Professor says criticism of ‘transphobic’ comments is attack on free speech

A UNIVERSITY of Oxford professor has said academic freedom is under threat after being accused of running a transphobic Twitter account.

Prof Michael Biggs, assistant professor of sociology and fellow of St Cross College, made the comments after an Oxford student paper reported he was using a pseudonymous Twitter account to make what are claimed to be offensive comments about transgender people. The account, called “Mrhenrywimbush”, is registered to a Yahoo! email address that is believed to be connected to Prof Biggs’s official Oxford University email account.

One tweet from the account read: “Transphobia is a word created by fascists, and used by cowards, to manipulate morons”. A screengrab of another tweet stated that “the odd thing about transitioning is that it makes you LESS attractive”.

Prof Biggs, who has published a number of articles about transgender issues, did not say explicitly that the account – which was suspended yesterday by Twitter – belonged to him and could not be reached for comment.

After he was approached by The Oxford Student, Prof Biggs published a statement on his website in which he outlined his stance on transphobia.

It read: “It is not transphobic to discuss the merits of legislation or to debate theories about sex and gender. Dictionary definitions such as ‘woman: adult human female’ and ‘lesbian: female homosexual’ are not transphobic. Nor is it transphobic to call the convicted rapist Karen White – who was placed in a women’s prison – a man.”

Karen White, 52, who was born a man, used the guise of wanting to change sex to convince authorities to place her in a women’s prison where she sexually assaulted two female inmates.

Prof Biggs said he did not believe “that gender identity supersedes sex, any more than I believe that Jesus was the son of God. Therefore I oppose any attempt by the University to establish an official doctrine on gender, just as I would oppose the imposition of a single religion or one particular position on Israel-palestine. The enforcement of orthodoxy – often disguised as ‘diversity’ – would destroy the University’s very foundation: academic freedom.”

Earlier this month, Prof Biggs was one of 100 signatories of a letter to The Guardian which raised concerns over proposed reforms to the Gender Recognition Act and the “suppression of proper academic analysis and discussion of the social phenomenon of transgenderism”.

Dr Clara Barker, an Oxford University lecturer who is a trans woman and vice-chair of the Oxford University LGBTQ+ Advisory Board said: “He’s been very vocal … in a way that does seem to show a viewpoint on trans people which isn’t necessarily very inclusive and positive.”

An Oxford University spokesman said the university had to be careful to “balance both free speech and alleged incidents of harassment”.