Connie Shaw: I Stood Up to The Pro-Trans Mob Who Tried to Silence Me at UCL
When Free Speech Union External Affairs Officer Connie Shaw gave a talk at University College London on Tuesday about the transgender attack on free speech, she found herself, with no hint or irony, confronted by an angry mob. She wrote about her ordeal, and how she stood up to the enraged activists, in the Telegraph. Here’s an excerpt.
Who would’ve thought that I’d need bodyguards (not one, but two) to speak at a British university? But that’s what I had on Tuesday night when I gave a talk at University College London.
What, you might ask, was I set to say that would necessitate the need for close protection officers? I had been invited by UCL’s Libertarian Society to talk about women’s rights and, wait for it, freedom of speech. Oh, the irony.
The day before the event, a protest was organised and advertised on Instagram by “UCL Socialist Feminists” and “Action for Palestine Society” – calling me “transphobic” and “Islamophobic”.
In fairness, the protest graphic aimed at me was very impressive. Full of colour, it was headlined, “Transphobia off our campus!” and bore the logos of the various UCL societies that supported my cancellation. Among them, oddly, was the “Climate Action Society”.
The greatest irony was the fact they had included a quote from me saying “transgenderism is an attack on free speech”. Since they wanted the talk to be cancelled because I reject transgenderism as an ideology, I can only assume these angry students agree with me. Meanwhile, UCL’s “AhlulBayt Islamic Society” was publicly mourning the assassination of the brutal Islamist dictator of Iran, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
To promote my talk, the courageous president of UCL’s Libertarian Society, first-year student Samiksha Bhattacharjee, made a video which clearly stated that I had gender-critical views and that it was important to have open and honest discussion.
What followed was an onslaught. The video received a flurry of social media comments condemning their invitation. “This is disgusting”, read one. “Terfs have no place on our campus. Shame on you,” said another.
A petition was set up by UCL’s “LGBTQ Network” demanding that the student union cancel the event. They claimed that my views encourage “the exclusion and fear of trans students”. Five people signed the petition.
I was also added to a group chat on Instagram by some UCL students who, I can only assume, wished to taunt and intimidate me. I have no idea if they knew that I could see what they were saying since I never pressed “accept” to join the group.
My appearance was insulted and one student referenced what I can only describe as a rape threat. But it was me who was creating a “hostile” environment for students at UCL, apparently.
Every step of the way these students proved exactly why it was so important that my talk went ahead. I encouraged them to come and challenge me instead, and that trying to cancel the event made their own views appear rather weak if they could not withstand opposition.
On the day, as well as my bodyguards, there were police officers from the Met and campus security on the door. For security reasons, the location of the event was kept secret until 45 minutes before it started.
Outside, there were about 50 people in the street protesting my presence. I was rather impressed by the turnout. Even though I have only recently graduated from university myself, it is still baffling and surreal that so many would bother to protest against a 21 year-old woman who believes that biological sex is real and important.
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mrbu
1 month ago
Well done, Connie, for standing up to the tyranny of censorship. Cancellation will always be the coward’s way out. As you said, the correct thing would have been for them to come along and challenge your views in an open, grown-up debate. It would then have been possible for the audience to decide who (in their view) was right, and who was wrong. They may even have discovered that it’s possible for opposing views to exist without destroying the whole fabric of civilisation.
I will never understand why supposedly intelligent student leaders think it is acceptable to deny their fellow students a full range of views and the chance to formulate informed opinions of their own.
Although this is a smallish sample size and is basically a survey, I’m inclined to believe the findings, knowing what we know about conformity and the extensive research done in this area historically, not to mention the Scamdemic years proved to be an excellent mass social experiment on this very topic; ”On today’s college campuses, students are not maturing — they’re managing. Beneath a facade of progressive slogans and institutional virtue-signaling lies a quiet psychological crisis, driven by the demands of ideological conformity. Between 2023 and 2025, we conducted 1,452 confidential interviews with undergraduates at Northwestern University and the University of Michigan. We were not studying politics — we were studying development. Our question was clinical, not political: “What happens to identity formation when belief is replaced by adherence to orthodoxy?” We asked: Have you ever pretended to hold more progressive views than you truly endorse to succeed socially or academically? An astounding 88 percent said yes. These students were not cynical, but adaptive. In a campus environment where grades, leadership, and peer belonging often hinge on fluency in performative morality, young adults quickly learn to rehearse what is safe. The result is not conviction but compliance. And beneath that compliance, something… Read more »
And have you noticed they prefer 👎 over leaving a comment as to why they disagree with something? I guess the petty-minded don’t rate the exchange of dialogue very highly.
This cannot be healthy for the students. Having to pretend all the time and self-censor.
ChrisA
1 month ago
Old sayings about “Flak” and “over the target” spring to mind. These freaks are all being driven insane and they wonder why we aren’t insane like them.
Interesting info including clip, though predictable. Reminds me of those anti-free speech idiots at Bangor Uni who ran the debating society and banned Reform from visiting. They’re pro-censorship, as long as it’s not happening to them; ”If you think speech bans will stop with your enemies, history suggests otherwise. Here’s one example: In 1974, the National Union of Students in the United Kingdom adopted a policy banning racist and fascist speakers. The Union of Jewish students supported the policy, thinking it would apply to the right-wing National Front. A few years later, the Jewish student group watched as some local unions used the policy to ban Zionist speakers on campus. As former ACLU Executive Director Ira Glasser once said, speech restrictions are like poison gas — they may seem like a powerful weapon when the enemy is in your sights and the wind is at your back. But the wind has a way of shifting. And when it does, you will want the right to offend firmly on your side. My closing remarks at the Cambridge Union debate: “This House Believes In The Right To Offend.” https://x.com/NicoPerrino/status/2028554427674538480 Meanwhile, Kellie-Jay Keen has been escorted off the premises at an event today… Read more »
Vince
1 month ago
Good for you, Connie. Although, I have to say you were lucky that petition didn’t get two more votes, if it had, you would have been in deep doo-doo. Well done, and thank you.
happycake78
1 month ago
Honest question. I don’t know why these student unions are so powerful. The students don’t work there, they are there to obtain a certification in their chosen area of study. Then they leave once their education is done. And a group of new people come in to study. What am I missing here.
Connie and my son, Monty, are so important in being outliers amongst their peers for challenging “the regime message”: unless youngsters are prepared to face the hostility that will inevitably come from the Guardian Groomed graduate cohort and challenge their unquestioned orthodoxies, there really is no future!
Connie asked Monty (their politics has inevitably meant that their paths have crossed and they get on well) to cover the event and he, too, has uploaded his take on it. These young fighters for freedom need our support 💪
Connie went to university, did your Monty also? Because it just shows that it’s not a given that young people who’ve gone through higher education are going to become like these brainwashed, activist numpties featured above and that are all over the place now. Perhaps it’s more to do with which course they follow as to how likely they are to retain critical thinking capacity and a healthy degree of scepticism, or maybe there’s no correlation at all and it’s all down to the individual, I don’t know.
But I’m always full of admiration for Monty when I see his videos on Twitter as he’s clearly a young guy who is principled and full of integrity and courage in standing up for what he believes in. You must be immensely proud of him, as a parent, and he’s a real credit to you.😊
Thank you Mogs. Monty lasted 3 weeks at UAL doing a photography degree, having got a distinction in his level 3 diploma. On day one he was asked to sign a good conduct agreement that was an infantilising document that encouraged the usual fear and entitlement double bind among the students.. He refused. Then came the “collect your pronoun badge” session that was red rag to a bull with Monty. Once his opinions were disclosed the mob turned on him and I’ve seen the death threat messages that the then started to get, followed up with physical attacks. The staff did nothing up support him and were very relieved when he resigned the course. He refused to come home, worked 70 hour weeks as a pizza chef until he got a photography job with an estate agent. But he was bidding his time until he could raise enough income by working as a social media guru for all manner of organisations and himself, of course. I’m immensely proud of him, not just for his independence of thought, but his sheer work ethic and resilience. But, as you can imagine, his Mum and I worry hugely about his safety and his… Read more »
Socialist Tyranny is a PACKAGE Deal. You have to be onboard with all of of it. Whether it is Climate or Trans, or Palestine or Billionaire Bashing.
Hester
1 month ago
Look at how brave they are, how they are prepared to do anything for their cause. Clearly they were concerned that there was a lot of Covid around that day and wanted to protect their fellow freedom fighters.
Spoilt, cowardly waste of a good skin humans. Free speech for me but not for thee, its good they have alligned themselves with the religion of peace as we all know what happens to those who disagree with their beliefs.
To join in with the discussion please make a donation to The Daily Sceptic.
Profanity and abuse will be removed and may lead to a permanent ban.
Well done, Connie, for standing up to the tyranny of censorship. Cancellation will always be the coward’s way out. As you said, the correct thing would have been for them to come along and challenge your views in an open, grown-up debate. It would then have been possible for the audience to decide who (in their view) was right, and who was wrong. They may even have discovered that it’s possible for opposing views to exist without destroying the whole fabric of civilisation.
I will never understand why supposedly intelligent student leaders think it is acceptable to deny their fellow students a full range of views and the chance to formulate informed opinions of their own.
Although this is a smallish sample size and is basically a survey, I’m inclined to believe the findings, knowing what we know about conformity and the extensive research done in this area historically, not to mention the Scamdemic years proved to be an excellent mass social experiment on this very topic; ”On today’s college campuses, students are not maturing — they’re managing. Beneath a facade of progressive slogans and institutional virtue-signaling lies a quiet psychological crisis, driven by the demands of ideological conformity. Between 2023 and 2025, we conducted 1,452 confidential interviews with undergraduates at Northwestern University and the University of Michigan. We were not studying politics — we were studying development. Our question was clinical, not political: “What happens to identity formation when belief is replaced by adherence to orthodoxy?” We asked: Have you ever pretended to hold more progressive views than you truly endorse to succeed socially or academically? An astounding 88 percent said yes. These students were not cynical, but adaptive. In a campus environment where grades, leadership, and peer belonging often hinge on fluency in performative morality, young adults quickly learn to rehearse what is safe. The result is not conviction but compliance. And beneath that compliance, something… Read more »
a down vote for a post quoting a study. Weird.
And have you noticed they prefer 👎 over leaving a comment as to why they disagree with something? I guess the petty-minded don’t rate the exchange of dialogue very highly.
Tyranny does not exchange dialogue, it crushes it.
This cannot be healthy for the students. Having to pretend all the time and self-censor.
Old sayings about “Flak” and “over the target” spring to mind. These freaks are all being driven insane and they wonder why we aren’t insane like them.
Interesting info including clip, though predictable. Reminds me of those anti-free speech idiots at Bangor Uni who ran the debating society and banned Reform from visiting. They’re pro-censorship, as long as it’s not happening to them; ”If you think speech bans will stop with your enemies, history suggests otherwise. Here’s one example: In 1974, the National Union of Students in the United Kingdom adopted a policy banning racist and fascist speakers. The Union of Jewish students supported the policy, thinking it would apply to the right-wing National Front. A few years later, the Jewish student group watched as some local unions used the policy to ban Zionist speakers on campus. As former ACLU Executive Director Ira Glasser once said, speech restrictions are like poison gas — they may seem like a powerful weapon when the enemy is in your sights and the wind is at your back. But the wind has a way of shifting. And when it does, you will want the right to offend firmly on your side. My closing remarks at the Cambridge Union debate: “This House Believes In The Right To Offend.” https://x.com/NicoPerrino/status/2028554427674538480 Meanwhile, Kellie-Jay Keen has been escorted off the premises at an event today… Read more »
Good for you, Connie. Although, I have to say you were lucky that petition didn’t get two more votes, if it had, you would have been in deep doo-doo.
Well done, and thank you.
Honest question. I don’t know why these student unions are so powerful. The students don’t work there, they are there to obtain a certification in their chosen area of study. Then they leave once their education is done. And a group of new people come in to study. What am I missing here.
Modern “universities” attract a disproportionate number of nutcases?
Education?
Connie and my son, Monty, are so important in being outliers amongst their peers for challenging “the regime message”: unless youngsters are prepared to face the hostility that will inevitably come from the Guardian Groomed graduate cohort and challenge their unquestioned orthodoxies, there really is no future!
Connie asked Monty (their politics has inevitably meant that their paths have crossed and they get on well) to cover the event and he, too, has uploaded his take on it. These young fighters for freedom need our support 💪
Connie went to university, did your Monty also? Because it just shows that it’s not a given that young people who’ve gone through higher education are going to become like these brainwashed, activist numpties featured above and that are all over the place now. Perhaps it’s more to do with which course they follow as to how likely they are to retain critical thinking capacity and a healthy degree of scepticism, or maybe there’s no correlation at all and it’s all down to the individual, I don’t know.
But I’m always full of admiration for Monty when I see his videos on Twitter as he’s clearly a young guy who is principled and full of integrity and courage in standing up for what he believes in. You must be immensely proud of him, as a parent, and he’s a real credit to you.😊
Thank you Mogs. Monty lasted 3 weeks at UAL doing a photography degree, having got a distinction in his level 3 diploma. On day one he was asked to sign a good conduct agreement that was an infantilising document that encouraged the usual fear and entitlement double bind among the students.. He refused. Then came the “collect your pronoun badge” session that was red rag to a bull with Monty. Once his opinions were disclosed the mob turned on him and I’ve seen the death threat messages that the then started to get, followed up with physical attacks. The staff did nothing up support him and were very relieved when he resigned the course. He refused to come home, worked 70 hour weeks as a pizza chef until he got a photography job with an estate agent. But he was bidding his time until he could raise enough income by working as a social media guru for all manner of organisations and himself, of course. I’m immensely proud of him, not just for his independence of thought, but his sheer work ethic and resilience. But, as you can imagine, his Mum and I worry hugely about his safety and his… Read more »
Socialist Tyranny is a PACKAGE Deal. You have to be onboard with all of of it. Whether it is Climate or Trans, or Palestine or Billionaire Bashing.
Look at how brave they are, how they are prepared to do anything for their cause. Clearly they were concerned that there was a lot of Covid around that day and wanted to protect their fellow freedom fighters.
Spoilt, cowardly waste of a good skin humans. Free speech for me but not for thee, its good they have alligned themselves with the religion of peace as we all know what happens to those who disagree with their beliefs.