People are increasingly willing to reject obvious falsehoods, and activists are decreasingly effective at intimidation.
People are increasingly willing to reject obvious falsehoods, and activists are decreasingly effective at intimidation.
Y esterday, I attended an Oxford Literary Festival event that featured Julie Bindel interviewing Helen Joyce about her book Trans: When Ideology Meets Reality. Gary Francione, a festival coordinator, introduced the two speakers and noted that Joyce’s “important book” had not previously been featured at a literary festival — despite being published four years ago. Indeed, there was certainly demand to hear the gender-critical perspective: The event was sold out, and the applause lasted over a minute when the two speakers walked onstage, complete with hooting, hollering, and whistling. Francione went to great pains when emphasizing the importance of free speech, and he instructed the audience to “please keep it civil.” His comments were entirely misdirected because the people in the theater weren’t the ones who needed that reminder.
In February, the Oxford University LGBTQ+ Society had sent out a long email to its members condemning a series of events that supposedly featured “anti-trans campaigners,” including the talk with Bindel and Joyce, and suggested that such speakers violate the university’s anti-discrimination policies. The society claimed: “While the university has said that trans and non-binary students are free to go and ask questions at some of these events, none have any kind of meaningful opposition, fact-checking, or structured debate built in, with anti-trans campaigners setting the agenda and maintaining control of the floor. Nor has the university offered trans and non-binary people an equivalent platform to challenge these campaigners’ portrayals of them.” Of course, it is the LGBTQ+ movement that sets the cultural agenda and maintains control of the universities. But the group was just flatly wrong. There is an “equivalent platform” offered to the opposing side: On Sunday, the Oxford Literary Festival will host “In Defence of Trans Realities.” In fact, the man who introduced the Bindel/Joyce talk told the audience about that Sunday event, and encouraged us all to be there and “listen to what they have to say.”
That email was forwarded to seemingly everyone at my college, St. Hugh’s. The message added to the email alleged Joyce had an “incredibly harmful history of transphobic remarks and beliefs,” and further stated that “her views should not be promoted by the University.” The student officer included a link to a petition titled “Protest Transphobia at Oxford University,” which demanded that Oxford University and its colleges “cancel the upcoming talk,” “commit to not hosting any more transphobic speakers,” and “commit to providing a safe environment for transgender and genderqueer staff and students.” At present, the petition has nearly 700 signatures.
The petition, however, was unsuccessful, and the event occurred at the beautiful Sheldonian Theatre. The audience was overwhelmingly middle-aged and older women. When the talk began, I was surprised to see so few college-age students sitting in the rows, although I reasoned that might result from the facts that Oxford University is currently out of session and the event wasn’t free.
Then, about 15 minutes into talk, I realized why there weren’t many students: They were outside protesting. We could hear hollering and chanting, although the exact words were inaudible. At some point, someone must have been playing a drum. The demonstrators were loud and irritating, but Joyce and Bindel could still be heard perfectly fine. By the time the event was over and we exited the theater, the protesters had dispersed.
Afterwards, some trans-activist groups shared footage on social media of their demonstration. The aptly named account “Oxford Transsexual Menace” shared some videos of the protesters wrapped in trans-pride flags and chanting things like “trans rights, human rights,” “whose streets, our streets,” and “trans power.” Somewhat unexplainably, a few protesters are seen wearing mime-like face paint. Likewise, the group “Oxford for Trans Rights” shared some images on social media, and it described the protest as a way to “make it loud and clear that TERFS do not speak for Oxford and are not welcome here.” From the videos shared, it seems that at least 20 people joined the rally.
What did Bindel and Joyce say at the event? National Review readers can probably guess the points made during the talk, since the arguments against gender ideology are fairly consistent across critics. But honestly, the discussion points weren’t the most important thing. The value of the event was that it happened. It symbolized an ongoing cultural shift wherein people are increasingly willing to reject obvious falsehoods and activists are decreasingly effective at intimidation.