Academics support 'social,' not medical gender recognition

The UK's Universities and Colleges Union recently released a statement on "trans inclusion."

The union also voiced its support for a social, not medical, gender recognition model.

In its statement, the union affirmed multiple times its inclination to allow members to "self identify" as "black" or "disabled."

The largest higher education trade union in the United Kingdom has released a statement purporting its commitment to allow people to “self-identify” as “black, disabled, LGBT+ or women,” boasting that it prioritizes emotions over science when it comes to one’s gender identity.

The United Kingdom Universities and Colleges Union recently put out a statement spelling out its “position on trans inclusion.” 

In addition to the document’s main proclamation of an effort “to ensure an inclusive approach to gender identities which is [sic] different to that assigned at birth,” the statement also repeatedly highlights the union’s “long history” of upholding a commitment to allowing members to “self-identify whether that is being black, disabled, LGBT+ or women.”

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”Looking at different experiences of what it means to be woman, or Black / disabled LGBT+, is at the heart of an intersectional approach and involves listening and seeking to establish understanding and solidarity in struggle against oppression and discrimination,” the union said. 

The group also stated that it supports “a social, rather than a medical, model of gender recognition that will help challenge repressive gender stereotypes in the workplace and in society.” 

The UCU later adds, definitively, “saying or implying that trans women are really men denies trans women their right to be women.” 

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The union represents more than 120,000 individuals employed within higher education in the United Kingdom, including “academics, lecturers, trainers, instructors, researchers, managers, administrators, computer staff, librarians and postgraduates in universities, colleges, prisons, adult education and training organizations.”

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