Transcripts For BBCNEWS HARDtalk 20240708

Now on bbc news its hardtalk with stephen sackur. Welcome to hardtalk, im stephen sackur. Of all the front lines in the so called culture wars, none has stirred up more vitriol and bad blood than the argument over sex, gender and identity. How should society regard people who transition away from the biological sexual category theyre born into . And what represents the truth of who we are biology, or Self Identity . Well, my guest is kathleen stock, a british academic, whose work has generated a storm of controversy and led to her resignation from her university post. Why has this issue become a battleground . Kathleen stock, welcome to hardtalk. Hello. I want to begin, if i may, by asking you about what happened to you last year. After 18 years at the university of sussex, you walked away from your academic post. Now, ijust wonder, having had a few months to reflect on it, whether you are still sure you did the right thing. Yes, im still sure i did the right thing, because the situation was pretty intolerable for me. At the time, there was this big campaign against me, by who knows how many students, but, at one point, there was over 100 on campus demonstrating against me during a University Open day. They were letting off flares, they were writing graffiti, there was posters everywhere with my name on them. Some pretty vile abuse. It was intense and very unpleasant, and, you know, not an environment i could do the things i want to do when i teach and research and live a normal life, so it was impossible for me to carry on there. And the union that was supposed to represent lecturers came out basically in favour of the protesters, which meant that some of my colleagues agreed with what was happening to me and thats also pretty difficult to put up with. So i decided to leave. It was your decision. I mean, the University Chancellor had declared his support for you. He said that this was a fundamental matter of academic freedom, and you didnt feel that you could bear to continue the fight, i suppose . I mean, this was the culmination of quite a long process, and it had been really unpleasant to work there for several years. So, yeah, i was pretty worn down by it. And ijust you know, im not a martyr figure, i dont intend to be one, and i dont want to stay somewhere where im deeply unhappy, so i think it was time for me to leave. So lets get to the nub of what all of this controversy was about. You were a trained philosopher. Trained philosopher philosophy is your thing, and many people watching and listening might wonder, why was a philosopher getting so deeply engaged in issues of sexual Gender Identity and the whole sort of nature of womanhood, if i can put it that way . Well, because the questions about sex and gender and womanhood are deeply philosophical theyre about who we are, theyre ethical as well, because its about how we make policies and laws, and whose interests we listen to and who we dont listen to, perhaps, orwhose we should listen to, and so these are. You know, its meat and drink to the average philosopher, or it should be, to be able to talk about this. Of course, what we know in reality is people are very frightened to talk about it, including academics, because of the toxicity around it. But, you know, its obvious to me, that these are philosophical issues, and a bunch of philosophers are being wheeled in, like people Likejudith Butler and michel foucault, like big figures from the academic world are being wheeled in to justify quite a lot of policy decisions, so that makes it clear that the territory. I take the point. It is directly relevant to issues facing philosophers, but if i am not wrong, your core beliefs in this area can be boiled down to something fairly simple, both drawn from your book, material girls, and also your blog posts. You believe that humans are born in male and female form. Its straightforward, its binary, and that humans cannot change their sexual reality. Is that a fair summation of the core of what your message is . They cant change their sex, yes. And the issue about whether sex is binary or not, yes. I think, in the sense in which biology is binary, then clearly human sex is binary, like 99. 8 of us are completely, unambiguously, in one sex or the other, and theres a small amount of ambiguity, but thats consistent with there being a binary in nature. Thats the only kind of binary wed ever get, so. Cos biology, basically, always includes variation. So, yes. Now, you cant change sex, so, my views, although you presented it in the run up to this as very controversial, actually, my views are very uncontroversial to most people. Well, theyre not uncontroversial to people who have transgendered, and there is a Huge Community of interest, notjust of transgendered people themselves, but also supporters and activists, who very much campaign with them, who believe that your message and, again, i hope im not being too simplistic but your message that no trans woman is really literally a woman and no trans man is literally a man, that message to many people, is deeply upsetting and, indeed, offensive. Yes, it is. Im sorry about that, but it is, but i also would like to push back a little bit there, that is certainly not the case, that all trans people disagree with me, because lots of trans people know. To be fair to me, i didnt say that. I know, ijust want to make it clear, because i think often this can get sort of presented as a fight between the feminists and the trans people and, actually, thats not the case at all, as far as i can see. Most trans people know what sex they are, because they wouldnt be trans if they didnt, you know, so they know that they have transitioned. Well, yes, its about tenses then, isnt it . They know what sex they were, what their identity was, and they want to change it. Well, sex and identity are not the same things, and i think, i honestly think. I mean, its notjust to be rhetorical, i think most trans people know what sex they are, because sex is to do with the chromosomes in your cells and those sorts. And the genitalia that you were born with and the reproductive role that you have, and you can artificially change those things, but you havent changed your basic state. Im sorry if thats distressing to hear, but i mean, itsjust. But then theres a question of what that actually means. You know, theres a phrase that some of your critics have used, like robin white, a leading barrister. Shes a trans woman. She says that what youre talking about is a form of biological essentialism. Thats the phrase she uses and says it doesnt even begin to meet the reality of what life is for those living as transgendered individuals. I mean, thats a grand sounding phrase, but essentialism is, you know, can mean different things, philosophically. Im certainly not saying that the most important thing about, say me, is that i am a woman. Im simply insisting that there are categories that the world gives us and that we need concepts for, and its not up to us what those categories are. And i dont think its in the interests of women and children to pretend, across all domains, that males can become women, because that has knock on consequences in terms of the spaces, womens spaces, womens sports teams, womens resources. So this isntjust an abstract argument. Its definitely not abstract. You are, in essence, saying that womens rights do not, or some womens rights, do not extend to transgendered women. I am saying that, thats not me being mean, its just that not all, you know, interests have to be separate out of different groups. Im certainly for trans peoples rights, im just saying that theyre not the same as womens rights. Yeah, im not fora minute trying to suggest youre being mean, im trying to get to the heart of what you believe, cos, again, problematic for a lot of trans people, is your notion that, while they fully believe in the identity that they project to the world, youre saying, as i understand it, that it is a form of fiction. Youve used this phrase immersive fiction, which, to my ear, makes it seem like youre saying that transgendered people are living some sort of a lie. No, absolutely not, and my former work in philosophy was mostly in fiction, so i feel pretty confident in saying theres a difference between immersing yourself imaginatively, in a story, which you know is a fiction. Is not true. And you know it is not true, but not true is not the same as lie. I mean, we need to be a bit more subtle about our distinctions than that. If you go to the cinema and immerse yourself in a fantastically gripping film, youre not under any illusion, you know, that its real. Or at least you may be under an illusion for that moment, but youre certainly not committed to that forever, that thought, you dont believe it. You imagine it or you get involved in the fiction. So, i think thats. I mean, it may be offensive to people to hear it, but i think. Just, if i may put yourself, if you would, into the shoes of a transgendered individual. How do you think what youve just said would sound to them . The notion that theyre living in an immersive fiction. First, i have put it to many trans people, i discuss it with them, and trans people arent a monolith, so i think we need to move away from the idea that just because i took one persons view on this, it would represent all of them. Of course, some people find it very offensive. Some people say, absolutely, this is exactly how i understand myself, so, you know, there are a range of responses here, but i think it is worth saying that this is. Were not having this discussion for its own sake, were having it because the alternative position that youre pressing on me, that we absolutely take these statements at face value, causes a lot of problems, practically speaking for women, for children, and for trans people themselves. So weve got to remember that context, because when you put it like youre putting it, it makes it sound like its just about words, but its not just about words. What are these problems, these practical problems that you allude to . So the main target of the book i wrote was about the idea that your Gender Identity, which is supposed to be a feeling, its not necessarily connected to surgery or hormones or presentation, even, its your inner feeling of whether youre male, female or neither, and it may not correspond to your outward sex. The idea thats coming through Policy Makers in the uk at the moment and internationally is that feeling that entitles you to go to a particular space, so a womens changing room, if you feel like a woman or a womens sports team, if you feel like a woman. And to interjectjust for a moment, cos this is really important. The uk has been considering changing the law to make much easier Self Identification and also to open up some spaces which have not been opened up thus far to transgendered people. Particularly, were talking about transgendered women, to open the spaces up, whether it be havens, refuges from domestic abuse, whether it be womens prisons and other areas. Its an active debate in the uk, some countries have already gone much further. You know, many South American countries, denmark, new zealand, have gone much further than the uk has. But the thing you also need to emphasise there is when you say transgendered individuals, were not talking about the sort of Classic Traditional Idea Of A Transsexual whos had surgery, whos maybe taking hormones, whos altered their appearance, were talking about fully intact male people, who have had no medical intervention. Is there a significant difference in your view, legally speaking, between somebody who perhaps has had genital, major genital surgery, Reconstructive Surgery and somebody whojust identifies as a woman, having been born biologically male, but has not had any hormonal or surgical intervention . Youre saying theres a fundamental difference between the two . Yeah, theres no legal difference between the two, because you dont need surgery to get. To Self Identify in a particular way, or even to get a Gender Recognition Certificate in this country. But im saying that theres a practical difference, because. So, you asked me what the problems were, and there are a range of problems but if we focus on spaces where women get undressed, are vulnerable to Sexual Assault, and Sexual Assault by males is a problem for women in those spaces, somebody who has had absolutely no physical alteration, who looks male, you know, and we are hard wired, pretty much, to be able to sex people by sight, thats the only means we have. A male in those spaces when the policies say yes, you may be there, then any male can be in those spaces, because they could all say, i have an identity that is of a woman so we have, at the moment, in britain, we have males in womens prison, purely on the basis of self id, not because they legally changed their sex, not because they had hormones or surgery, so any male effectively can say they have this identity, and that causes a massive problem in terms of reducing safeguarding for women, who are vulnerable to Sexual Assault. I understand the point in theory, but in practice, is it really that much of a problem . Look at countries that have gone much further down the track than we have. Look at studies from the United States, for example, where, for example, in massachusetts, there are public accommodation laws that have embraced Gender Identity protection, and, there, the studies from 2018 on suggest that fears of increased safety and privacy violation as a result of non Discrimination Laws are not empirically grounded. There is not the evidence. Well, in this, i mean, for a start, you have to look at the studies and quite often when people say very blithely about other countries, 0h, theyve had self id for ages and theres been no problems, it turns out people havent been looking or they havent been asking women. But in this country, for instance, if you take males in the female prison estate, between 2016 2019, theres been seven Sexual Assaults on women. If you take the percentage of Sex Offenders amongst the trans population in prisons, its 58 and thats a recent figure as opposed to 16 for the general population in prisons. So, that suggests that, of course, if youre not a predator and then you transition, you wont probably be a predator after i mean, people, characters dont change but if you are a predator and you say you are a woman, youll still be a predator afterwards, so the idea that the trans population or trans were talking about trans women, and were talking about self id somehow, miraculously, male patterns of Sexual Offending disappear, even given increased opportunity, is a fantasy. Hmm. Can i ask you about another element of this, you know, very complex set of issues, and thats about young people and body dysphoria. Now, we know that a number of children get this feeling that they cant identify with the body that theyve been born with and they increasingly, it seems some of them, over time, want to change. And now in the uk, the law says that they cant have hormonal treatment till 16, they cant have surgery until theyre at least 18, but there is a very active debate about whether it is wise to go down this track with children. You seem absolutely sure that it is not wise why . Because children and adolescents are working out a number of things. Sexual orientation is one of them. Now, theres strong evidence that, in Gender Identity clinics, a large percentage of the inpatients or the outpatients are same sex attracted, but theyre interpreting their same sex attraction as meaning theyre in the wrong body. There are also high percentages of autistic children in Gender Identity clinics, children with histories of trauma. So, theres complex issues around Gender Dysphoria in children and weve got to remember that, if they take a medical route, the effects are irreversible in many cases, including effects on fertility, on bone density, on growth spurts, so they cant be taken back, and if they go on to cross sex hormones, then theres bodily hair well, it depends which way you go, but for girls, and theres been a 5,000 increase in the presentation of female children in these clinics, so its mainly a problem for girls although it is a problem for boys girls will get facial hair, they may have double mastectomies, they may remove their ovaries and their womb. They cant go back. And there is regret amongst at least some significant proportion of people who are young adults now that they did this. And yet, ijust wonder if you are looking at all of the evidence and theres quite powerful evidence for a number of studies in the uk and particularly in the United States which suggest that those young people children who are offered treatment, hormonal therapies, in the first place, are significantly better off in terms of their Mental Health than those other young people who say they would have liked treatment but were not able to access it. The latest study from Stanford University suggests that in early adolescent cases, theres a 222 difference, i. E. , a more positive result in terms of Mental Health for those who get treatment. Well, all i can say is that there are a number of studies i mean, scientists would never take one study and also the empirical evidence is highly disputed in many cases, so i know that in the uk, there has been studies that suggest that there might be a slight deterioration in Mental Health, so a lot more Research Needs to be done, but even if we also need long term studies because you ask a child a year after theyve started their journey whether theyre happier, they may well be happier, but, you know, will they be happy at 25 . Will they be happy at 35 . Their prefrontal cortex hasnt fully grown in, you know, so theres a lot of things still to happen that they may not be aware of. They may not fully understand their own situation, so. So, sorry to interrupt, but im just thinking as i listen to you, is this very personal to you, because youve been quite frank about your own journey . I mean, you came out as gay, as lesbian, quite late in life, having been in a marriage and having, actually, i think, had two children. And youve since reflected on the fact that actually, as a young person, you did feel quite uncomfortable with the norms of femininity and. I think a lot of women do feel uncomfortable with the norms of femininity because theyre so rigid and binary. Probably men feel uncomfortable with the norms of masculinity. I suppose what im wondering is do are you somebody who feels that if, as a young person, youd been offered the opportunity, access to hormonal treatment and other therapies, you might have taken them . Well, i might have done, and particularly if those around i mean, im sure i would have probably called myself non binary, you know, if that had been available to me, im sure that i would have that would have resonated with me completely. In a way, do you see your own life as a sort of message that, actually, it would have been wrong for you to receive treatment as an adolescent or a young adult, would it . Of course it would can you be sure about that . Yes i mean, look, youve got to be clear about what these drugs mean. Like, you know, youre permanently rendered different. You may be infertile. I wouldnt have been able to have my children, you know . Ask me, age 12, do i want children . Im sure i would have said no. I hadnt got a clue what i was talking about. Children regret tattoos. Why wouldnt they regret removing their breasts . Why wouldnt they. . This isjust a ridiculous kind of conversation because in every other domain, it would be absolutely obvious that we wouldnt give these life changing medical alterations to children, even if they said they wanted them, because they dont fully understand the situation, but in this particular area, adults are cheering it on, and thats the failure of adults. Its not the failure of the children, its the failure of adults and the institutions that should be protecting these children. Is there a middle ground in all of this . Because as weve discussed it, and weve discussed what has happened to you, it is clear this is the most contentious of subjects right now, notjust in uk society, but in societies across the world. You began by telling me, you know, in many ways, im a moderate in this debate. Can you see any middle ground here . Well, i think i am the middle ground, im afraid. Now, that may be unacceptable to the extremes, and, you know, i do get criticism from some feminists who think im far too moderate and i should be much more hardline. But i think if the claim is, you have to accept all the claims of trans activism, you know, trans women are literally women in every context, and trans children are literally trans, you know, no matter what age that emerges, then im afraid we just cant accept that. Itsjust not practical for the children, for women and for trans people, as i keep saying, because its not in their interests to obscure facts about their biological sex for a start, when they go to hospital, they will have to say, i am male, or, i am female, in order to get the right drugs and the right treatment, so theres a range of cases, where sex is really important and were going to need to discuss it. However, i personally am happy to go along with a kind of fiction, as i say. In interpersonal context, i observe preferred pronouns, i will try i wont dead name someone. But its not really about pronouns, its about equality and about rights. Well, people think it is about pronouns. People are very keen on you observing pronouns. Institutions are obsessed with that. But ultimately, they care more about fundamental rights and fundamental equality and you for all of your respectful use of pronouns, you are not according transgender people full rights, full equality. Thats absolutely false, right . So, im a philosopher, so, immediately, ill say, well, what do you mean by rights . , right . So fundamental human rights not to be discriminated against im 100 in favour of that. The uk has the equality act. Gender reassignment is a protected characteristic. I fundamentally agree with that. You shouldnt ever be discriminated against because youre trans at work, at home, in the street. Thats all fine. None of that depends on saying trans women are literally women, or trans men are literally men. Those two things have been pushed together by trans activism, but they can be detached. Kathleen stock, we have to end there. I thank you very much indeed for being on hardtalk. Thank you. Hello there. It was another windy day for many on tuesday, but the winds will be a notch down for the day ahead, as will the amounts of sunshine actually, its been the sunniest january on record for england. And we did have a fair deal of sunshine during tuesday. But through the overnight period, weve introduced a Weather Front and that Weather Front will mean a cloudier day for many and, in fact, its giving us some patchy rain and drizzle as well. Now, its this Weather Front that im talking about the rain most significant in the north, but i think its just because its introduced that milder air, well notice that difference. Still a cold start in the far north east of scotland and the northern isles. But, as i say, its the change in Wind Direction weve lost the north westerly, were picking up this south westerly air, coming in off the atlantic. It will be with us for a couple of days now and so therefore, there will be more cloud around and some patchy rain and drizzle. The cloud sitting on the hills and the coasts in northern and western areas, giving some hill fog. But inland, theres a good chance of some Brightness Developing for parts of wales, the midlands, southern england, perhaps east of the pennines. It wont be as windy, but therell still be a fair breeze blowing through the day. As you can see, a steady brisk breeze but its milder temperatures of 11 12 celsius above where they should be for this time of year except in the north of scotland, where we stay in the chilly air. And we continue to feed in that rain and that drizzle, and then, as we go through the night, something perhaps a little bit more significant across scotland, as you can see. And temperatures also held up because of all that cloud, and still that breeze at 7s and 8s. Now, as we go through thursday, we do have that more significant Weather Front moving in. So, again, ahead of it, still quite unsettled, showery outbreaks of rain, some brightness, but this is looking more significant, isnt it . And behind it, it could turn to snow, some cold air digging back in. But for many, the day bringing stronger winds in the north, but a lot of drier weather, cloudier weather, milder weather further south. Theres that mild air. But its transient because, as i say, its with us through today and tomorrow, and then, behind it on friday, we sweep in with that north westerly wind once again coming up from the arctic. So, perhaps some snow on the Trailing Edge of this Weather Front, particularly over the hills, and then, plenty of wintry showers, rain, hail, sleet, yes, snow mostly over the hills following, but a much colder feeling day by the time we get to friday. As ever, theres more on the website. This is bbc news with the latest headlines for viewers in the uk and around the world. Im sally bundock. The Winter Olympics torch relay starts in beijing as china gears up for the global Sporting Event amidst boycotts and the coronavirus. Bomb threats are made to several historically black us colleges and universities as america begins to mark black history month. This is the third of its type group of mom threats against historically black colleges and universities since the beginning of 2022. As Russian Forces show no sign of pulling back from ukraines border, President Putin accuses the us of trying to drag russia into war. And we find out what these adelie and gentoo penguins