Gender identity can change on a daily basis and people who disagree are committing “violence” against trans people, an LGBT university group has said.
The office of BGLTQ Student Life, a Harvard University funded group, made the claims in a flyer handed out on campus, urging students to “get the facts about gender diversity”.
It was criticised as “manipulation” by one social commentator who said universities should oppose moves designed to shut down debate.
‘Gender is fluid’
The flyer claims that there are “more than two sexes” and says “gender is fluid and changing”, often fluctuating on a daily basis.
It adds that gender “can be affirmed and/or expressed in many ways” including through “speech, mannerisms” and “clothing”.
It dismisses opposition to these controversial claims, which it describes as “Transphobic misinformation” – a form of “systematic violence”.
The leaflet also conflates transsexual people and those who have an intersex condition – where someone is born with some combination of male and female genitalia, chromosomes or hormones.
‘Manipulation’
Blogger Allie Stuckey criticised the flyer in an interview with Fox News.
She said: “What they’re saying is, ‘You don’t just have to think the way that we do politically or intellectually, you have to feel the way that we do, and that’s moral manipulation”.
Stuckey added that it’s frightening when an elite centre of higher education is not encouraging critical thinking among its students.
Free speech
In the UK, universities have also been exposed for censoring free expression on campus.
A report published in February showed that more than 90 per cent of UK universities are actively restricting free speech.
The annual Free Speech University Ranking, by Spiked magazine, stated that 21 universities have banned speakers from attending debates or lectures in 2016.
Twenty universities had also banned the sale of one or more newspapers on their campuses.