Trans is too serious an issue to leave to activists - James Kirkup

[BiologyIsReal]

www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2020/01/24/militant-activists-have-left-us-dangerously-poor-understanding/

James Kirkup in today's Daily Telegraph. Print version headline "Trans is too serious an issue to leave to activists". Online version headline "Militant activists have left us dangerously poor understanding of trans issues".

He is following up on the news that Prof Selina Todd has been given security guards at Oxford because of threats.

Final paragraph reads:: "The trans issue desperately needs better researach and evidence, not least for the sake of trans people themselves. Yet a toxic combination of aggressive activism and political neglect has created a vacuum of evidence that risks being filled with propoganda. Free speech for Prof Todd and others like her is anthing but academic".

I have counted (I think if I recall correctly) six articles on trans genderism in the DT over the last week. Clearly, the DT has for a while now made an editorial decision to highlight the controversy - perhaps more even than the Times.

Should read "propaganda" and "anything". Fat fingers.

Selina Todd on R4 this morning was excellent. The answer can’t be stopping women gathering and speaking about their sex based rights and experiences, and closing down debate by calling women bigots.

Clearly, the DT has for a while now made an editorial decision to highlight the controversy - perhaps more even than the Times.

Yes The Telegraph has had a steady stream of articles about areas impacted by gender ideology informed policy for some time.

In contrast /for balance the weekend supplement also has gifted regular page space to a male writer who has been describing in detail 'a very personal journey to womanhood'. Its been running for a while.

Yeah, David and his journey. I’m sure Telegraph readers across the land are buying into it wholeheartedly.

Last I looked, ‘he’ was still David - apologies if I’ve missed a memo.

Ah yes, David. Wearing above the knee translucent white dresses and featuring endless women nursing David and telling David how fabulous David looks.

A very useful column.

One very interesting point made by James Kirkup is that Professor Selina Todd was targeted because trans activists didn't like her research conclusions. Kirkup notes that this is impeding academic research and cites the case of research into detransition being shut down by Bath Spa.

Selina Todd’s case is so troubling because the threats she faced weren’t a reaction to something she said on Twitter or at a public meeting. She needs bodyguards because trans activists don’t like her academic research Todd suggests that many of the women who are now claimed as “trans” by activists were in fact lesbians pretending to be men to avoid stigma. That’s a challenge to the narrative that trans people have been present in western societies for centuries, a claim that campaigners use to rebut suggestions that the growing numbers of trans youngsters are driven by social media trends

She needs bodyguards because trans activists don’t like her academic research

Important to be aware of Professor Todd's areas of research.

Selina Todd:
"I am Professor of Modern History and a specialist in the history of modern Britain, particularly during the 20th and 21st centuries. My research focuses on the history of working-class life and women's lives. I am interested in ordinary people's experience and memory of the past. My research examines class and gender relations, social mobility, work and education - often by using oral histories and unpublished autobiographies."

More information here:
www.history.ox.ac.uk/people/professor-selina-todd