All 12 members of Edinburgh University’s staff pride network committee have resigned after accusing the university authorities of “failing to take a stand against transphobic hate on campus”.

The committee claims the mass resignation was prompted by the university’s attempts to censor its opposition to a feminist meeting, held on Wednesday evening, which included speakers who have previously been critical of proposed reforms to transgender rights.

After the meeting, the campaigner Julie Bindel, who spoke on the panel, was allegedly verbally abused and lunged at by a transgender activist.

She said she had been left “shaken”, believing her attacker “would have punched me full in the face” had university security guards not intervened. But Bindel said she believed the protester did not represent the transgender community. “This is not in their name,” said Bindel, who was speaking at a panel event discussing the future of women’s sex-based rights and organised by a long-standing staff member.

In their resignation letter, seen by the Guardian, the staff pride network committee says it raised concerns about Wednesday’s event but claim it was told to “support the university [over the event] or be quiet. We were also told that, in future, should the committee wish to take a stance on anything for our members that we must first ask permission of the university.”

Co-chair Rosie Russell told the Guardian: “We had concerns that panel members had a history of animus toward trans women and it looked to be very one-sided. At no point did we ask the university to cancel the event. We support freedom of speech.”

Describing the university’s approach as censorship, the resignation letter continues: “When you add this to the decision of the university to withdraw from the Stonewall Workplace Equality Index, we see a reversal of the progress that the network has made over the last three years. We feel viscerally upset that the good work over the last three years is being undone.



“As such, your committee has decided that the only tenable response is to resign as we cannot volunteer our time to help run the network for a university that has allowed hate on its campuses and failed to take a stand against it.”

The Guardian understands that the university decided to take a one-year break from the Stonewall Index, a thorough benchmarking tool for employers to rate their progress on inclusion, because of its heavy administrative burden, but remains open to rejoining next year.

A spokesperson for Edinburgh University, which hosted a major conference on international transgender rights at the end of May, expressed regret at the resignations and said that senior managers had offered to meet with the committee to discuss their concerns. “The university places great importance in the staff pride network and its valuable job in representing the university’s LGBT+ community.”

Bindel, who underlined that she had been talking about male violence, not transgender issues, at the event, said a person had approached her as she was leaving the George Square lecture hall around 7pm, and shouted abuse.

Bindel expressed her gratitude to the security staff, who had earlier swept the lecture hall before the event and attended a peaceful protest by transgender activists which had dispersed by the time Bindel was leaving.

Bindel’s alleged abuser identified themselves on Twitter as a trans woman who uses the name Cathy Brennan. They tweeted: “Truth of the matter is that I did not raise a fist. I attempted to push past security so I could speak face to face with a person who has caused great harm to trans people across this country.”

They added that they would not respond to requests for further comment unless they were offered “the chance to write a full opinion piece in my own words”.

Bindel told the Guardian she was regularly abused in this manner and that she did not intend to involve the police. “I know these people do not represent transsexual people, who suffer daily discrimination and are appalled at this,” she said.

The Edinburgh University row reflects broader tensions around proposed changes to gender recognition legislation in Scotland. The Scottish government was last month forced to clarify its stance after leaked emails suggested that Nicola Sturgeon was “out of step” with her party.

Lucy Hunter-Blackman, another panellist and an Edinburgh University researcher who has been critical of proposed changes to the next census around the question of biological sex, said she “condemned the assault on one of my fellow speakers”.

Describing the atmosphere at the event as positive, she added: “We were pleased that some of the protesters felt able to come in and listen and ask questions and hope they feel we responded seriously and honestly. The discussion offered a glimpse of what a better debate might look like.”

• The headline and standfirst were amended on 6 June 2019 to better reflect the content of the article.