In the face of challenges and hostility
Sullivan nominated for Sullivan Review.
A leading gender critical researcher has been shortlisted for the 2025 Maddox Prize for her landmark review into how sex is recorded in publicly funded research.
Alice Sullivan, professor of sociology at UCL, is the only UK-based researcher named on the six-strong shortlist for the prize, awarded by Nature Awards and the science communication charity Sense about Science, which recognises researchers with a record of “standing up for sound science and evidence in the public interest, and for showing courage and integrity in the face of challenges and hostility”.
It doesn’t get much more challenges and hostility than trans ideology. That’s probably because they are coming from inside the house.
Published in March, Sullivan’s independent review revealed how inconsistent approaches in how sex is recorded in publicly funded research has led to a “widespread loss” of data over the past decade.
Numerous studies carried out after 2015 dropped questions related to biological sex and instead collected data on ‘gender’, the study explained, with the term referring to gender identity.
Sullivan’s report recommended researchers should collect data on gender identity but avoid combining this category with questions on sex.
Because obviously they should, because “gender identity” is the opposite of sex. It’s about feefees, thoughts, fantasies, daydreams. It’s not just not the reality, it’s the enemy of the reality.
While Sullivan’s report won plaudits from many experts and politicians, including health secretary Wes Streeting, it was heavily criticised by others, including the transgender support group TransActual who claimed the report is “biased, inadequate and potentially harmful to all”.
Snort. Sure, it’s “potentially” anything you like, but let’s stick to current reality, shall we?
Mermaids, a charity which supports families with transgender children, claimed the UCL professor is an “adviser to an organisation widely considered to be an anti-trans campaign group” – namely, the gender critical charity Sex Matters.
So typical. Typical of Mermaids and typical of gender ideology/manipulation in general. Anything they don’t like is “widely considered” to be anti-trans whatever. We know that, and we do not care.
Alice Sullivan reported the most chilling thing I ever heard throughout the whole gender mess.
I wrote in late 2024, facetiously, that, “No doubt soon there will be newborn trans babies.” Barely a few months later, Alice Sullivan reported she’d uncovered at least one case where deranged parents brought their newborn child back to the hospital to have the paperwork changed: they were unhappy about the sex of their newborn so they decided to carry on as though the child was the othersex — the one they wanted — and to that end they simply declared that the newborn was “trans”. Then they stormed back to the hospital and demanded the doctors change the paperwork, and re-issue a new birth certificate that “affirmed” their child as the sex they wanted it to be. So far, so crazy. This is supposed to be the part where the hospital alerts the authorities and the child is taken into protective custody, because, obvious mental cases, right? Obvious child endangerment, right? It’s tragic, I know. But you’re wrong! Far crazier, and far more tragic, is that that’s not what happened. Instead, EVERY SINGLE PERSON at the hospital capitulated and said nothing to contradict the deranged parents. The doctors issued a new birth certificate with a false sex identification to placate them.
I guarantee you, every single person who bore witness to that went home and privately ranted about how crazy gender madness is. And I also guarantee you: not one of those fuckers stepped up in public to protect that child. In fact, we already know that that’s the case. Because it fucking happened, and it went unnoticed and undocumented until Alice Sullivan reported on it.
It burns my blood. I watched person after person after person keep his or her mouth shut while all this gender extremist horseshit was happening. Meanwhile, I lost all my friends, my jobs, everything. It’s been six years since I really started speaking up, and my life is still a fucking shambles. I struggle to keep a roof over my head, to pay my billls, to remain employed. It’s gotten to the point that I resent anyone with any money, any comfort, any success. Because they had to see what was happening. They must at some point have made a conscious choice to cover their eyes and their ears in order to maintain that status. And the very few of us who spoke up, we still haven’t gotten our recompense. It’s bloody brutal, living through a historical scandal and not being a coward about it.
I went to a gender-critical talk by Alice Sullivan in London a couple years ago. A University College thing. It was a strangely “underground” affair. We in the audience all knew that the event was considered taboo, even dangerous, to outsiders.
(Allow me a wee cheeky brag: I briefly met Kathleen Stock in person at the reception afterwards. Very unexpectedly, she came up to me and told me she recognized me! I nearly fainted. I’ve never interacted with her in person since. But I surely would do! I felt like I’d met a fucking rock star!)
It’s academics like Sullivan who are maintaining the integrity of the whole system. Can you imagine being a university dean in the future, looking back at your student body, and not finding even one single person who spoke up for the truth? UCL has Alice Sullivan almost single-handedly to thank for saving its reputation, because she pushed for that event, and they allowed it to take place, despite the risks.
God, there are so many institutions that weren’t so lucky. If only there were more Alice Sullivans and Kathleen Stocks across academia — across the whole of society!
Brava to Alice, for her nomination. Much deserved.
Shouldn’t that first link be Sullivan nominated for Maddox?
It could be but I meant “for” in the sense of “for her work on” – so I tweaked the title to clarify.
Godalmighty, Arty. What a horror.
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