The College Fix

Activist group calls on university to apologize while school defends commitment to free speech

The University of Oxford is facing backlash after hosting its own professor, sociologist Michael Biggs, who is critical of gender ideology, for an LGBTQ+ History Month seminar.

A student-led LGBT advocacy group released a statement ahead of the scheduled seminar, condemning Biggs’ “anti-trans” views and calling on the university to apologize for inviting him.

“For the university to promote Biggs’ views on trans people under the banner of LGBTQ+ History Month, founded in the wake of Section 28 and intended to combat prejudice against the LGBTQ+ community, is wildly inappropriate,” Oxford LGBTQ+ Society stated.

“We have requested that the department apologise for including the talk as part of an LGBTQ+ History Month series, affirm its commitment to the welfare of trans and non-binary students, and commit to hosting a trans or non-binary speaker to speak on trans issues later this month,” it stated. 

However, the school refused to do so and the event went on as planned on Feb. 10.

During the seminar, Biggs discussed “how a ‘flawed question’ in the 2021 Census led to ‘spurious data’ on transgender identification in England and Wales,” The Oxford Blue reported.

The census asked people if the “gender [they] identified with” matched their sex at birth. Biggs analyzed the data after noticing that geographical areas had higher reported numbers of transgender people than others, which he found unusual.

He discovered a strong link between transgender identification and areas where English is not the first language. Because of this, the data was no longer considered official national statistics.

A university spokesperson told The Oxford Blue the school’s free speech policy states that all perspectives or opinions that any member of the community deems relevant should have the opportunity to be heard.

“[S]tudents should encounter, and be able to debate, new and discomforting ideas if they are to get the most out of higher education,” the policy states.

The spokesperson also stated, “All University events follow this policy. In the case of the Sociology LGBTQ+ seminar series, which is convened by members of the LGBTQ+ community, Dr. Biggs is an associate professor in the Sociology department and is presenting, and can be questioned, on his own academic research which is highly relevant to the theme of LGBTQ+ history.”

This isn’t the first time Biggs has received criticism for his views. Last year, the British Medical Journal allegedly refused to publish a comment from Biggs, citing him as “transphobic,” according to The Oxford Blue.

Further, in 2018, The Oxford Student reported that Biggs was linked to an X account under the name “Henry Wimbush,” which had shared what the student newspaper deemed “transphobic” content.

The student newspaper condemned Biggs for several posts, including one that states, “transphobia is a word created by fascists, and used by cowards, to manipulate morons.”

Defending his statements, Biggs told The Oxford Student, “It is not transphobic to discuss the merits of legislation or to debate theories about sex and gender. Dictionary definitions such as ‘woman: adult human female’ and ‘lesbian: female homosexual’ are not transphobic. Nor is it transphobic to call the convicted rapist Karen White – who was placed in a women’s prison – a man.”

MORE: Meet the Oxford professors supporting a feminist who believes biological sex matters

IMAGE: Year Zero with Wesley Yang/Youtube

Like The College Fix on Facebook / Follow us on Twitter