Open Letter to Professor Paul Boyle, VC, Swansea University

6 June 2024

Dear Prof Boyle

I am writing to complain in the strongest terms possible about a statement made on behalf of Swansea University about an event taking place at the Taliesan Centre. The event is organised by a gender critical group called Outspoken Women and addresses the topic of Sex, Discrimination and the Equality Act 2010. The panel comprises myself, Akua Reindorf KC (and commissioner for the Equality and Human Rights Commission), Maya Forstater and Helen Joyce (respectively Chief Executive Officer and Founder and Director of Advocacy of a human rights charity called Sex Matters).

Your university recently published a statement that I consider to be harassing. I am writing to ask for an apology.

The statement, published on Swansea Staff Communications, is signed by the Registrar and Prof Camilla Knight and dated 21^st May 2024 was sent to me. I find it staggering that this is an official statement published by your University senior managers, especially in light of the very recent judgment in my case against The Open University.

The statement states directly that there has been a “negative impact of similar events held previously” (I presume this is the event organised last year at which I was also a speaker alongside the highly respected Profs Alice Sullivan and Judith Suissa which was chaired by the equally respected journalist and author Joan Smith) and that “we understand the distress this has caused”. The statement then goes on to imply that something about the forthcoming event (as well as the event last year) will mean that students, staff and wider community will experience distress or upset. The final sentence in the paragraph is an extremely begrudging statement. “However, the university confirms that it has accepted this hire in adherence with its legal duty of ensuring freedom of expression and freedom of speech.”

This paragraph is unequivocal in its implications. It directly implies that Swansea University cannot legally stop the event going forward and that it recognises the negative impact that I and the panel will perpetrate on the LGBT+ community.

You will, no doubt, be familiar that an almost identical statement was made by The Open University executive. To remind you, that statement claimed that, in the wake of me co-founding the Open University Gender Critical Research Network, the establishment of “this academic initiative based on critical scholarship about sex and gender has caused hurt and a feeling of being abandoned among our trans, non-binary and gender non-conforming staff and students. It has also distressed many others in the wider OU community”. This statement was instrumental in the ruling that the senior executive of The Open University presided over a culture of institutional cowardice that created such a climate of hostility towards me that it justified the ruling of constructive dismissal.

I am almost embarrassed for Swansea University that I even need to write this next statement. Gender critical beliefs are protected in law because they have been deemed to have passed all 5 of the Grainger tests. The final test is: worthy of respect in a democratic society, consistent with human dignity and not in conflict with the rights of others. This means that people who hold these beliefs have a protected characteristic and that harassment and discrimination against them on the basis of that belief is unlawful.

The position taken by Swansea University is in direct contrast. It implies that our belief cause harm and distress, whose effects impact during and after the event to be held. The parallel would be Swansea University making a statement that the presence of Muslims who hold Islamic beliefs causes harm. It is offensive, degrading and prejudicial.

Mounting case law is now showing, time and again, that making claims about gender critical beliefs such as are made in your statement can constitute harassment. More, this same body of case law has demonstrated, time and again, that the claims made about gender critical views being transphobic and/or anti-trans do not stand up to scrutiny and that when subjected to the process of cross examination they crumble away and are seen for what they are: belief-based bigotry and prejudice.

I have also seen a copy of leaked internal emails titled “1^st July – Anti-Trans Event” that establish that there is clear attempt at a coordinated and targeted campaign to garner support (in the words of my judgement: to ‘create a loud voice’) for getting the event cancelled on the basis that we are somehow jeopardising “the safety and wellbeing of all the Swansea Community”. Just to be absolutely clear: one of those involved in the email exchange referred to the event as a “trans-hate” event. I am happy to share these emails in a private exchange with you. How anyone can conceive that a discussion about Sex, Discrimination and the Equality Act with an independent KC, two representatives of a human rights charity and a senior professor is “trans-hate” beggars belief and is strong evidence of the following.

It would seem that Swansea University has a problem of bigotry and prejudice towards the very idea of gender critical beliefs.

Given that the event last year attracted a significant protest, I suggest to you that the position statement made by the Registrar and Prof Knight will inflame the prejudices of your staff and students and legitimise any harassment I might experience by your staff or students on the night. Hence my complaint. There is nothing in your statement that even gives any indication at all that Swansea University recognises that gender critical beliefs are protected in law and that harassment on the basis of them will not be tolerated. In fact the entire tone and meaning of the statement does exactly the opposite. It puts a target on our backs.

I am writing this as an open letter as I believe it to be a fair and proportionate response to how Swansea University is actively creating the hostile climate to which I refer above. If I was to write to you personally, it would not address the concerns, fears and distress caused to your own gender critical staff, the members of the public or myself who may be subjected to harassment simply for attending the event.

I hope you will take this seriously. I would like a personal apology and I ask you to make a public statement to the effect that gender critical beliefs are protected in law, that Swansea University will not tolerate the harassment of gender critical speakers and specifically that it will not tolerate a campaign of targeted harassment about the forthcoming event on 1^st July 2024.

I look forward to your response.

Prof Jo Phoenix

University of Reading

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