The headline says:
Oxford ‘allowed’ trans protest that cancelled lecture series
But the subhead gets it right:
Activists disrupted two lectures on gender in the law by the equality law expert Dr Michael Foran
They didn’t “protest”; they shut down. The two are not the same. Let’s not err on the side of validating the little shits, eh?
Dr Michael Foran, 32, an associate professor of law, confirmed on Sunday that he had cancelled talks on how sex and gender had affected the law in relation to controversies over single-sex spaces, freedom of expression, privacy, sport and sexual intimacy.
Footage posted online shows how trans activists interrupted two talks Foran gave on this topic. The videos capture the activists — understood to be students at the university — standing in front of his lectern and telling the audience he was bigoted, urging them not to give him a platform.
One of them with green hair and wearing a bathing suit. Not literally a bathing suit but a minimal undershirt and shorts. I’m a tad 19th century that way, I don’t want to see acres of other people’s skin unless we’re all at the beach.
In a recording of a lecture on May 29, taken by an audience member, one of the protesters claimed that Foran “masks his transphobia behind a thin veneer of academia”.
The protester added: “If you are here in a critical capacity to challenge his ideas … that is not the same as refusing to platform him. He will not be convinced by your arguments. Please join me in walking out and refusing to platform this bigot.”
Because he will be convinced by that? I suspect a flaw in the chain of reasoning there.
In a video of the second lecture on June 5, the same two protesters could again be seen addressing the audience at the start of the event. However, on this occasion their voices were largely drowned out by objections to their presence from those attending.
But they got their way anyway. Why’s that?
A university source who was present at the lectures but has asked to remain anonymous has revealed that the university proctors’ office gave permission for the protests to go ahead.
The students who attended also confirmed that, although they had made complaints to the proctors about the disruptive and intimidating nature of the demonstration at Foran’s first talk, the officials allowed the activists to protest at a second lecture.
Why? Why, why, why? Why are we all hostages to the enforcers of this idiotic ideology? Why can’t these two young shits be disciplined instead of encouraged to continue?
It is the job of the proctors’ office to enforce “conduct regulations” at Oxford and as such students must seek permission from their office to stage a protest on the provision that it is peaceful and does not disrupt “the lawful exercise of freedom of speech”.
The university source who witnessed the protests told The Times: “This was not a non-disruptive protest. It broke the university rules because it is a disciplinary matter to seek to deplatform or attempt to disrupt events, which is what the activists were doing.”
So why were they told to go ahead? Is there a mole in the proctors’ office?
A spokeswoman for Oxford said that freedom of speech and academic freedom were fundamental to the university and that they remained committed to these principles. She said: “Members of our academic community must be able to teach, research, speak and debate within the law, including on issues that are controversial or strongly contested. Equally, we support the right to lawful protest and civil disagreement.”
Well guess what: you can’t do both. If you give students permission to disrupt lectures then you’re not allowing the members of your academic community to teach, research, speak and debate within the law, including on issues that are controversial or strongly contested. You’re doing the opposite of that. You’re allowing teenagers in nasty undershirts to prevent that.
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