Animator Nina Paley is speaking out against a professor at the University of Illinois, who led a campaign to cancel a local screening of one of Paley’s film over her beliefs on transgenderism.

Paley, who is is friendly with Professor Jordan Peterson, published a blog post in late February condemning a professor at the University of Illinois for encouraging a local coffee shop to cancel a screening of one of her films. The reason? Paley had previously made a post on social media about transgenderism.

I love Nina Paley's work: https://t.co/fkFB4lz8f8 — Dr Jordan B Peterson (@jordanbpeterson) June 22, 2017

Paley explained the ordeal in the blog post, writing that her prior social media posts on the topic of transgenderism motivated a faculty member at the University of Illinois to call for the cancellation of her event that was scheduled for fall 2018.

My crime was, months earlier, sharing on Facebook the following lyric: “If a person has a penis he’s a man.” At various times I have also shared such contentious views as, “women don’t have penises,” “sex is not gender,” “woman means adult human female,” and “everyone is free to identify however they wish, but not to force me to identify them the same way.” Nonetheless, “If a person has a penis he’s a man” is continually quoted as my greatest hit of so-called ‘hate speech.’ It is also a fact. When asked by other commenters why my stating biological facts was ‘transphobic’ and grounds for no-platforming, Ms. Nguyen replied “I’m the chair of Gender and Women’s Studies. I know what I’m talking about.” Speaking not merely as an individual, but in her capacity as a UIUC faculty member, Ms. Nguyen threatened a local business and libeled a community member and encouraged others to join in.

Paley says that this incident has left her concerned about the state of free and open discourse in academia. Her animated films, which do not cover transgenderism, have been well received by critics.

“Many in this college town are afraid to voice support for me, or express any gender-critical thought, for fear of being branded ‘transphobic.’ Academics who even question ‘gender identity’ have been disciplined or denounced in open letters; those who express fully gender critical views have lost their jobs,” Paley explained.

Peterson sat down with Paley for an extended interview about her work in July 2018. That interview can be listened to in its entirety below.

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