Oxford Union trans rights talk interrupted by protester

The gender critical academic's invitation has attracted great controversy and during the discussion the chanting from protesters was difficult to drown out.

Before prof Stock was able to even start touching upon issues such as which spaces should be closed off to trans women, the tightly ticketed event was disrupted by the notorious trans rights activist Riz Possnett, who has previously appeared on Piers Morgan’s Talk TV show Uncensored.

As three other protestors handed out leaflets which loudly exhibited the slogan ‘No More Dead Trans Kids’, police officers scurried in and out trying to work out how to best handle what had become a very delicate and problematic situation.

The leaflet given out by protestors attending the talk (Image: Ed Halford)

Prof Stock and Oxford Union president Matthew Dick watched on for at least 20 minutes as the scuffle of confusion went on and audience members were ticked off for attempting to take photographs and videos of the drama.

During the time in which the activist remained glued to the floor, students became restless and were told off for posting footage on social media.

Once the activist, who sat patiently in front of Mr Dick and Prof Stock, was removed, the professor was keen to hit back at her “detractors” and highlighted she “never said that all trans women are violent”.

Trans rights activists walk past those queuing for the talk (Image: Ed Halford)

Mr Dick was conscious that he had to be seen to give prof Stock a proper grilling and the atmosphere briefly became tense when the former University of Sussex professor was accused of “cherry picking what reality means”.

Mr Dick said: “Surely there is a reality for people who say I am not a man?”.

Prof Stock said it was time to “rationally take account of the interests of women” and pointed out that in the past “extra stuff” was done to ensure the safety of women in prisons and changing rooms.

When touching upon self-identification, prof Stock said there was a very real risk of a man saying he was a “woman and then going to a space and taking advantage of that.”

Prof Stock’s resounding message as the talk ended was that “you can go through life pretending for a while but eventually reality will hit you in the face”.

The queue for the talk outside (Image: Ed Halford)

Compared to earlier moments of protesting which startled some attendees, the talk's ending was relatively tame and prof Stock used it as an opportunity to hit out at the BBC and the Guardian for misreporting her ideas and beliefs.

When difficult questions were aimed at the professor by both Mr Dick and members during the question-and-answer session, it seemed to be the case that she overly relied upon the pithy response “you’ve clearly not read the final chapter of my book”.

Whether or not this was the case failed to matter in the end, as the disruptive and attention seeking protestors managed to create a spectacle which was predictable and impactful.