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Holly Lawford-Smith vs. transgender people

Holly Lawford-Smith is an anti-transgender philosopher and activist.

Lawford-Smith is author of the 2022 book Gender-Critical Feminism and the 2023 book Sex Matters: Essays in Gender-Critical Philosophy.

Background

Lawford-Smith attended University of Otago, earning a bachelor’s and a master’s degree. Lawford-Smith then earned a doctorate from Australian National University.

Anti-transgender activism

Lawford-Smith was banned from Twitter in 2019 for hateful conduct. The account was reinstated in 2023 after Elon Musk took over.

Lawford-Smith co-authored an anti-trans piece with Sophie Allen, Jane Clare Jones, Mary Leng, Rebecca Reilly-Cooper, and Kathleen Stock. Lawford-Smith’s anti-trans writings were permanently removed from Medium for being “in violation of the Medium Rules.”

Lawford-Smith describes the conflict thus:

My understanding is that radical and gender critical feminists, and trans people and trans allies, are falling out because trans people and trans allies expect feminists to be allies to the trans cause, and those feminists’ emphasis on the male/female distinction feels to trans people like a kind of betrayal. But those feminists also feel enormously betrayed by trans people and their allies, in particular by the trans allies who claim to be defending trans rights but really seem to be mostly interested in just venting all their pent up misogyny onto women, this time with a socially legitimate excuse for doing so! 

Marshall (2019)

In 2021, University of Melbourne opened an investigation following Lawford-Smith’s creation of “No Conflict They Said,” a site to collect anonymous submissions about “trans women accessing women’s only spaces such as change rooms, toilets and women’s shelters.”  

Gender-Critical Feminism (2022)

In 2022, Oxford University Press was protested after OUP decided to publish Lawford-Smith’s book Gender-Critical Feminism.

Preface
1. Introduction
Part I: What Is Gender-Critical Feminism?
2. Gender-Critical Feminism’s Radical Roots
3. Gender-Critical Feminism
4. The Sex Industry
5. Trans/Gender
6. Why is Gender-Critical Feminism So Vilified?
Part II: Hard Questions For Gender-critical Feminism
7. Is Gender-Critical Feminism Intersectional?
8. Is Gender-Critical Feminism Feasible?
9. Is Gender-Critical Feminism Liberal?
Coda
10. A Gender-Critical Manifesto

Sex Matters (2023)

Acknowledgements
Preface
Some notes on language
Part I: Theory
1. Ending Sex-Based Oppression: Transitional Pathways
2. Gender: What Is It, And What Do They Want It To Be?
3. Do Arguments For ‘Trans Women Are Women’ Succeed?
Part II: Policy
4. Women-Only Spaces And The Right To Exclude
5. Sex Self-Identification And Costly Signals Of Assurance
6. The Never-Ending Dispute Over Public Bathrooms
Part III: Speech
7. Is ‘TERF’ A Slur?
8. Is Gender-Critical Speech Hate Speech?
9. Is Gender-Critical Speech Harmful Speech?

The preface and acknowledgements cite the following gender critical works:

The book also acknowledges Kate Phelan, Emily Vicendese, William Tuckwell, Sun Liu, Rene Rejon, Stephanie Collins, Cordelia Fine, Jess Megarry, Caroline Norma, Katie Steele, Christian Barry, Colin Klein, Luara Ferracioli, Kieran Oberman, Wolfgang Schwarz, Frank Hindriks, Arto Laitinen, Olle Blomberg, David Schweikard, Nin Kirkham, Rosa Freedman, Kathleen Stock, Mary Leng, Sophie Alolen, Elizabeth Finneron-Burns, Rebecca Reilly-Cooper, Miriam Ronzoni, Anca Gheaus, Alex Byrne, Tomas Bogardus, and Callie Burt.

“Let Women Speak” rally (2023)

In 2023, Lawford-Smith and politician Moira Deeming were among those who attended an anti-trans rally organized by extremist Kellie-Jay Keen-Minshull. Deeming was expelled from the Liberal Party, and University of Melbourne opened an investigation into Lawford-Smith. Lawford-Smith was found to have posted about students in a way that “falls short of the standards of conduct and professionalism expected,” but the school declined to bring disciplinary action.

References

Le Grand, Chip (May 21, 2023). University closes book on lecturer transphobia complaints. Sydney Morning Herald https://www.smh.com.au/national/university-closes-book-on-lecturer-transphobia-complaints-20230518-p5d9c4.html

Weinberg, Justin (April 27, 2022). OUP Responds to Letter Regarding Gender-Critical Feminism Book. Daily Nous https://dailynous.com/2022/04/27/oup-responds-letter-regarding-gender-critical-feminism/

Gluck, Genevieve (May 5, 2021). ‘No conflict, they said’ – An interview with Holly Lawford-Smith. Feminist Current https://www.feministcurrent.com/2021/05/05/no-conflict-they-said-an-interview-with-holly-lawford-smith/

Linehan, Graham (September 24, 2019). The Disappeared: Holly Lawford-Smith. Women Are Important. https://glinner.co.uk/untitled-11/

Mary Leng, Sophie Allen, Jane Clare Jones, Holly Lawford-Smith, Rebecca Reilly-Cooper, and Kathleen Stock (May 23, 2019). Doing better in arguments about sex, gender, and trans rights. Medium https://medium.com/@kathleenstock/doing-better-in-arguments-about-sex-and-gender-3bec3fc4bdb6 [archive]

Marshall, Richard (March 18, 2019). Thinking about climate change, global justice, and trans. 3:16 magazine https://www.3-16am.co.uk/articles/thinking-about-climate-change-global-justice-and-trans?c=end-times-series Original removed at 3am iagazine https://www.3ammagazine.com/3am/thinking-about-climate-change-global-justice-and-trans/

Resources

Holly Lawford-Smith (hollylawford-smith.org)

No Conflict They Said (noconflicttheysaid.org)

Wikipedia (en.wikipedia.org)

Twitter (twitter.com)

YouTube (youtube.com)