Cambridge LGBT+ campaign slams ‘criticising gender identity’ talk at Caius College

A talk hosting journalist Helen Joyce is due to take place today, the 25th of October, and has been the subject of widespread controversy due to the conflict between Joyce’s and students’ views on transgender issues.

Joyce “campaigns for clarity about the two sexes, male and female, in law and in life” as per her website, and has written several pieces on gender identity.

It will take place at Gonville and Caius College, although the college has stated that it is not a college event.

Cambridge Student Union’s LGBT+ campaign was quick to respond, posting a statement that said it was “shocked and highly disappointed” at the decision to host Joyce, saying: “Trans rights are not an issue of ideology, nor is the existence of trans people a hypothetical, philosophical debate.”

Professor Arif Ahmed, who is organising the event, told The Cambridge Tab half of the time allocated for the event is set aside for debate, “comments and objections”. He said: “Free speech is not negotiable. […] Anyone who finds this uncomfortable is welcome not to attend.”

The event will host journalist Helen Joyce

The talk is named “Criticising gender-identity ideology: what happens when speech is silenced” and will host outspoken writer Helen Joyce, who last year released a book entitled Trans: When Ideology Meets Reality.

The talk invite was sent to Medicine, Natural Sciences, and Divinity students by the organiser, Philosophy lecturer Arif Ahmed, on the 13th of October. It said Joyce will be interviewed by Economics professor Sir Partha Dasgupta in a discussion focussing on “her interest in the controversial subject of gender-identity ideology” and her work’s positive and negative reactions. The email also stressed the former Economist editor’s “rave reviews” and “endorsements.”

Helen Joyce is a journalist and newspaper editor who is currently on a leave of absence from the Economist, before which she had edited the paper’s economics and finance sections and worked as education and Brazil correspondent. After publishing a series of articles on transgender identity, Joyce further explored this subject in her first book, which received mixed reviews, being described in reviews both as “barely supported by evidence” and a “tour de force“.

Students have been quick to respond

The LGBT+ campaign response said that “trans people, […] including students at this university, are an extremely vulnerable minority”. The statement cited a recent report by the Home Office which found transphobic hate crimes have increased 56 per cent on the previous year, alongside a 2018 Stonewall survey that found that 36 per cent of trans university students had faced “negative comments or behaviour” in the year prior.

The Murray Edwards College Feminist Society also described “outrage” at the upcoming talk, writing: “Caius should not provide a platform for individuals” such as Joyce, whose words they say “can have a manifest impact on the student body of the college and broader group of people with a marginalised identity.”

The Student Union LGBT+ campaign is organising an “alternative event” that will run simultaneously during the same evening, in which organisers say they will be “celebrating and educating about trans identities”.

The college have stressed ‘it is not a college event’

The controversy made national papers in the days since the Master (Dr Pippa Rogerson) and Senior Tutor (Dr Andrew Spencer) of Gonville and Caius announced their intention not to attend the event in an email addressed to all students of the college. The email highlighted the importance of “freedom of expression”, but labelled Joyce’s as being “offensive, insulting, and hateful to members of our community.”

The statement was followed suit by Joyce with an open letter, posted on her Twitter page. The journalist argued that it is the job of people such as Rogerson and Spencer to “be brave” in holding open “a space for free speech”, criticised the pair for choosing to skip the talk and called for them to meet her to discuss her work and views.

A Gonville & Caius College spokesperson said: “Gonville & Caius College prides itself on being a welcoming and inclusive community. The event on October 25 is an external event hosted by Professor Arif Ahmed, a Caius Fellow. It is not a College event. We support free speech and would encourage those within the College community and wider society to challenge views they find reprehensible through debate and to celebrate our diversity.”

Organisers’ response

Professor Arif Ahmed, who is organising the event, told The Cambridge Tab: “The point of this event is not to endorse Helen Joyce’s views but to debate them. Half the allocated time is set aside for objections and comments from the floor. Her ideas about sex and gender are important and deserve free and open discussion.

“Free speech is not negotiable. The event will go ahead. Anyone who finds this uncomfortable is welcome not to attend.”

The University of Cambridge and Helen Joyce have also been contacted for comment.

Featured image credits: Felix Armstrong