According to the Rheinische Post (paywalled article), 500 students at Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf (HHU) demonstrated on Tuesday against a transphobic lecture by a psychology professor. They carried placards reading “Protect Trans Kids” and “No Lecture Hall for Hate.” The lecture and the demonstration, according to the police, proceeded peacefully and without major incidents.
In the invitation to the lecture, the professor claimed: “Trans ideology is not scientifically tenable, spreads false notions about the development of children and adolescents, and endangers this development. I will explain this in this lecture.” In the lecture itself, she reportedly lamented the increase in transgender diagnoses and accompanying conditions such as ADHD or depression, according to media reports.
The demonstrators countered that it does not help a trans person any better when their identity is denied. The WDR quotes a participant saying: “There is no Trans ideology. An ideology is a system of beliefs. Trans people exist. This language is used only by certain groups who clearly oppose the existence of trans people.”
Call for Immediate Dismissal Withdrawn
The university had already rejected the students’ demand: “There will be no dismissal on the say-so of individual groups, not now and never,” university press spokesman Achim Zolke told WDR. He pointed to academic freedom: “That also means tolerating uncomfortable positions.”
Self-disclosure by the professor to the public was not forthcoming: she declined “a discussion with WDR and other press outlets,” according to a report by Westdeutscher Rundfunk.
Conservative media meanwhile attempt to ridicule the students and cast the professor as a victim. The TV channel Welt reported, for example, that the professor merely wanted to “critically question transgender identity.” The right-wing populist magazine “Nius” accused the students of treating the professor with “extraordinary disrespect.” (cw)
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