Posted on by Merched Cymru

Merched Cymru supports Kathleen Stock

Statement on the continuing harassment of Professor Kathleen Stock

We condemn the threats and abuse targeted at Kathleen Stock in the strongest possible terms. The attacks are driven by misogyny. They are anti-democratic, undermining the University’s mandated commitment to freedom of speech – for both staff and students.

We welcome the Vice-Chancellor’s response in support of Professor Stock.

Kathleen Stock, a philosopher at Sussex University, has withstood a torrent of abuse for expressing conscientiously held opinions that violate the orthodoxies of radical transgender campaigners.

Those opinions include the fact that sex is binary and immutable and that women and girls have the right to single-sex spaces and services.

Police advice in the face of the most recent threats are to stay off campus, only teach on-line, increase security at her home, and consider hiring a bodyguard.

Meanwhile, Sussex University’s union branch (the UCU), has sent a statement to all its members. It entirely ignores the harassment, bullying and abuse aimed at Kathleen Stock; it ignores the misogyny and hate-speech she has been subjected to; it ignores the very real threats to her safety and livelihood; it ignores the wider issues of freedom of speech. The union’s only concern is to ‘support trans and non-binary communities at Sussex’.

The statement ends with this chilling endorsement of the ongoing abuse against a female academic:

We welcome the University of Sussex Student Union’s (USSU) statement of solidarity with our trans and non-binary community and defence of students’ right to protest, and extend our strongest support to the USSU and its officers in their commitment to standing up for all students at Sussex. In solidarity.

Merched Cymru stand in solidarity with Kathleen Stock and with the numerous academics and students whose right to express their legitimate and lawful opinions is under threat.