I saw this:

So I decided to read the open letter to the Board of AdvanceHE. It’s what we’d expect – they always are, aren’t they.

Dear Board Members, 

As members of the higher education (HE) sector, who believe that equality, diversity and inclusion (EDI) are crucial to the future of the sector, we recognise the importance of Advance HE’s work in this area. Advance HE manages the accreditation schemes Athena Swan and Race Equality Charter, delivers development programmes such as Aurora, and provides advice and guidance to the sector on matters related to equality, diversity and inclusion (EDI).

Very high-educated to repeat “equality, diversity and inclusion (EDI)” in the very next sentence after citing it the first time. Fans of EDI seem to get sexually aroused by mentioning it.

 One particular area that we, the undersigned, uphold, is the importance of including trans and non-binary people; we do not believe there is any conflict between Advance HE’s efforts to improve trans inclusion, and other areas of EDI in the HE sector, such as equality for women.

Oh well then, there’s no more to be said, is there. (They do in fact say no more about why they “do not believe.”) Just dismiss the idea that “trans inclusion” is in conflict with equality for women, without any argument or particulars. In fact of course there are very obvious conflicts. Every boost of a man who claims to be a woman is a boost not given to a woman yet it doesn’t count as another man in a sea of men, it counts as diversity equality inclusion. Believe that.

The 2020 Independent Review of Athena Swan highlighted that “the Charter must embrace the wider definition of gender” and following this, a transformed Charter was published including a key principle of “fostering collective understanding that individuals have the right to determine their own gender identity, and tackling the specific issues faced by trans and non-binary people because of their identity”.

In other words the charter must do more to stop working to promote women and start promoting men with interesting genders instead. Why must it do that?

However, recent events indicate a worrying watering down of this commitment to inclusion, following public criticism from a very vocal – but, we believe, dangerously transphobic – minority.  In particular, the Gender in HE Conference 2022 was originally scheduled to include a panel on “connections and tensions between sex-based and gender-inclusive rights“.  The very framing of this panel implied that the rights of cis women and trans women are separate and in tension. However, from the standpoint of inclusivity as upheld by the Athena Swan Charter principles, trans women are women and hence there is no such tension.

Aha! Magic! Just say they are women for the 40 billionth time and the problem is solved! Not for women, of course, but that doesn’t matter.

The fact that Advance HE were unable to find a trans or non-binary speaker to participate in this panel indicates that they failed to provide an environment in which trans people felt safe and supported to speak about their views and lived experience, again contrary to Advance HE’s own commitments to inclusion.

What about people who identify as animals? Furries should be supported to speak about their views and lived experience too you know!

Following online criticism of Advance HE’s approach, the panel was eventually replaced with a session named “A contested view, in conversation with Alice Sullivan”. This did not solve the problem of the complete lack of representation of trans people in a conversation pertinent to their rights and safety. 

When we talk about violence against women, let’s be sure to include some violent men so that violent men will be represented in a conversation pertinent to their rights and safety.

To emphasise to you that we, as members of the sector and of our academic communities, do indeed believe in the inclusion of trans and non-binary people in our workplaces and in the Athena Swan Charter, we the undersigned:

• reject the premise that trans-inclusive EDI work is a threat to freedom of speech or our academic freedom.
• further reject the suggestion that there is any tension between the rights of cis women and trans women, or between sex-based and gender-inclusive rights

Imagine having to work around those fools.