Four days after her resignation, the Kathleen Stock case also reached the British House of Commons. The philosophy professor at the University of Sussex resigned on Thursday evening after students had repeatedly asked for their expulsion in the previous weeks. Reason: Stock’s position on transgender issues.
During the question and answer session in the House of Commons on Monday, the Conservative MP Angela Richardson from the Ministry of Education wanted to know what the government was doing to protect free speech at universities. After all, it was shocking that Kathleen Stock had resigned. To which the responsible State Secretary Michelle Donelan, also from the Conservatives, replied that she wanted to “keep this on record”: She was “absolutely horrified” by the whole matter. What happened to Professor Stock was “intolerable”. Other MPs also expressed concern about the developments that led to Stock’s resignation.
Stock believes that it should not be made easier to change the gender entry
Kathleen Stock, a 49-year-old philosopher, has been known in the UK for a number of years as a gender-critical feminist. In 2020 she herself appeared in the House of Commons before the Committee for Women and Equality when it came to the reform of the “Gender Recognition Act”, a legal text on the question of gender recognition. She takes the view that it should not be made easier for people to change their gender entry, since gender identity cannot be placed above gender in a biological and legal sense.
Since May 2021 she has also been on the board of trustees of the LGB Alliance, a controversial group that campaigns for homosexual rights and against gender self-identification. Stock recently published her book “Material Girls”, in which she explains, among other things, her perspective on transgender issues.
In January, when she was awarded the important “Order of the British Empire” (OBE) for her “services to higher education”, more than 700 British philosophers published an open letter of protest. A few weeks ago a campaign was launched at the University of Sussex, in the Brighton and Hove borough, calling for Stock to be fired. There were demonstrations holding up “stock out” posters.
Stock wrote on Twitter that she and her family had had a “terrible time”
The university always defended Stock. On Thursday evening last week, the Vice Chancellor then sent an email to all students in which he announced that Stock had submitted her resignation and that the university regretted this very much. Stock herself wrote on Twitter that she and her family had had a “terrible time” that she now wanted to leave behind.
The students in Brighton who had demanded their expulsion were disappointed that the university did not address the transgender movement’s point of view in its statement. The protests were also always peaceful, said a student of the Times. The result that Stock has now resigned is encouraging.