Essex University have apologised for The Reindorf Report

[Leafstamp]

www.essex.ac.uk/blog/staff/posts/2021/07/02/our-commitment-to-our-trans-and-non-binary-community

Some commentary here:

mobile.twitter.com/MForstater/status/1411341590589849601

Very disappointing. Which is an understatement.

Pathetic.

Is the absence of a spine a prerequisite for managing universities, charities and cultural organisations now?

Hey, though: 'identifying a common room/space for trans and non-binary students'

Look, a third space!

No attribution/time stamp, so I can't be 100% sure this is really footage from the meeting.

You know how I've been a solid 4 (out of 10)?

I'm 3, giving some hard thought to 2.

@ArabellaScott

Hey, though: 'identifying a common room/space for trans and non-binary students'

Look, a third space!

Got to look for the positives!

But I do see why you’ve downgraded the rating Embarrassing. I feel like after the prisons thing and now this we need some more positive news. Maybe the papers tomorrow will report on something?

They've got their eye on the cold hard student dollar. Got to keep the customer satisfied, and if the customer insists the Emperor is clothed in the very latest fashion, why then, young sir - so it is.

Contemptible cowards.

Dear Lord. That's utterly embarrassing.

Don't they read the bloody papers?

@WinterTrees

They've got their eye on the cold hard student dollar. Got to keep the customer satisfied, and if the customer insists the Emperor is clothed in the very latest fashion, why then, young sir - so it is.

Contemptible cowards.

Except there are countless students who think it's just a pile of wank.

I do wonder how these students will ever manage in the real world. Probably explains why many go onto work in Universities.

So they asked for a legal opinion and are apologizing for it?

and are committed to Stonewall who have been spoon feeding them nonsense

Well, that is disappointing.

And by disappointing, I mean craven and cowardly.

Hey, though: 'identifying a common room/space for trans and non-binary students'

Look, a third space!

For some people a third space is not enough. TW must have the right to access men's spaces (because they are men), women's spaces (because they pretend to be women) and trans spaces.

Of course just as they argue that anyone should be able to 'identify' as a woman and enter women's spaces, anyone can declare themselves as 'non-binary' as nobody knows what it means, so the safe space will be accessible to all.

Why the fuck do people's identities need protecting?

Your fragile ego is your problem. It is no one else's job to pander to your bullshit.

Cowards.

It's an utter embarrassment that adults need to be molly-coddled constantly like this. Cringey as hell.

How has no one told them to just to grow the actual fuck up?

Utterly pathetic.

As a general rule of thumb when reading things like that VC’s blog:

“lived reality” = delusional fantasy LARPing, with an unhealthy dose of cultural appropriation thrown in

actual lived reality = evil bigotry

As someone has noted, many students are utterly turned off by all this. Eventually they will make their voices heard.

Utterly craven and makes him look stupid as well as careless of the law.

Gosh this demographic is just so powerless isn’t it. They have whole institutions grovelling before them. Contemptible.

E pur si muove. Apologising doesn’t change the legal advice that was provided.

Does that blog actually apologise for the report though?

It apologises for the way it was released, the timing of it, the fact that students felt sad and any hypothetical bullying it may have caused (!) but it makes clear all those apologies are just because they were asked for.

To me it seems like this bloke met with a load of whiney nutters who asked for insane things and he just said 'yes' because it costs nothing, changes nothing and placates them. There is no indication that the uni has reversed the actions it took resulting from the report.

It's all a bit Evergreen-y.

I didn't know the name of the report. For anyone who doesn't know what it was about here's a link:

www.cloisters.com/reindorf-review-on-no-platforming/

In short.

University univited/ cancelled 2 events where a female professor had been due to speak.

One was cancelled last minute over safety concerns about threats to the speaker (they claimed at the time).

The other was disinvited from a round table about anti semitism IE a totally different topic because of the wrong think on women's rights.

Hooha.

Uni got a lawyer view, conclusion illegal.

The OP link is a further statement from the university saying, well. What it says.

This part is the bit where the report is rejected:

'My personal view is that the current law in the UK does not fully respect and protect the identities of trans and non-binary people. I understand that, in meeting our obligations to respect academic freedom and freedom of speech within the law, we have given the impression that we might not care about the lived reality of trans and non-binary people. As we revise our equality, diversity and inclusion policies and procedures we will continue to go beyond the minimum standards required by law, wherever we can, to ensure that we recognise, respect and protect the identities of trans and non-binary people. '

So, the report said illegal, but the law is wrong.

Does that blog actually apologise for the report though?

Not sure as I couldn’t bring myself to read the whole thing, but the first sentence in the paragraph NiceGerbil posted above was the one that leapt out at me. Effectively, rather than standing up for the report and standing by their apology to the women they illegally excluded, they are now saying “yes, we broke the law, but that’s because the law is wrong”.

So where does that leave the women they apologized to before? And who are they to make that call on behalf of everyone? And most importantly, who on Earth is pulling their strings? Is it really only students? Or is there something else going on?

@Imnobody4

Is the absence of a spine a prerequisite for managing universities, charities and cultural organisations now?

Yes

Thanks NiceGerbil for bringing people up to speed.

Academia is one of the worst sectors to be in favour of women’s sex based rights. I hate that this is automatically called transphobic.