KCL professor says he faced ‘hostile mob’ of students after changing mind on trans rights

A KCL professor says he faced a “hostile mob” of 100 to 200 students after changing his mind on trans rights.

The mob came after Professor Robert Wintemute, who also works as a human rights lawyer, gave a talk at Montréal’s McGill University Faculty of Law. His talk focused on the legal changes to transgender rights that have come after 2002.

However, he said this talk has led to an “abuse of sympathy” which has in turn led to an “escalation of demands”.

The students at McGill chanted “shame on you” and “F**k your system. F**k your hate. Trans rights aren’t up for debate”. They later allegedly forced the door open and threw flour at Professor Wintemute.

The human rights lawyer had also expressed his beliefs at a staff research seminar at King’s College London back in 2021. Despite criticism, the Dean of the School of Law allowed the event to continue, even attending to show his “support for freedom of expression”, according to The Telegraph.

Up until 2018, Professor Wintemute had “supported all the demands of the transgender-rights movement”. He had researched LGBT rights during his PhD at Oxford and helped draft the 2007 Yogyakarta Principles, widely cited as the “best practice” on sexual orientation and gender identity.

However, he said his discontent came after discussing the “spousal veto” under UK law with a transgender student, which ended in the student storming out the class.

“It dawned on me that some members of the transgender-rights movement did not seem to understand that women have human rights too,” Professor Wintemute explained.

The King’s College London professor then publicly changed his position on the issue in 2021 in an interview for The Critic. In his interview, he criticised Principle 31 of the 2017 Yogyakarta Principles.

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He said that Principle 31 “boldly claims” that “every country in the world must remove sex from birth certificates and, until then, allow change of legal sex based on self-identification”. He wrote he had not participated in its development during his earlier work on the Principles, and was “shocked” when he finally read it.

Professor Wintemute further noted that since his change in stance, he has “lost multiple friends” over his views, and has been dropped from a university’s summer programme this year.

However, he said that this has not influenced his views: “I am proud to have made this journey, and of finally speaking out for the rights of women.”

Professor Wintemute has also appeared on GB News to talk about his views, as well as becoming a trustee for LGB Alliance, a group which advocates for the rights of lesbian, gay, and bisexual individuals.

Professor Wintemute declined to comment 

King’s College London and McGill University did not respond to a request for comment

Featured image via YouTube/Canva