When feminists fight back

We have been told that our mere presence as academics makes students feel unsafe. We have been threatened with violence, disinvited from speaking and even blacklisted. We have had our academic freedom curtailed. Our crime? Asserting that there are two sexes — male and female — and for insisting that some spaces are legally allowed to be organised according to sex and not gender identity. The Equality Act 2010 protects women’s spaces where it is proportionate and legitimate: spaces such as prisons, domestic violence refuges and sports teams.

The University of Essex has issued a public apology to us both. We were both blocked from attending events, and one of us subsequently blacklisted, over allegations of so-called ‘hate speech’. In other words, the view that sex is real. Ahead of the seminar at which Professor Phoenix was supposed to appear at, flyers had been distributed that included the phrase ‘shut the fuck up Terf’ (which stands for ‘trans-exclusionary radical feminist’).