Jenni Murray axes Oxford talk after transgender row with student activists
STUDENT zealots tried to censor Dame Jenni Murray from speaking at Oxford University because of her ‘transphobic rhetoric’.
The Woman’s Hour presenter was due to be interviewed by the History Society on Saturday about powerful British women.
But activists tried to no-platform her by claiming her views ‘cause tangible harm’ to transgender people.
The broadcaster, 68, has now cancelled the appearance ‘for personal reasons’.
Three groups – Oxford SU LGBTQ+ Campaign, Oxford University LGBTQ Society and Oxford SU Women’s Campaign – penned an open letter on Tuesday condemning the History Society event and calling for it to be axed.
They said Dame Jenni previously made ‘explicitly transphobic comments’ and ‘repeatedly insinuated that transgender women and girls are not women and can only pretend to be women’. In a Sunday Times article last year, Dame Jenni argued that women who have lived as men do not have the experience of growing up female.
Her piece was headed: ‘Be trans, be proud but don’t call yourself a ‘‘real woman’’. Can someone who has lived as a man, with all the privilege that entails, really lay claim to womanhood? It takes more than a sex change and make-up.’
The incensed activists said it would be ‘deeply inappropriate’ to have the Radio 4 host speak when she has used her platform and ‘privilege to further oppress a marginalised group’.
They accused her of ‘admonishing trans women and questioning their womanhood’ and said hosting an hour-long interview ‘further marginalises and unnecessarily compromises the welfare of trans students and staff.’ ‘Inviting Murray to talk in this capacity leaves her transphobic rhetoric essentially unchallenged,’ the letter claimed.
‘The decision to invite Murray to Oxford in this capacity, to promise her a microphone and the undivided and uncritical attention of a room, is a decision to propagate, validate, and normalise institutional transphobia.’
It follows high-profile cases of attempts by student unions to censor feminists, Tory politicians, gay rights activists and even race campaigners over concerns they had ‘offensive views’.
Chris McGovern, of the Campaign for Real Education, said: ‘It’s getting to a situation now where free speech is being denied and that’s quite contrary to everything that Oxford has stood for.’
An Oxford University spokesman said it is ‘committed to supporting the university’s transgender students’. He added: ‘We are also committed to freedom of expression, and this event is entirely suitable for a student society.’
Universities minister Sam Gyimah has announced tough new guidance to halt the trend of speakers being blocked from campuses. Dame Jenni did not respond to request for comment.