An LGBT rights activist who cancelled his own speaking engagement at the Oxford Union has called for a transgender speaker to be invited to speak at the venue.
Peter Tatchell, a well-known human rights campaigner, refused to take up his invite to speak during an Oxford Union debate yesterday evening, as he “strongly disagreed” with the decision to give feminist professor Kathleen Stock a “solo platform”.
Hundreds of trans-rights activists protested outside the Union on St Michael’s Street on Tuesday to show their opposition towards the academic, who opposes gender self-identification and has said biological sex is real.
Mr Tatchell, who was invited to speak in a debate in which the commercialisation of pride was up for discussion, said it would have been “inappropriate” for him to “hijack the event” and make his contribution about professor Stock.
When challenged as to why he did not attend the debate and use the platform as an opportunity to voice his concerns about prof Stock’s views, he said: “They do not want a re-run of the Kathleen Stock event two days ago.
“It would be quite rude to hijack tonight’s debate for another basis.”
Mr Tatchell, who has spoken at the Oxford Union 30 times, admitted that it was wrong professor Stock was forced to hire security for the event due to fears for her safety.
He said: “No speaker should be forced to hire security because of violent threats being made against them.
“The threats of violence happen on both sides.
“Transgender friends of mine have been threatened with death, rape and castration and I have had the same threats myself.”
During the Qatar World Cup in 2022, Mr Tatchell was “arrested and detained on the kerbside in Doha” after he staged a one man protest which challenged the Gulf State’s treatment of LGBT people ahead of the football tournament.
He said he was later released but the Qatari government said claims of an arrest were “completely false”.
Mr Tatchell has said he will be in touch with the Oxford Union to encourage them to invite a transgender speaker and asked whether he would ever speak at the union again he said he would “review the situation”.
Professor Stock’s interview with union president Matthew Dick was dramatically interrupted by trans rights activist Riz Possnett, who glued their hands to the floor before being removed by four police officers.
Mr Tatchell said he saw no problem with the stunt and said: “Live and let live.”
When pressed on why a solo platform for the professor was an issue when students were given the opportunity at the end of the interview to challenge the academic directly, Mr Tatchell said this was not a “substitute for hearing first hand from trans people”.
Mr Tatchell said the question and answer session was good but it would have been “better to have a trans speaker build on the programme so they can have a co-equal position with Kathleen Stock.”
In the past, Mr Tatchell has been politically active in Oxford and across the world.
He was initially selected to stand as the Green Party’s parliamentary candidate for the Oxford East constituency before a bus accident forced him to pull out.
And in 1999 and 2001 he attempted a citizens’ arrest of Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe.
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