Oxford University LGBTs - sign our petition to make the University change the law!

[MyPearlViper]

Open Letter Here

We understand that the University is under immense pressure to adopt the EHRC’s transphobic interpretation of the law.

Lads. The University has to follow the law.

He’s a College teacher if I remember correctly; it’s important to distinguish that the Colleges are 39 separate entities and make their own policies. Then there is the University.

Maybe gender is poetry and sex is prose? So we can flibble and wibble in poetry but we must piss in prose. I hope this is pretentious enough for Oxbridge.

Well, maybe the LGBTQ Society could invite Michael Foran to do a seminar for them on what the law actually says and the relationship between the law and the EHRC guidance. And they could ask him what LGBTQ people can and can't do under the present law, and what obligations universities have under the law.

I don't think he'd be unwlling to explain it to them, and even to explain what they or Oxford University would need to do to change the law. But they'd have to promise to listen and not to disrupt. That's pretty much a precondition for learning anything useful.

What you said is good, but your username is absolutely feckin' brilliant😂

There are approx 44,000 staff and students at the University of Oxford. Given that there's no way of verifying whether the Anonymous people are actually students or staff, those signatures are meaningless so there's fewer than 400 actual supporters of the letter (so far, it may grow once term starts) - so less than 1% so far. I doubt it will get anywhere near 5% and even if it did it wouldn't be appropriate for the University to take that as any kind of mandate to change their policy.

Free speech is important. It is important that the tiny minority of people who want to abolish the right of women to assemble and act and retreat for times of vulnerability to be without the presence of males, to be allowed to say so. It is important that they feel safe to stand up and be counted. It is good to see that the actual number of them is so low, so that the rest of us can get on with upholding women's rights.

It is fine to campaign for there to be more unisex toilets if there is a demand for them. It is not functionally or logically possible for single-sex toilets to exist that members of both sexes are allowed to use, that's not how reality works. You might as well campaign for 1+1=3 to be accepted as reasonable mathematics. It is a requirement that single-sex toilets must exist, unless all facilities are single-user fully-enclosed, because otherwise their absence constitutes indirect discrimination against women.

Even time they reach for 'you can't enforce it' as an argument, that just tells everyone they can't be trusted. Because it's really not complicated for them to understand and follow the law without any external enforcement.

so less than 1% so far

Quite.

And if they did an anonymous poll, where people truly didn't have to say of course we're raging terfs, I bet it would be almost all of them.

What are the chances it is only really 50 of them and their 10 different fluid identities?

Have they no imagination at all to come up with a pseudonym to at least given the impression these are serious signatures.

@Chersfrozenface I may have a slight fever at the moment but "Anonymice" nearly made me drown on my coffee. Much better than anonymities. Oddly enough the only other time that has happened on MN was on this board! The "Cult Leader" summons had the same effect.

Well, good luck with that.

In the eyes of the general public, it's all one big thing. And that beardy weirdo is now a prominent 'face' of Oxford.

@MarieDeGournay
They haven't actually stated what's wrong with trans people using the toilet that corresponds to their biological sex, and how their 'safety' or 'dignity' would be impacted.

They never will because there is no impact to the safety or dignity - both types of loos have cubicles - so dignity is maintained, and there is no evidence of lack of safety with e.g. a man pretending to be a woman but still using the gents.

the actual impact is to their desire to be validated as being real women - but they can't say that, so they hope that the lie of safety / dignity will get them to the same place.

They don't want to tell the powers that be that it's not safe for transwomen in the men's, because that implies their health and safety isn't up to speed.

if they start accusing the university of negligence over men getting hurt in the men's, all hell will break loose.

Is there really such a person as Nat Conboy? Enquiring minds etc. etc.

Dying of embarrassment reading this

I think that's Cat Nonboy, actually. Demi sexual feline identifying.

It turns out that there is a surname Conboy - of Irish origin

I'm not so sure about that, now that anyone can change their sex category on birth certs, passports, driving licence etc the EHRC is right “there is no type of official record or document in the UK which provides reliable evidence of sex”. That's what the Sullivan report addressed I think, but the amendment that it recommended was voted down by The Blob Block in parliament.

Oxford medical students signing. Oh dear. Another generation of doctors unable to ascertain one’s sex without chromosome testing?

Students aren't at Oxford for very long - undergraduates, typically just three years. Meanwhile the University as an institution is 930 years old. Senseless people do not know, and fools do not understand, that it typically doesn't pay much attention to those who "spring up like grass".

The point is accurate, but I agree it doesn't really help their case.

Is "Lads" a gender neutral term or are you so desperate to be verbally transphobic that you can't acknowledge that there are cis women who disagree with you?

And in universities, toilets are also staff toilets so they must comply for workplace regulations not just for students.

Oh, mate. Its okay, Bobby. Lads is completely gender neutral. I'm sure Op meant no offense, sir.

Lads is often used as a generic group description as is chaps / folks / bods / other ruder options - depending on how well you know the people you are referring to and the level of banter.

but surely you must think that language means whatever you want it to mean - after all if a 6'2" bearded man can claim to be a woman, language can mean different things every second of the day...

ahhh - maybe you don't agree with that, in which case, let's clarify

• there is no such thing as cis women - there are only women - all born female and all still female
• there is no such think as transphobic - as it means fear of trans and as well know trans is not a thing because no, one can change sex... As no-one can change sex, so no-one can transition, therefore no-one can be trans, therefore it is not possible to be transphobic

glad we have that all settled now...

Errr…. Are you ok? You seem to be a bit on edge. Maybe chill dude.

Lads is defo neutral here in Ireland. Women often address one another thus. Guys seems to be gender neutral in the USA. I met the actual Bobby Moore once. Now he was certainly not in the least gender neutral.