Kathleen Stock has issued a rallying cry for free speech ahead of her controversial appearance at the University of Oxford.
According to The Times:
The philosopher told The Times that the freedom to discuss controversial topics was “indispensable” in a progressive society and urged students to understand the value of “free debate”.
Oxford is braced for up to 1,000 protesters and counter-protesters when the former University of Sussex lecturer speaks to the Oxford Union tomorrow evening.
A group of students has called Stock, 51, transphobic for her view that people cannot change sex and said they were “dismayed” she was to get a platform.
In turn, 44 Oxford dons criticised the students and said universities “must remain places where contentious views can be openly discussed”.
Stock told The Times last night: “No one pressure group should have the last word on policies or laws that affect everybody.
“Allowing controversial viewpoints to be heard and digested is indispensable to a free society, but also to a progressive one. Discussion is how society learns to distinguish the wrongheaded ideas from the true and the useful ones.
“Many present Oxford students will hold powerful positions in future — it is essential that they are now exposed to free debate and come to understand its social value.”
The gulf between a section of progressive Oxford students and academics over her invitation to speak has widened, however. More than half of Oxford colleges have passed motions condemning Stock for her views.
When the Oxford Union, the university’s 200-year-old debating society, last month invited the feminist professor to speak about gender identity theory, the university’s LGBTQ+ society said it was “appalled”.
Following the outcry, Oxford’s Student Union voted to sever ties with the 200-year-old debating society. The move would have prevented the Union from having a stall at the freshers’ fair, a key source of membership sign-ups.
The Student Union insisted it was nothing to do with Stock’s planned appearance, but 44 dons at Oxford wrote an open letter criticising the decision.
Following the academics’ letter, the Student Union reversed its decision.
Professor Martin Williams, one of the university’s pro-vice-chancellors, told students that they must be prepared to “encounter and confront difficult views”.
Meanwhile more than 100 Oxford-based academic members have signed a counter petition in support of the campaign against Stock. The letter to Williams , organised by the Oxford University LGBTQ+ Society, said no-platforming Stock was “not a free speech issue”.