real conflict between the interests of trans-identified people and the interests of female and/or homosexual people, and while I truly do not want trans people to suffer, I also do not believe that this conflict should be resolved by reflexively asserting the primacy of trans rights. It’s discomfiting to look around me and see how completely these issues have been walled off to even the most measured and respectful debate.

I am also troubled by a pattern that I have noticed over the past several years in academia. The trans and nonbinary students I encounter are almost entirely female, and virtually all of them strike me as being socially immature relative to their peers, deeply embedded in specific subcultures, and in more than a few cases very probably mentally ill. If the FtM students I met mostly seemed to be happy, healthy, and high-functioning, I might change my tune. But based on my experience, Lisa Littman is right on the money: gender dysphoria is a socially contagious condition, in some ways akin to eating disorder, and young women are particularly vulnerable. I wouldn’t ever challenge a student about their gender identity–it’s simply not my role–but it’s maddening and saddening that everyone in academia is expected to uncritically celebrate behavior that looks an awful lot like self-harm once you take off the blue-white-and-pink glasses.

My first experience was at a Russell group university where I was having problems with a disability adjustment and I was advised to speak to the diversity officer for additional support. When I met this person in an inaccessible basement office, they introduced themselves as they/them before even telling me their name. When I explained my issue I was told they didn’t have experience of disability as their main focus was on trans issues. As a disabled woman from a minority background I questioned this single focus and was ushered out of the office and told my presence was making them uncomfortable. At that point in time I had no idea what gender critical was and would have said I was very much a trans ally.

Later on at a satellite institution I experienced the demonisation of a renowned arts academic who was delivering a lecture on feminism in her specialist field. While she used all the correct woke language in her delivery, the fact she hadn’t included trans women and non binary people I n her feminist history caused a mass walk out and students complained she was only promoting white feminism despite her talk being predominantly about black feminists. There was lots of behind the scenes work by trans activists to have her fired or discredited. I didn’t have the confidence to stick up for her with my peers or to approach her directly as nothing she had said suggested she was in any way gender critical.

Furthermore the toilets became ‘neutral’ which ended up with the women’s loo being destroyed with doors taken off or having no locks and everyone using the disabled toilets, which ended up a mess and with long queues of largely non disabled students wanting to use them. Student reps were not willing to raise issues about this for fear of being labelled transphobic.

Did an undergraduate humanities degree at a university in the north of England from 2016-2019. Witnesses two incidents of students banding together to discuss getting academics fired for tweeting and retweeting unacceptable views. In both cases, the tweets related to a belief in the primacy of biological sex over gender. In both cases, the targets were middle aged women.

The first instance took place in a group chat and involved people otherwise easily dismissed as the troublemakers on my course. The target was an academic in a different discipline (and different building) to our course. What came of this I do not know.

The second instance, however, featured a open conversation on Facebook about the urgency of having an English lit & cultural history lecturer removed from the university on grounds of student safety. Those conducting the conversation were a mixture of English lit students, English lit graduates, and one student who had studied another disciplines at the university. Disturbingly, as compared with the first instance, the students involved were (as I would characterise them) otherwise unfailingly agreeable people. The result was the lecturer in question being subjected to a vexatious disciplinary process (that nevertheless exonerated her).

One thing the two instances had in common was that nobody involved in the organised outrage displayed a real understanding of the arguments involved. Why would they? Even discussing them is taboo.