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Lucy Hunter Blackburn vs. transgender people

Lucy Hunter Blackburn is a British researcher based in Scotland and a prominent anti-transgender activist.

Background

Lucy Margery Amaryllis Hunter Blackburn was born in August 1966. Blackburn earned a bachelor’s degree from University of Oxford in 1985 and a master’s degree from University of York in 1990. Blackburn then attended the University of Edinburgh, earning a master’s degree in 2016 and a doctorate in 2021.

Blackburn’s early career focused on higher education and student finance. Blackburn led the Scottish Government’s higher education division, focusing on student support in Scotland from 2013 to 2020. While in this role, Blackburn wrote the blog Adventures in Evidence. Blackburn also served as Head of the Reducing Reoffending Division and Director of Policy at Historic Scotland.

Blackburn served as a trustee for the Nutshell Theatre and Built Environment Forum Scotland. Blackburn served on the board of Howard League Scotland.

In 2018, Blackburn co-founded policy analysis firm Murray Blackburn Mackenzie with Kath Murray and Lisa Mackenzie.

In 2023, Blackburn co-founded Ethel Writes Ltd with Susan Dalgety.

Anti-trans activism

On May 30, 2024, FiLiA associates published a collection of essays titled The Women Who Wouldn’t Wheesht: Voices from the front-line of Scotland’s battle for women’s rights, edited by Susan Dalgety and Lucy Hunter Blackburn. Blackburn contributed several chapters:

  • Susan Dalgety and Lucy Hunter Blackburn: Chapter 1: In the beginning there was Scotland…
  • Lucy Hunter Blackburn, Lisa Mackenzie and Kath Murray: Chapter 2: Not just a piece of paper: why women pushed back
  • Lucy Hunter Blackburn and Susan Dalgety: Chapter 4: Funding the resistance
  • Lucy Hunter Blackburn and Susan Dalgety: Chapter 5: Women rise up: 2018–23
  • Lucy Hunter Blackburn: Chapter 25: A hard day’s night: the bill is passed
  • Susan Dalgety and Lucy Hunter Blackburn: Afterword: This isn’t over

References

Staff report (September 4, 2025). National library of Scotland in U-turn over gender-critical book. BBC News https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cp98reznmddo

Clark, Gemma (June 24, 2024). The War on Trans People and Colluding with the Politics of the Right. Bella Caledonia https://bellacaledonia.org.uk/2024/06/24/the-war-on-trans-people-and-colluding-with-the-politics-of-the-right/

Cowan, S., Giles, H. J., Hewer, R., Kaufmann, B., Kenny, M., Morris, S., & Baines, K. N. (2021). Sex and gender equality law and policy: a response to Murray, Hunter Blackburn and Mackenzie. Scottish Affairs, 30(1), 74–95. https://doi.org/10.3366/scot.2020.0347

Anti-trans coverage

December 4, 2025 National Library of Scotland apologises for gender-critical book ban. The Times https://www.thetimes.com/uk/scotland/article/wheesht-book-library-gender-critical-ban-z9zxb3pcc

December 2, 2025 Gender-critical book ‘makes national library less safe.’ The Times https://www.thetimes.com/uk/scotland/article/gender-critical-book-makes-national-library-less-safe-v3lz26lr8

Staff report (October 16, 2025). ‘Inadequate evidence’ for gender critical book ban. BBC https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cq83vvw83y8o

Lindsay, Jenny (2025). Hounded: Women, Harms and the Gender Wars. Polity, ISBN 978-1-5095-6363-0.

McKenna, Kevin (December 4, 2023). An unlikely rebel alliance’: The feminists who resisted gender recognition reform. The Herald https://www.heraldscotland.com/news/23964931.gender-recognition-reform-mbm-fought-scottish-governments-plan/

Horne, Marc (August 16, 2021). Transgender guidance for schools ‘based on flawed data.’ The Times

Naysmith, Stephen (July 29, 2019). Trans activists ‘captured’ SNP on issue of gender self identification. The Herald https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-herald-glasgow-ed-trans-activists/180614290/

Selected writing by Blackburn

Dalgety, Susan; Blackburn, Lucy Hunter (October 16, 2025). We are vindicated — but library still needs to reassure women. The Times https://www.thetimes.com/uk/scotland/article/wheesht-authors-vindicated-library-reassure-women-9frpgq5h7

Dalgety, Susan; Blackburn, Lucy Hunter (March 6, 2025). Turning the tide on gender: Reality is winning the gender wars — but this is no time to be complacent. The Critic https://thecritic.co.uk/turning-the-tide-on-gender/

Dalgety, Susan; Blackburn, Lucy Hunter (November 22, 2024). John Swinney’s Isla Bryson moment? The Scottish Government must be made to face the facts on sex and gender. The Critic https://thecritic.co.uk/john-swinneys-isla-bryson-moment/

Dalgety, Susan; Blackburn, Lucy Hunter (June 28, 2024). Keir Starmer cannot ignore us: The gender debate is not going to disappear. The Critic https://thecritic.co.uk/keir-starmer-cannot-ignore-us/

Blackburn, Lucy Hunter (March 21, 2024). War on words: is Scotland ready for its new hate crime law? The Spectator https://spectator.com/podcast/war-on-words-is-scotland-ready-for-its-new-hate-crime-law/

Murray, Kath; Blackburn, Lucy Hunter; Mackenzie, Lisa (March 19, 2024). How trans activists captured the hate crime agenda: The “hate crime” agenda is based on bad policing and worse politics. The Critic https://thecritic.co.uk/how-trans-activists-captured-the-hate-crime-agenda/

Murray, Kath; Blackburn, Lucy Hunter; Mackenzie, Lisa (January 11, 2024). The revised Scottish Prison Service transgender prisoner policy is not fit for purpose: Any work for bringing it into force should be stopped. The Critic https://thecritic.co.uk/the-revised-scottish-prison-service-transgender-prisoner-policy-is-not-fit-for-purpose/

Blackburn, Lucy Hunter (March 21, 2024). Scotland’s new Hate Crime Act is fraught with danger. The Spectator https://spectator.com/article/scotlands-new-hate-crime-act-is-fraught-with-danger/

Blackburn, Lucy Hunter (February 21, 2023). Nicola Sturgeon’s gender policy failure. The Spectator https://spectator.com/article/nicola-sturgeons-gender-policy-failure/

Murray, Kath; Blackburn, Lucy Hunter; Mackenzie, Lisa (December 2, 2020). Opaque and overdue: the Scottish Prison Service trans prisoner policy review. Centre for Crime and Justice Studies https://www.crimeandjustice.org.uk/opaque-and-overdue-scottish-prison-service-trans-prisoner-policy-review

Blackburn, Lucy Hunter (5 September 2024). “Athena Swan’s ‘all-embracing’ equality vision may not serve women”. Times Higher Education (

Dalgety, Susan; Blackburn, Lucy Hunter (June 15, 2024). We won’t wheesht over gender and now our book is making history. The Times

Blackburn, Lucy Hunter (April 28, 2021). What’s the point of voting in the Holyrood election? The Spectator https://spectator.com/article/what-s-the-point-of-voting-in-the-holyrood-election/

Blackburn, Lucy (2021). The Fairest of them All? Comparing the reproduction of inequality in student funding in Scotland and Wales (PDF) (PhD thesis). University of Edinburgh

Media

Scotcast – The librarian, a book ‘ban’ and the gender debate – BBC Sounds”. BBC. 

Resources

Wikipedia (en.wikipedia.org)

Adventures in Evidence (adventuresinevidence.com)

Murray Blackburn Mackenzie (murrayblackburnmackenzie.org)

X/Twitter (x.com)

Substack (substack.com)

LinkedIn (linkedin.com)

The Critic (thecritic.co.uk)

The Spectator (spectator.com)