Academics claim union discriminated against their views on gender

Two academics have taken their union to a tribunal, accusing it of discrimination and harassment after it campaigned to stop the screening of a documentary they made.

- Sally Weale

Deirdre O'Neill, a senior lecturer in film studies at the University of Hertfordshire, and Michael Wayne, a professor of media and film studies at Brunel University, describe Adult Human Female as the first UK documentary to look at the "clash between women's rights and gender ideology/trans rights".

According to documents before the tribunal, when a screening was arranged at the University of Edinburgh in 2022, the local branch of the University and College Union (UCU) wrote to the institution urging it to cancel, calling the film an "attack on trans peoples' identities", as well as labelling it "transphobic" on Twitter.

Protesters prevented the screening on two occasions - in December 2022 and April 2023 - by blocking the entrance to the venue.