Kathleen Stock and the rejection of reality

Last night*, Professor Kathleen Stock told the Oxford Union that we need to talk about ‘reality’. She is absolutely right.

Make no mistake, Stock is a reasonable voice in a political debate where many appear to be living in some sort of fantasy world. Her views are what many would consider to be mainstream. For example, that human beings are sexually dimorphic, and it is sometimes appropriate to provide separate services for each sex.

But by voicing those ideas, Stock has been subjected to opprobrium. In 2021, she was hounded from her job at Sussex University. The scenes surrounding Stock’s talk last night were depressingly familiar. Young people – who seem to think that disagreement is hate – made lots of noise to disrupt the event. In an astonishing fit of petulance, student activist Riz Possnet (pronouns they/them) glued themselves to the floor directly in front of Stock and Union president Matthew Dick. Emblazoned across Possnet’s t-shirt was the slogan, ‘NO MORE DEAD TRANS KIDS’.

In a statement, Possnet added,

We will fight for trans rights and trans futures. We will not let the trans youth of the future suffer as we have. We will fight for justice for trans youth, healthcare for trans youth, dignity for trans youth, and joy for trans youth. No more dead trans kids.

Riz Possnet

https://twitter.com/rizpossnett/status/1663591811791876096

Let’s be clear, Stock was addressing students at one of the most prestigious universities in the world. A place where ideas should be debated to deepen understanding and advance knowledge. In a remarkable intervention, Rishi Sunak asserted, ‘Agree or disagree with her, Professor Stock is an important figure in this argument. Students should be allowed to hear and debate her views.’ The Prime Minister added,

A tolerant society is one which allows us to understand those we disagree with, and nowhere is that more important than within our great universities.

Rishi Sunak

Some debates can be contentious, and perhaps become heated, but children were not at risk from what Stock had to say last night. Amidst all the noise from the demonstrators, the focus on children is, in my view, the most worrying.

Words like justice, healthcare, dignity and joy might roll easily off the tongue, but what exactly is going on? Until very recently, the cohort of young people distressed with their sex was vanishingly small. In 2011-12 only 210 children were referred to the now-controversial Tavistock Clinic. Ten years later, that number had ballooned to 3,585.

But that is only part of the story. In 2022, the Pew Research Center found that around 5 per cent of young American adults identify as transgender or non-binary – whatever that means. To me, it sounds less like transsexualism and more like an attempt to escape from a mundane ‘heteronormative and cisnormative’ existence.

But fantasy is a poor foundation on which to build a life. The danger to young people comes not from Stock but influencers on social media and elsewhere who sell promises that can never be delivered.

Stock is right: sex matters and single-sex services and spaces are important. Hormones and surgery can perhaps give the impression of the other sex, but human beings can never change sex.

Despite that rather fundamental truth, the UK is an agreeable society in which to live as a transsexual. People are tolerant and accepting of me, and other transsexuals I know. They care rather less about our gender reassignment than our ongoing contribution to the communities in which we live and work. If, that is, they even notice.

However, that’s not the way some members of the Oxford University LGBTQ+ society see things. Zoë-Rose Guy (pronouns she/her), the society’s vice-president, told the BBC that it was ‘exhausting’ as a trans person to be ‘constantly expected to justify your existence’.

So it would be. I don’t suppose Guy will be keen to take advice from me, but nobody – trans or otherwise – needs to justify the fact they exist. It is self-evident. But I don’t think that’s what Guy means. Perhaps it is exhausting to require that everyone else believes that you are the other sex or thinks that your sex does not matter? Then, to make the fantasy work, you need to convince yourself that everyone else really does believe it and isn’t just paying lip service.

That futile endeavour is so much harder when an eminent professor of philosophy rocks up, armed with evidence, examples and reasons, which she can use to adeptly argue her case. It might explain why Guy and Possnet were so worked up about Stock’s visit to Oxford.

They, and the rest of the rainbow brigade, need to get over themselves and find real meaning in life that extends beyond their transgender identities. Unless they go around imposing their implausible ideas on others, and influencing vulnerable children, nobody else really cares how they choose to identify.

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Debbie Hayton is a teacher and journalist.

* This article was first published by The Spectator on 31 May 2023: Kathleen Stock and the rejection of reality.