Marked NSFW as a content warning. This talk outlines some transphobic actions, which could be difficult to read for some comrades. If you’re okay reading this, the talk might provide some powerful material for challenging transphobia, especially in educational settings.

The emergence of a liberal ideology of trans rights over the last two decades has precipitated a crisis in higher education. The purpose of my lecture today will be to sketch the contours of that crisis as I see them, and to propose a couple of possible ways forward.

I am of course aware that among the many attendees of this lecture—the largest attendance I’ve ever drawn—is largely composed of people who hold strong convictions on both sides this issue, and I do not delude myself that anything I say will change the mind of such people. But I do delude myself that there is in this room some number—perhaps a sizable number—of people who are perturbed by the growing conflict between certain members of the LGBT community and certain feminist activists and organizations.

I hope to offer an account of that conflict that differs from the mainstream account, with which everyone in this room is familiar: that by insisting on the axiom that “trans women are women,” LGBT activists have engendered a set of conflicts between the rights of women and trans rights. In fact, no such conflicts exist, and the widespread attempt to diagnose them, however well-intentioned, has had the effect of weakening the women’s movement throughout the UK. …

Given the tenor of the rest of the talk, I’ve no idea why Lavery tries to two-side this (‘strong convictions on both sides’), as if trans people and allies need to change their views. That doesn’t really come through except in the intro.

My guess is an attempt to make both sides feel included before getting going but I’m unsure why someone making a case against transphobia would bother to do that. Maybe it’s wrapped in a hope that some transphobes might think Lavery is being reasonable and so be more likely to change their minds? If I’ve badly misread this piece, I’ll be happy to be told so.