Transgender lecturer starts Facebook group blacklisting ‘transphobic’ professors

A transgender lecturer at Goldsmiths has started a blacklist to shame professors for hate crime across the country. The lecturers on the list don't agree with the lecturer's view that biological men can become women.

Natacha Kennedy, a trans lecturer at Goldsmiths, invited over 1,000 members of the closed Facebook group, Trans Rights UK, to name and shame professors across the country.

Kennedy describes herself on Facebook as a "stroppy, bolshie transgirl with attitude who hates the Tories with a passion."

Natacha Kennedy is a professor at Goldsmiths University

The Times revealed members of Trans Rights UK intended to have the professors removed from their job positions. The universities of Bristol, Sussex, Warwick, Oxford and Reading were named to have "unsafe" departments because their lecturers disputed whether "trans-women are women".

Sahra Rae Taylor, member of the Trans Rights UK Facebook group, argued the list was created so they could "advise people applying that 'if you want to study law, then don't go these places.' Which would allow them at least to avoid being taught (and marked, and under the influence in some way) by a transphobic douchebag."

One of the supposed "transphobic doucebags", is Kathleen Stock – philosophy professor at the University of Sussex. Members of the group claimed Stock produced an "unsafe envrionment" because of her aversion to men being categorised as women and lesbians.

To which, Professor Stock said: "What would make a philosophy department unsafe is if its academics weren't allowed to challenge currently popular beliefs or ideologies for fear of offending."

A member responded: "File a hate crime report against her, and then the chairman and vice-chair." Another said, "drag them over the fucking coals."

Rosa Freedman is another professor on the list at the University of Reading. She reported, to The Times, she finds it "deeply distressing" for other academics to seek to stain her reputation because they don't agree with the alternative view she offers, which is backed with evidence. She said "that is not academia. That is silencing people."

Freedman further said: "The idea that writing about women's rights automatically becomes a hate crime in some people's eyes is ludicrous." She intends to continue to share her views respectfully, so that everyones opinion can be heard and "not just the views of those who shout the loudest."

Natacha Kennedy refuses to comment on the subject. However, she is a confirmed Goldsmiths employee and appears in the staff directory twice. In the Department of Education directory, she appears as Mark Hellen. While, in equality and diversity reports, she is Natacha Kennedy.

A spokesperson for Goldsmiths said: "Goldsmiths prides itself on its inclusive community and is committed to the values of freedom of speech within the law."

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3) The backlash to pronoun badges shows transphobia is alive and well at Edinburgh