Anyone else work at a Uni?

[Phunkychicken]

Just having a uni wide 'meeting' - much pressure from the LGBTQ+ group about what they are going to do re the SC ruling to ensure trans staff/students are safe - management saying they're seeking guidance on what to do practically going forward. Tentatively posted that some of us welcome the ruling and have had 6 thumbs up - so they're at least 6 of us.

It's so hard not giving myself away but the push back has been insane

("which idiot left the sample of lethal bacteria in the sink" sort of thing)

This made me laugh.

I’m a bit surprised that I haven’t seen open letters from Gender Studies or Literature yet. Or, for that matter, Biology …

On a more serious note, I’m
quite worried about a big backlash against GC academics in the UK now. The rhetoric reminds me of the bad old days of a few years ago. Nobody here seems to have noticed that this about women’s rights, not trans rights!

Worry not, here’s the open letter from “biologists”!

I’m a graduate student and there’s been nothing from our university yet apart from an email from the college trans rep offering support, and inviting attendance at an anti-SC demo. Nothing from the Women’s rep - I’ll be interested if they continue to say that the Wonen’s rep represents women and those who ID as women…
Certainly not ready to put my head above the parapet yet - and in awe of those of you who are brave enough to do so!

That’s a fairly short list of signatories … phew! Also, what nonsense that sex only matters in reproduction and fertility, it matters in all areas of medicine and physical activity. Otherwise the example provided here about the TW and haemoglobin levels would not make sense … yes, males who take oestrogen need careful monitoring but you would not apply the same parameters as for females … so stupid.

Mr Meddle's post from yesterday about the 'open letter', a device which is actually just a method of bullying, surprised me as it has a whole load of foreign signatories at the bottom, people with foreign names at foreign universities. The names lead me to believe they most likely aren't UK nationals simply working at a foreign uni, so why the hell do they think it's ok to poke their noses into our laws?

This interference in other countries' affairs is increasingly annoying me (and God knows, I'm easily annoyed these days), like that Ryan Castellucci, an American who wanted his 'non binary status' recognised now he's in the UK. No mate, if you don't like the way we do things, bugger off back to California.

Think we might have been in the same meeting, the details all fit.

I didn’t look at the questions during the meeting but if I had seen yours I would have given it the thumbs up too.

I’m so sick of the usual group of spoilt children peddling this crap. Expecting the University management to break the law! Idiots.

@Meanacademic why do males who take oestrogen need careful monitoring? Monitoring for what?

Edited to add that my uni is totally captured and nothing will change on the back of the SC ruling. Too far gone to backtrack.

They've gone all over the world for that tiny list, and they aren't all even life sciences specialists. There's a mathematician in there and two psychologists.

https://weizmann.org.au/research/6500-genes-expressed-differently-in-men-and-women/ 6500 genes are expressed differently between the two sexes. You couldn't have that finding if there weren't two clearly-distinguished sexes.

A tribunal might change their minds.

@DrBlackbird I was referring to the open letter which takes an example from a clinical context. Not a doctor, but if a male takes oestrogen and is in the hospital for treatment, of course this will have to be taken into account by medics treating him in a way that differs from a) males not taking it and b) a woman taking for example oral contraceptives. So yes, trans people are ‘special cases’ in that sense but they still haven’t changed sex.

The problem with relying on tribunals is that it puts the onus on individual academics to put their careers on the line. Few are willing to do that, especially if they hope to stay in the profession.

This issue is affecting all staff, it would take a brave administrator, cleaner, librarian, technician to speak out.

Yes I will be moving to that building soon Agree that the gender neutral toilets there do seem to deal with the toilets situation there without having to confront the issue head on. That may have been part of the attraction of choosing that particular building as I believe they were put in by the previous tenants. Will be interesting to see what happens in the refurbs of buildings on the main campus that are upcoming.

I no longer work at a university - thank goodness. I don't think I would be able to tolerate the parade of competitive performancy allyship that my former department has become.

For those of you who are impatient to see thier universities revise their policies now that the law has been clarified - the key question to raise at whatever committees you have access to is this:

"Can we get confirmation that our Public Liability Insurance is still valid - because apparently the biggest providers of PLI have declared that all PLI arrangements are void for any organisation whice has a policy of allowing transwomen into female single-sex spaces"

You can ask this question without outing yourself as GC, if you are trying to keep your head low.

Universities have to have valid Public Liability Insurance. If they can't get written confirmation from their insurers that their insurance is still valid in conjunction with their published policies, they will have to change their policies.

Have you got a link to any relevant statements from insurance providers? This would be a v useful question for me to ask, but it would be a huge help to have evidence.

Jeez-Louise.

But, sadly, nobody has asked me to sign. I just messaged DH to check if he was invited to sign and got a "WTF is this drivel and why have you asked something so ridiculous? " so they've missed out on 2 actual working research scientists here. And on a skim-read, none of the numerous biologists that we collaborate with around the globe either. Must be a special biology club for Righteous folx.

I'm afraid all I've got is the hearsay of a comment from another user in the comments section of a Daily Telegraph article (screenshot attached) who said that the reason why so many sporting organisations have hurriedly announced new policies in the last couple of weeks is because their PLI would be void if they didn't. I did try to google for confirmation but couldn't find anything - perhaps they notified each affected customer privately rather than doing a press release? - presumably because the Insurers didn't want to be the target of a baying mob of TRAs, but also didn't want to be carrying the liability for the legal bill when the inevitable court cases start landing? This is why I suggested it could be phrased as a question just asking for confirmation, rather than aserting this admitted hearsay as truth.

What my googling did find was that LoL pupblished a guide to trans inclusivity from an insurance PoV a few years ago, and the web page that it was previously published on no longer exists, and all links to it are broken, which is good.

@WifeOfTiresias have you been sent the LGBTQ+ 'survey' they're doing ahead off being the UMB re all of this? I don't think they'd have been expecting my answer . . .

We haven’t been sent this in my area but this isn’t the first time this has happened. Can you share if there is a website link to access this (without outing the university we both appear to work at)? I would really like to contribute my two pennorth to that!

Just PM'd you @WifeOfTiresias

I think I'm at the same Uni @PhunkychickenI wasn't in that meeting but caught up with it on Teams yesterday and saw your question which was well worded. It was up to about 12 likes by yesterday but I agree it is so depressing how strident the activist voice is.

Oh dear, several of my close colleagues are signatories ... all of the #bekind contingent.

My university changed their LGBT policy pages the day of the OfS fining of Sussex. The SC ruling just cements that.

Management at my place has made a very one sided statement about supporting trans people in this difficult time. And the women’s network has made a statement saying we are all very sad and stating they will remain an ‘inclusive’ network. I haven’t checked the trans or lgbt networks. (Yes that’s right we have both, so yes that does mean trans women’s interests are represented by three separate staff networks.)