The visit to McGill University of a lecturer from the United Kingdom associated with a group described as hateful and transphobic by activists from the LGBTQ + community is prompting them to organize a demonstration on Tuesday to “challenge the event”.
Robert Wintemute, professor specializing in human rights at King’s College London, will be the guest of the Center for Human Rights and Legal Pluralism of the Faculty of Law of McGill University, to give a lecture entitled “The debate over sex or gender (identity) in the UK and the divorce between LGB and T”.
The scholar is a trustee of the LGB Alliance, “which rejects the LGB&T political coalition and challenges certain transgender claims,” according to the description of the event, “because they conflict with the rights of lesbian and bisexual women. or the rights of children who may become LGB adults”.
“Since 2018 there has been a debate in the UK about whether to change the law to make it easier for a transgender person to change their legal sex from their birth sex, as well as exceptional situations, such as women-only spaces and sports, in which a person’s birth sex must take precedence over their gender identity, regardless of their legal sex.
“Hate Speech”
A conference like this conveys hateful and transphobic language, says Celeste Trianon, a trans activist who is organizing a demonstration in collaboration with the groups RadLaw and Queer McGill.
“There is strong opposition,” says Celeste Trianon. It affects our security, it affects our dignity. “There is a difference between freedom of expression and hate speech,” adds the activist.
When asked if the goal will be to prevent the event from taking place, she replies that, “as McGill University has chosen not to cancel the conference” despite the criticism, “our goal will be more to challenge the event, to be there, to present ourselves in large numbers and in force”.
An open letter signed by several organizations and individuals is also circulating. “Would McGill give a platform to an openly misogynistic lawyer who actively advocates sending women back to the kitchen, under the guise of debate? No. So why would McGill do the same, but with regard to transgender people? we write. ” We […] demand that McGill’s Center for Human Rights and Legal Pluralism, the Faculty of Law and its decision-makers be held accountable for the harms they cause to trans people, and demand that such an event never happen again on the campus. »
Asked to respond, the university indicates by email that the Center organizes many events each year and that these “serve as a platform for critical conversations that can [se tenir] productively and rigorously in an academic setting”. “They do not constitute an endorsement of a speaker’s opinions. The Center will ensure that there is enough time and space for responses and discussion. »