Stuart Waiton claims that student activists are on the side of censorship

A sociologist pilloried for describing transgender equality as “biologically impossible” has accused fellow academics of stifling debate and forcing dissenting views into the shadows.

Stuart Waiton, a sociology and criminology lecturer, said a new publication called the Journal of Controversial Ideas, which allows academics to publish anonymously, is evidence of a “growing intolerance” of radical views in mainstream institutions and journals.

The Abertay University academic provoked anger when he described the transgender equality movement as “strange . . . because it appears to ask for something that is biologically impossible”. He questioned state support for transgender equality, such as gender-neutral lavatories and school uniforms, and attacked “the potentially authoritarian and censorious dynamic” of equality campaigners.

In a subsequent article in the Herald, Dr Waiton