By Abigail Anthony
Friday, June 12, 2026
Michael Foran, an associate professor of law at Oxford
University in England, scheduled a four-part lecture series related to his new book, “Sex, Gender Identity and the Law.”
While the word “expert” is often applied too generously, it does accurately
describe Foran, whose work has been cited by the United Kingdom’s supreme
court. I had the pleasure of interacting with Foran occasionally while I was a
graduate student at Oxford, and I would enthusiastically encourage anyone in
the area to attend his public lectures, since I have full confidence his
speeches would be richly insightful. But rather unfortunately, he canceled the
series after two lectures as a result of “escalating disruptive protests” led
by pro-transgender
activists, who coordinated a brief demonstration at the first event and then a
longer interruption for the second.
“Students shouldn’t face bullying or harassment when
attending academic events,” Foran said on social media. He wrote in another post, “It is unfortunate that these protesters have
chosen disruption over genuine intellectual engagement grounded in academic
charity and rigour. In attempting to shame students into deplatforming these
lectures, they manifest the antithesis of what a university stands for.”
In accordance with the university’s procedures,
administrators had formally approved a protest, and at least one university
officer was present when the protesters began disrupting the second lecture on
June 5. According to Foran’s public statements, the demonstration lasted for
about ten minutes. Video
snippets released since then show an activist yelling at the audience from
the front of the room, attempting to brand Foran as a pseudo-intellectual
“bigot” and shaming the attendees for their willingness to hear him speak. “He
masks his transphobia through a thin veneer of academia,” shouts the student, a
self-described “queer trans activist” who unconvincingly postures as a woman.
Although it is difficult to hear, Foran — visibly frustrated — attempts to ask
the activist to leave, then exits the room. An activist with green hair begins
delivering a spiel about “trans women.” Members of the audience yell back: “We
don’t wanna hear you,” “Why don’t you stay and listen?,” “Have a debate,”
“Boring!,” “Stay and ask a question,” and “Get out!” The two protesters, having
finished their prepared remarks, leave voluntarily. Naturally, they had
encouraged others to do the same: “If you are here in a critical capacity,
hoping to challenge his ideas, thank you, but that is not the same as refusing
to platform him. He will not be convinced by your arguments. Please join me in
walking out.”
Then, more activists stand up from the seats. One
proclaims that their “humanity is being disrespected,” adding that “our
government is actively removing our rights to liberty!” An attendee roars,
“You’re disrespectful to us!” Another yells, “Grow up!” Someone (presumably a
university employee) arrives and escorts two people from the room.
Foran then delivered the lecture, a
recording of which he posted on his Substack. But before reading his
prepared remarks, he briefly summarized the type of conduct that is supposed
to occur at higher-education institutions, and he politely invited any
dissenters to participate in the truth-seeking mission:
Sorry for the
delay in this lecture starting. It is a shame that protesters do not want to
engage in the exact kind of work that a university is supposed to be engaged
in, which is to challenge ideas in a manner that displays virtues of academic
charity. That doesn’t mean you don’t challenge ideas. It just means that you
challenge them in a university context. Anyway, if there’s anybody in the room
who has critical views about this topic, please, I encourage you to stay,
listen to the lecture, ask a challenging question afterwards. I will try to
answer it as best as I can.”
It is difficult to imagine a more gracious response to
the people who were outrageously disrespectful.
Despite the charity shown toward them, the demonstrators
have since framed themselves as both brave champions of human rights and
fatigued victims of persecution. “Platforming [Foran] is not a harm-neutral
action, and we were expressing our disagreement with it. But we said our bit,
left, and did not prevent the talk from going ahead, [and left] having made our
point,” says the male protester in a
social media post that was shared jointly by the Oxford for Trans
Rights group. The student later adds, “Our oppression may be systemic, but our
resistance is local, community-based, [and] intimate. It is in the networks of
friends, allies, lovers and exes, in the mutual aid and the DIY hormones and
the day-to-day euphoria that we make. Don’t get afraid. Get angry.”
A second person is featured in the video shared by the
pro-trans group, although this individual’s identity is obscured. “The media is
aiming to vilify us and make us out to be dangerous individuals, all to
manufacture consent to remove our rights to dignity and privacy,” the person
says. The student adds, “The reality is our intentions and actions were
entirely peaceful. We were there fully within the realms of free speech
expression. If anyone is facing harassment right now, it is those in the trans
community.” The green-haired “she/they” also joins the video, condemning Foran
because he is associated with organizations that use “dehumanizing language”
and are “actively working to erode the rights of trans people.”
Foran’s announcement that he would cancel the remaining
events received significant attention on social media. To date, upwards of 100 academics have signed a letter addressed to
Oxford’s vice chancellor that criticizes the institution for allowing “the
exercise of a heckler’s veto,” warns of a looming “chilling effect” that will
limit future discussions related to sex, urges the university to reschedule the
now-canceled lectures, and underscores the school’s responsibility to prevent
disruptions.
An Oxford University spokesperson emphasized that the
school values both academic freedom and the right to lawful protest. A statement given to the Telegraph for an article
published on June 7 suggests that the university’s primary concern is that the
latter half of the series has been axed, rather than the fact that disruptions
ever occurred: “Despite interruptions by protesters at the start, the first two
talks in Professor Foran’s series proceeded and continued uninterrupted.
We are concerned that the series will not now be completed as planned. . . .
The University will work with him to explore how the remaining events can take
place” (emphasis added). The university’s position seems to be that, since
Foran was ultimately able to deliver his prepared remarks, the protests were
acceptable conduct.
Perhaps that explains why the university’s public
statement offers no indication that the relevant protesters, assuming they are
all enrolled students and therefore subject to the school’s disciplinary code,
will be investigated and punished. People are of course free to protest — but
academic freedom, properly understood, does not protect a coordinated
disruption that poses an impediment to the lecturer’s speech. But then again,
England does not maintain expansive notions of free expression, and Oxford University
is no exception. I previously noted on social media that Oxford University’s
harassment policies are biased in favor of progressive speech, including speech
that is demonstrably false. In its examples of potentially punishable conduct,
the university warns against posting “offensive comments on social media,”
“telling of biphobic or racist jokes,” “deliberately using the wrong name or
pronoun in relation to a transgender person,” and “persistently referring to
their gender identity history.” The latter two in particular threaten
discipline against individuals for speech that is factual and verifiable —
a standard concerning in any environment, but especially troubling when
enforced at an institution where the entire mission is (or should be) the
pursuit of truth. Rather tragically, it is entirely unsurprising that a
university that warns against “harassment” in the form of using the accurate
pronouns is unconcerned by LGBTQ+ activists who harass event attendees by
shouting ad hominems.
Imagine a different scenario: If conservatives and
gender-critical feminists disrupted an event where a transgender-identifying
scholar defended using intimate facilities in accordance with self-declared
gender identity and promoted double mastectomies for teenage girls, the
university would almost certainly issue a scathing condemnation and swiftly
pursue disciplinary action. However, it is difficult to imagine that such a
demonstration would ever happen, in part because there’s a shortage of
conservatives and gender-critical feminists at universities. But more
importantly, we embrace the opportunity to debate topics related to
transgenderism because — unlike the militant LGBTQ+ activists — we have
evidence, logic, and data to support our claims. The movements supported by
reason need not resort to speech suppression or intimidation.
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