Trans rights protesters glue themselves to floor during Oxford Union talk
Transgender rights protesters have interrupted an Oxford Union speech by gender-critical feminist, professor Kathleen Stock, with one demonstrator glueing themselves to the floor of the chamber.
Protesters stormed the controversial event on Tuesday evening waving rainbow flags and shouting âno more dead trans kidsâ, before being booed by members of the audience and escorted out by security.
Two protesters are understood to have been ejected from the Oxford Union building, with a third protester glueing herself to the floor of the chamber in front of professor Stock.
Four police officers spent around 10 minutes attempting to remove the protester while security walked up and down the hall and demanded that audience members not record or take pictures of the incident.
Professor Stock had only been talking for around five minutes before the protesters stormed the building.
The former University of Sussex philosophy lecturer, who is not a specialist in gender studies but has become known for her beliefs that trans women are not women, said earlier on Tuesday that she was âvery determined to go aheadâ with the talk despite concerns about being heckled.
Around 500 activists descended on Bonn Square in Oxfordâs town centre ahead of the event on Tuesday evening to protest against the universityâs decision to welcome professor Stock.
It followed a rare intervention by the Prime Minister, who said earlier on Tuesday that the academic had a right to have her views heard.
âA free society requires free debate. We should all be encouraged to engage respectfully with the ideas of others,â Rishi Sunak told The Telegraph.
âUniversity should be an environment where debate is supported, not stifled. We mustnât allow a small but vocal few to shut down discussion. Kathleen Stockâs invitation to the Oxford Union should stand.
âAgree or disagree with her, professor Stock is an important figure in this argument. Students should be allowed to hear and debate her views.â
The Prime Minister later took to Twitter to say that âwe mustnât allow a small but vocal few to shut down discussionâ.
Professor Stock has claimed she was bullied out of her job at the University of Sussex for her views on transgender rights, which many have claimed are transphobic.
She has previously said that âitâs not hate speech to say that males cannot be women,â and insisted that âcontroversial and difficult ideas need to be tested in the public squareâ.
Critics reject her claims she was bullied out of her job, and say she voluntarily chose to leave her job at Sussex two weeks before announcing she would be part of an âanti-wokeâ US private education initiative with other prominent critics of âcancel cultureâ. She remains listed as a âfounding faculty fellowâ at the University of Austin, Texas, which is not yet recognised as a real university.
Professor Stock is also a former trustee of the LGB Alliance group, which advocates for the exclusion of transgender people from the LGBT+ community.
This story is being updated