🚨BREAKING: A Telegraph investigation today reports on the case of Cambridge student @theasewell05, who was ostracised and left without any effective route of redress after expressing gender-critical views.
Her “crime”? Being seen reading books by mainstream authors including Kathleen Stock (@Docstockk), former University of Sussex professor, and Helen Joyce (@HJoyceGender), former Economist journalist and Director of the campaign group @SexMattersOrg.
The Committee for Academic Freedom (CAF) has been supporting Thea and has now written formally to the University of Cambridge, raising serious concerns about how free-speech protections and harassment procedures are being applied in practice at college level when it comes to students whose lawful, protected beliefs conflict with gender identity theory.
Ms Sewell, a second-year philosophy undergraduate at Christ’s College, was told that “buying books from bigots is the same as being a bigot” and was subsequently cut off by almost all of her friends. Others told her she was a “bigot” and that “everyone deserved to know” her “hateful” views. Members of her philosophy cohort sent messages telling her that her views were “completely reprehensible”.
The ostracism became so severe that Ms Sewell returned home for two weeks to escape deeply upsetting treatment. During her absence, fellow students speculated among themselves about whether she had taken her own life — without any of them checking on her welfare.
On her return to Cambridge, after being forced to move accommodation she went back to her old room late at night to avoid further confrontation, only to discover the word “TERF” scratched into her door.
Ms Sewell continues her studies but now attends fewer lectures and tutorials in person because she fears how fellow undergraduates will treat her. Her former friends ignore her, while other students stare, secretly photograph her, and shout abuse.
This is not merely a story about student intolerance. It raises serious questions about whether universities provide any meaningful route of redress for students whose lawful views fall outside prevailing ideological orthodoxies — and whether new free-speech protections are being treated seriously, or quietly sidelined as a legal technicality.
CAF will be publishing further material shortly, including our interview with Thea, and further analysis of what this case reveals about the state of free speech in higher education.
To follow this case, and to support our work defending the free speech and academic freedom of staff and students, sign up to CAF’s weekly newsletter here:
https://t.co/zwSgRONPLN
Full report in The Telegraph:
https://t.co/goYhrHGYal
This is plain disturbing.
Judge Alexander Kemp, who presided over the Sandie Peggie tribunal, 'has been urged... to withdraw his findings and consider his position after it emerged that his ruling was “riddled” with errors and inaccuracies.'
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https://t.co/LSCVukvspb
U.K. Puberty blocker trial.
The researchers argue that RCTs (randomised, controlled trials) produce ‘gold standard’ data.
They fail to mention they are not doing an RCT for the question everyone thinks they are asking.
The question Wes Streeting @wesstreeting seems to think will be answered.
There is NO CONTROL GROUP to test whether PBs improve outcomes over and above psychosocial therapy alone.
The proposed comparator are kids who are not eligible for the trial - this means they are fundamentally different in mental health, physical health and/or behavioural status.
Without a control group - and why, BTW, is there no randomised control group? - they are not testing whether the drugs do something positive, they are testing the difference between the effects of Drugs Now versus Drugs Later.
And the researchers know that a massive, unmeasurable amount of any positive effect is placebo effect.
They are literally proposing a trial that fails to answer the right question, and fails to control for the very effect any ‘gold standard’ RCT seeks desperately to minimise.
They know the kids will benefit from being told they are on PBs immediately, well before any physical changes manifest.
This is trial of the placebo effect.
Finally had some time to read the PATHWAYS- U.K. Puberty Blocker Study Protocol. It is 113 pages.
So I was trained to read and then carry out clinical research protocols, my Masters of Science is literally in Clinical Research Management. In each study the protocol is essential the Bible for the study.
OK folx, so Webberley has not said ONE WORD about our debate, posted a clip, or link - nuffink! So do me a favour and share the link far and wide please! My article on the experience is in the first reply, and here is the YouTube of the whole horror:
https://t.co/ka2yZBMBwt
Listening to @BBCRadio4 news item on new screening tool for prostate cancer. They are talking about MEN. Not people with prostate. Just men. Says everything we need to know. TRAs never attacked male dominated language or the category 'men'.
A woman named Hayley Crawford created ‘Ask for Angela’ to help women who were being targeted with male violence to seek help.
She has had to resign after her initiative was ‘taken out of her hands’ without notice and crucially - the remit broadened to include men - including removing the female image.
#AskForAngela
My letter in today's Camden New Journal. I have always supported the sex-based rights of women and LGB people as well as the right of trans people to live their best lives.
NEW FOOTAGE: The IDF soldier who took on the masked mob of Hаmаs-wannabe-crybabies at TMU deserves more credit than you thought.
"Many people were hurt, a couple people hospitalized."
He single-handedly saved the students from being attacked by at least 40 people hunting Jews.
Happy 20th anniversary to @Lumos! Over two decades, we've helped 280,000+ children and young people flourish in loving families, not institutions.
Through our work across 12+ countries, we've supported the transformation of child protection systems and driven lasting change. We know what works and how to scale it.
Today, I'm thrilled to announce Lumos' 10-Year Ambition for our next decade. Working with national and global partners, we will have at least twice the impact for children in half the time, reaching more children in more countries, more quickly.
Every child deserves to grow up in a safe and loving family. Together, we can make this vision reality.
https://t.co/8GnRdA5HeO
Happy Howl-o-ween from our kennel-free dog rescue 🐶👻🎃🐕🐕👻 Please give them a RT if our dogs make you smile today 👻👻👻
It has always been our greatest wish that the rescue dogs in our care don’t know they are homeless.
Their curiosity and joy is infectious, simple games make for lots of happiness as they live in the moment and discover new things with their friends 👻🐶🐶🐶🎃
#halloween
🚨 Nearly 1,000 academics have now signed an open letter defending an Israeli-born professor at City, University of London, branded a “terrorist” and “war criminal” by activists calling for his dismissal over compulsory military service in the 1980s.
Read and add your name here:
https://t.co/sJzZ4qiqUG
Full story here:
https://t.co/c45PRwuKk7
Over 600 scholars have now signed the open letter condemning the campaign against Professor Michael Ben-Gad and supporting his personal and intellectual freedom as an academic.
Credit to colleagues at @AFAF_freespeech and the London Universities’ Council for Academic Freedom (LUCAF) for their work behind the scenes in building support and getting the letter up and running.
Read and add your name here:
https://t.co/sJzZ4qiqUG
Full story here:
https://t.co/c45PRwuKk7
Solidarity with Michael Ben-Gad, Professor of Economics at City University.
Students are demanding his sacking simply because he is an Israeli Jew who has done (mandatory) military service.
The antisemitic harassment he is being subjected to is horrifying. I hesitate to amplify it, but British academics need to understand what is happening.
https://t.co/8mEJufKL3o
https://t.co/426Mmo6IPc
@coe No we don’t, we all have a sex. I do not have a gender identity, that would require me to align with stereotypes of what is masculine or feminine. We have spent decades trying to break free of these stereotypes.
BREAKING: Darlington nurses reported to Nursing and Midwifery Council for speaking out over NHS Policy that forces them to undress in front of a man
The four complaints from members of the public include accusations, after the nurses gave media interviews, of ‘transphobia’, demands that they be struck off the professional register, and even a report to police for alleged ‘hate crime’.
The Shadow Secretary of State for Women and Equalities, Rt. Hon. @ClaireCoutinho , has slammed the development, saying:
“It is beyond belief that these four remarkable nurses may now be dragged through another vexatious disciplinary process simply because they stood up against radical transgender ideology in the NHS and defended their legal right to single-sex spaces.
“Our institutions have been captured by an ideology that wants to pretend that biological sex isn’t real and puts the feelings of transgender women above the rights of women to get changed in dignity, privacy, and safety.
“The Government needs to get a grip and intervene to make sure the Darlington Nurses and Jennifer Melle are not punished for believing that women are women.”
The nurses ae being supported by lawyers at the Christian Legal Centre, with their full employment tribunal scheduled to begin in Newcastle on October 22.
See more on our website👇
https://t.co/AKjX8oCTrK
On this international girls day we remember girls in Afghanistan, the only country in the world where girls cannot live life. Childhood & every basic right are taken away from them. The young girls forced or sold into marriage and given a baby & broom instead of pen and book. 1/2