Update from James Caspian on his case against Bath Spa University to be allowed to research detransitioners

[Betti935]

Dear Supporters,

As you may have seen from my page update, the university has concluded its complaints procedure and is sticking to its guns, saying that the only mistake it has made is to have passed my initial research proposal in the first place. (If you remember, it did this before rejecting my amended proposal). The defence given is that the ethics committee's decision was an academic decision, which one may not challenge. I and my lawyers maintain that, as the definition of an academic decision is that it is one that can only be made by an academic, that it did not require an academic to make a decision based on fear of criticism on social media, and therefore the decision to reject my research proposal was not an academic decision at all. The university has also said that it is for a court to decide what is an academic decision.

This means that I now need to raise in the region of £40,000, or preferably more, to take the university to court for a Judicial Review. The deadline for applying for JudiciaI Review is 8th March 2018, that is, three months after the university concluded the complaints procedure. I need to have enough money to cover the possibility of losing, otherwise I cannot risk going ahead. I believe that it is more important than ever that we take this chance of having a legal precedent set that will prevent universities from stopping research on spurious grounds. This is because, since I started this campaign, I have discovered that it is an endemic problem in universities. See here for my interview and other academics' experiences on this subject in a recent edition of the Sunday Telegraph

www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2017/12/23/academics-say-research-hindered-universities-fear-online-backlash/

Please can you share this link on Facebook; pledge again if you are able; email five friends asking them to pledge and publicise my case as widely as you can! This is the beginning of the big push! Let's not let the university get away with it!

I wish you all a happy and healthy new Year!
Very best wishes,

James Caspian.

I'm bumping this thread.
It is simply so important to get some proper research on detransitioners for one thing.
But equally important, in my eyes, is challenging the Orwellian insanity of the university proscribing this research on the grounds of political correctness; for fear of unwanted social media attention.
I mean... what the actual fuck?

Please, if you've already pledged to the crowdfunder would you consider sharing it with friends on social media, via email, (phone your aunties )

Some Twitter hashtags to use, if you're Twits:
#FreeSpeech #DetransitionMatters #AcademicFreedom #CriticalThinking

All that 'academic decisions may not be challenged' stuff was AFAIK originally there to protect academics when someone wants to query, for example, the mark you have given someone on an exam that you wrote as a specialist in that subject. Or, for example, when you as a specialist in a subject, have decided that someones PhD thesis is a load of tosh. Not to put every decision made by an academic out of bounds. As regards Ethics committees, in my experience, there are academic grounds for blocking proposals (because the research question is bonkers, and it is unethical to waste the time of human subjects doing research that is bonkers), but it needs an academic in that subject area to decide that the research question is bonkers. The point about Ethics committees (and which sometimes surprises those who attend) is that we are a mixed bag and NOT specialists in the area of research, or even in a related area. We are AFAIK all academics, but that is about it.

Twisting what was meant to protect academics into seeming like 'no decision made by an academic must ever be questioned' isn't going to help, and frankly makes Research Ethics committees look like a bunch of idiots. As academics, if we cannot defend and give the reasoning behind our decisions/results, then we're pretty bloody poor academics. But odd, if academics are so 'infallible' by this criterion that they managed to make the 'wrong' decision in the first place..............

If he can't raise all of the funds, have those with lawyer contacts looked into if anyone can do it pro bono?

Bumping for the late evening browsers, and because I'd forgotten about this and thought I might have missed the deadline.
One day to go.

The final deadline is March the 8th.

Yes I see It's been extended on the crowdfunder. I wonder why it said today was the deadline?

Hmmmm,

I don't get this fundraiser. James is a masters student which means he needs a supervisor for his project.

Bath can't be forced to provide a supervisor....

Does anyone have an update on this?

The latest update from James Caspian's appeal for funds

Update on Free Speech Matters

Dear Friends and Supporters,

There has been a significant development in my case.

Last week the Office of the Independent Adjudicator for Higher Education, (that is, the ombudsman for universities) agreed to consider my complaint against Bath Spa University, on condition that my lawyers ask for a stay (that is, a holding off from) of application for judicial review.

In December 2017 I asked the OIA to look at the complaint, and it refused to do so. When my lawyers applied in March 2018 for Judicial Review of Bath Spa University's decision to not allow my research proposal, they also included the OIA in the application. Following this, the OIA decided it would look at my complaint against the university after all.

So we have asked the court to stay the application for Judicial Review while the OIA investigates my complaint. This is a necessary part of the process. Should it find in favour of the university we will continue our application for JR.

I will keep you updated as things progress. I am still raising funds to cover my legal expenses on Crowdjustice and ask that you continue to tell people about the case and the page, see

www.crowdjustice.com/case/free-speech-matters-round2/

Please tweet, re-tweet, share on Facebook and other platforms. Please ask friends and supporters to pledge.

Thank you once again for your interest and support while this long and laborious process continues.

Best Wishes,

James.

He has 4 days remaining to raise £2,455.

Can we help?

Has he tweeted Jordan Peterson for a retweet? Or other high follow supporters of free speech in this regard.

that such a good idea to ask higher profile people to tweet about it. OP, if you are in touch with him, could you ask him if he could contact Jordan Peterson? Hopefully wealthy North Americans will donate if he can give it a 'free-speech' boost...

I've just shared and will donate when my CC is handy.

"James is a masters student which means he needs a supervisor for his project.

Bath can't be forced to provide a supervisor...."

Actually, this may not strictly be the case. At my uni, Masters courses with a taught part and a research project part, we are required to provide a supervisor, although means that students who insist on doing a particular project, rather than one a supervisor suggests, don't always get a specialist in their chosen area. But we are required to provide a supervisor -- provided, that is, that the project has obtained ethical approval (if that is relevant), which is the sticking point in this case. I presume there are also issues around projects not being considered academically suitable, but that would be an issue for the supervisor (along the lines of if this is all you propose to do, that isn't sufficient or at the correct level for masters research), rather than the uni admin.

Basically, if someone is accepted on a masters course, pays the fees and turns up, we are contractually obliged to provide a reasonably suitable supervisor, it is part of what they have paid for! :-)

Maybe we could ask Count Dankula too? He was in court recently for free speech and raised a fair amount!

I'm not in contact with him as such.

I got an emailed update from the crowdfunder site which I copied and pasted.

I have shared it on Facebook, but I have the sum total of 9 friends.....

James Caspian is still asking for help funding his challenge of Bath Spa universities refusal to allow him to research people who reverse gender reassignment.

This second fundraiser has 18 days to go and has met £3,650 pledged of £5,000 stretch target. Can everyone share it around as much as possible, so that he gets that last £1,360? www.crowdjustice.com/case/free-speech-matters-round2/

The research is vitally important and it is horrendous that regret and destransition research is being blocked at a time when the number of young girls demanding hormones and surgery are increasing exponentially.

Thanks for the update, have donated, please share.

Is there an update on the OIA and the judicial review?

Donated.

I actually don’t agree with this. I think somebody should research de-transitioning children, but as a medical academic I absolutely do not think that this should be some random inexperienced master’s student. These are very vulnerable children and he has the potential to do untold damage if he approaches his research in the hamfisted way he is approaching his ethics application.

There are extra hoops to jump through if you want to interview children or other vulnerable groups, and it is very hard to get ethics approval in these areas for very good reason. It’s not about being trans - he’d have just as much trouble accessing children with kidney disease or cancer.

And then there is the likelihood of him recruiting sufficient children for his study. De-transitioning children are not easy to find, unless you plan to use confidential medical records (which he obviously can’t). How is he planning on obtaining their parents’ contact details to seek consent? He can’t ethically contact the children directly.

If this was an experienced paediatric psychiatric researcher with a full research team behind them, fine. But this is just some bloke dabbling. It is wildly unethical, and his court case has zero chance of success.

If he is who I think he is, he's worked with trans people for years @Sashkin .

www.theguardian.com/education/2017/sep/25/bath-spa-university-transgender-gender-reassignment-reversal-research

www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4979498/James-Caspian-attacked-transgender-children-comments.html

Not inexperienced at all.

some random inexperienced master’s student

He's a trustee of the Beaumont Trust, FGS.

www.beaumont-trust.org.uk/organisation/

I haven't seen any suggestion he's intending to work with children.

He's a psychologist and therapist with 10 years' experience working in a gender clinic, a trustee of Beaumont and had input into the memorandum of understanding.

Hardly 'some random inexperienced masters student' or 'just some bloke dabbling'

Maybe there are even better qualified people to do this research but they aren't doing it are they? Meanwhile the numbers of detransitioners continues to grow.

I found this guy's videos today. There are a few in English on his channel. We need to listen to detransitioners.

I think somebody should research de-transitioning children, but as a medical academic I absolutely do not think that this should be some random inexperienced master’s student.

Then you should be very reassured to know that "No one could accuse psychotherapist James Caspian of being a bigot or prejudiced against transgender people. His LGBT — that's lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender — credentials are impeccable.

For this slight, measured, gay man is not only a trustee of the transgender charity The Beaumont Trust, but he has dedicated more than a decade of his life to counselling hundreds of patients who wish to change their gender.

He publishes academic papers on the subject, contributes to books and addresses some of the finest minds in the health professions at conferences around the world — and has done extensive work training fellow psychotherapists on transgender awareness.

If there was ever an expert in this field, James, 58, is it."

About as far as you can get from being a "random inexperienced master’s student".