Allegedly Transphobic Group Returns to UCL

On February 4th, UCL Women’s Liberation Special Interest Group (SIG)  hosted a one-day conference, in cooperation with Woman’s Place UK (WPUK). The event was aimed at discussing education in the context of women’s liberation.

The conference, supported by FiLiA and Southall Black Sisters, claimed to enable dialogues and debates around “feminist thought and women’s activism” in relation to education.  Notable speakers such as Joanna Cherry KC, Akua Reindorf, Victoria Smith, and Stella O’Malley were featured in these discussions.

UCL Women’s Liberation SIG started collaborating with WPUK in 2020 when they organised their first conference. The first joint conference sparked debates and critiques from students and activists as WPUK has been labelled a transphobic feminist group due to its long history of opposing trans-inclusive legislation. 

In 2017, the organisation opposed potential amendments to the Gender Recognition Act and to gender-neutral spaces such as public bathrooms. This resulted in numerous activists, including London Feminist Library organiser Lola Olufemi, to describe WPUK as a “clearly transphobic” association. 

Following the 2020 conference, numerous students and Pi Media questioned the welcoming of WPUK collective by UCL Women’s Liberation. More than 50 students, teaching staff, and university staff had then signed a petition in order to express their disapproval of UCL’s welcoming of WPUK and to contest UCL’s providing of physical space to the organisation. They also stated prior to the conference that the event “[would] result in a huge backlash from staff and students,”.  In response, 13 UCL academics wrote an open letter to The Guardian in which they argued that WPUK was everything but a “trans-exclusionist hate group”.

The UCL Women’s Liberation Convenors eschewed giving their clear stance on trans rights, only stating that they “ha[d] nothing but respect for the tireless campaigning for women’s rights by the founders of WPUK”.

 
On the day of this year’s conference, a group of trans rights activists gathered to protest outside of UCL, expressing their disapproval of the university’s welcoming of WPUK. Moreover, two UCL academics stated that “UCL [is] in the position of once again enabling the likes of the eugenics conferences that ran on campus through 2017”.