Summary
Response to UnHerd – Oxford Literary Festival faces growing trans backlash: This blog post criticizes the Oxford Literary Festival for inviting anti-trans authors, Helen Joyce and Julie Bindel, to participate in the festival and defends trans people
Response to UnHerd – Oxford Literary Festival faces growing trans backlash
On the 12th of January, that bastion of online free speech that never appears to want to publish articles that support the trans community, UnHerd was at it again.
This time, authored by Joan Smith, her short blog claims that the Oxford Literacy Festival has, and I quote “discovered a backbone, inviting the gender-critical author Helen Joyce and the feminist campaigner Julie Bindel to take part in this year’s programme. Cue the predictable outrage”.
Cleverly sidestepping the real issues here, Joan fails to mention why there is outrage.
Naturally, Joan will advocate for Helen Joyce, her ‘Sex Matters’ colleague, but conveniently fails to disclose her association with Helen in her piece. Joan’s pitch centres around the safety of some participants, rebuking “that Joyce and Bindel are calling for the eradication of an entire class of human beings“.
The short answer is that some, perhaps many, in the gender-critical movement advocate precisely that.
Indeed, Helen Joyce herself has said, “that means reducing the number of people who transition“, then saying, “every one of those people, is you know – a huge problem to a sane world.” Helen Joyce rejects the claim she is suggesting the elimination of trans people as, indeed, no doubt will Julie Bindel, who must be feeling a bit lost just now with the demise of the gender-critical organisation Women’s Place UK who, to their massive credit, unlike other gender-critical organisations rebuked the evangelical far-right shilling.
However, the esteemed American Human Rights organisation that brought the word “genocide” into our language, the Lemkin Insitute statement, said in November 2022: “The gender critical movement simultaneously denies that transgender identity is real and seeks to eradicate it completely from society. Many gender critical ideologues identify themselves as feminists.”
Genocide does not necessarily mean the mass killing of people – social genocide of trans people, as advocated by the Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025, is a massive threat to some 1.6 million American trans folks just now.
Nor is the Lemkin’s Institute alone – both the Council of Europe and UN Women have called out the gender-critical movement. They haven’t called it out as a hate movement, but there are plenty of LGBT people, together with millions of allies, who may well think exactly that.
One of those allies is American author Hesse Phillips, who has pulled out from appearing at the Oxford Literary Festival, describing Helen & Julie as “anti-trans campaigners“. It’s good to know that some folk have morals. Hopefully, others will follow suit.
Hesse’s statement continued, saying: “Freedom of speech is not a zero-sum game. Broadly speaking, calling for the oppression, indeed the eradication of an entire class of human beings, is not engaging or acting in academic intellectual debate”.
Oxford Literary Festival advocates for “free speech”, which begs the question: will they also platform racists, who describe themselves as “patriots” at some time in the future?
Then we get to the timing of this gender-critical “love in” platformed by Sally Dunsmore and her team at the Oxford Literacy Festival just days after the release of Caroline Litman’s book “Her Name Is Alice.” Caroline’s book tells the story of her loving trans daughter, Alice, who committed suicide in May 2022. Becoming a massive ally to the trans cause, Caroline has been subject to hundreds of online hate messages from gender-critical ideologues.
I have always had a massive issue with the gender-critical claiming the word “feminist”, just as I have a problem with the far-right and fascists claiming the Union flag. Thinking of which, there’s that image of Helen Joyce holding an LGBT Progress flag – except the section representing the trans community has been ripped out and is being trod on underfoot.
Personally, I hope there are no large protests when Helen and Julie are platformed – even if three protestors turn up; transphobic journalists will have enough ammunition to write a “slag off” piece in every right-wing rag in the land suggesting that hordes of trans women committed carnage in Oxford city centre and shops were forced to close.
However, I hope one protestor turns up holding a massive blow-up of that image of Helen holding our flag so that attendees know the truth because neither Joan Smith will write about Helen and that flag – nor UnHerd publish anything about it.
And, as the adage goes, a picture speaks a thousand words – and that, dear reader, is precisely what the Oxford Literacy Festival is all about.