Professor Alice Sullivan has described a protest that disrupted her gender lecture at the University of Bristol as “violent,” claiming demonstrators scaled buildings, set off fire alarms and attempted to intimidate those attending.
The academic, who recently led a Government review into sex and gender data collection, told GB News her talk was repeatedly delayed due to alleged security concerns before being dramatically disrupted on the day by protesters banging on windows and shouting from outside the lecture theatre.
The academic had been invited by the university to speak on sex and gender as part of a scheduled lecture.
She told GB News: “On the day it was just a complete shambles, and I’ve never seen anything like it, so protesters actually scaled the walls of the building.
“We were in a first-floor lecture theatre, and they climbed the walls in order to bang on the windows and sort of howl through the windows. It really, it felt incredibly surreal in there.
“It’s like some kind of zombie apocalypse. And they were setting off fire alarms to very loudly disrupt my talk.
“Eventually, we had to move to another lecture theatre, and I learned afterwards that people trying to attend the talk had been severely disrupted by protesters who were not asked to stand behind barriers or anything like that.
“They were just allowed to intimidate and obstruct people who had come to hear me speak.”
Professor Alice Sullivan said the University protest turned violent
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GB NEWS
GB News host Tom Harwood said: “It sounds like a fairly severe dereliction of duty on behalf of the university.
“I mean, obviously everyone has a right to protest anything, you know, and you’d think at a university anyone would have a right to give a talk.
“And yet there is this sort of heckler’s veto that some try to play, to try and keep out ideas with which they disagree.
“I mean, it seems to just go against the fundamental ethos of what higher education should be in this country.”
She added that data on transgender identities should also be collected alongside sex-based data
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GETTYShe agreed: “That’s absolutely right. I mean, I fully, fully support people’s right to peaceful protest.
“But this was not a peaceful protest. It was really quite violent.”
According to Professor Sullivan, accurate data is essential to protect the rights and needs of all groups.
She added that data on transgender identities should also be collected alongside sex-based data.
The lecturer told GB News that she has now sent the University of Bristol a formal letter before action.
Professor Sullivan claims the university failed to take reasonable steps to “uphold her rights as a visiting speaker”.
A University spokesman told The People’s Channel: “The talk went ahead safely and in line with its strong commitment to upholding free speech, we refute Professor Sullivan’s claims.”