An English university faces legal action after failing to protect the freedom of expression of a guest speaker.
Professor Alice Sullivan has complained to the Office for Students (OfS)—the UK universities regulator—following trans rights protestors disrupting a talk she gave at the University of Bristol, alleging the institution failed to defend her rights amid what the institution itself called “unacceptable disruption.”
Sullivan’s ‘speech crime’ is that she advised the British government to treat biological sex as a distinct category when compiling statistics. Controversially (i.e. commonsensically), she has described the conflation of sex and gender in the 2021 United Kingdom census as “harmful,” prompting threats and demonstrations.
After being confronted by angry students, she argued that
Everyone has a right to peaceful protest, but that must never amount to a heckler’s veto, which means shutting down other people’s right to speak.
However, Sullivan claims that Bristol mismanaged her appearance there in ways which undermined attendance and left it vulnerable to external protesters. Sure enough, her October 22 talk reportedly saw high levels of outside intimidation. In response, she has threatened legal action against the University.
The possibility of legal action from Sullivan—like her reporting Bristol to the OfS—would pave the way for further confrontation between a partly pro-trans higher education sector and advocates of academic freedom. Previously, a similar conflict (initiated by trans rights activists against a professor) led to an unprecedentedly high fine of £585,000 (€669,641) for the University of Sussex.
