Professor Kathleen Stock has been pilloried by students at Sussex University, who are calling for her to be sacked. Why? Because she believes the facts of biological sex can’t be trumped by gender identity. If a trans academic had the same rough treatment, says Matthew d’Ancona in Tortoise, there would be “a national day of reflection [and] symbolic acts of solidarity on the pitch at sporting events”.
Stock’s critics should be careful what they wish for. The government may try to ban the teaching of critical race theory and gender ideology. Such a move should be resisted – but protesting against censorship will be tricky for those who have argued for censoring people and ideas of which they disapprove. “Those who live by cancellation will die by it.”