University College London formally ended ties this month with LGBTQ+ charity Stonewall, following a debate between their Equality, Diversity and Inclusion comittee and Academic Board on how the relationship ‘impacts academic freedom’ in conversations on sex and gender.

UCL announced that it will no longer participate in Stonewall’s Diversity Champions Programme or submit to the Workplace Equality Index, which is a benchmarking tool for employers to measure their progress on LGBTQI+ inclusion in the workplace.

Although UCL’s EDI committee supported the university’s participation in Stonewall’s schemes, the Academic Board’s vote against participation was ultimately accepted by UCL’s senior leadership team.

“Those in favour of UCL’s participation in the two Stonewall schemes cite the benefits of a clear external framework to shape and measure UCL’s work on LGBTQ+ inclusion, and the support that participation signals to trans staff and students in particular. Those opposed raise concerns about academic freedom in the light of Stonewall’s positions on sex and sex-based rights and the impact on academic debates about sex and gender identity that may stem from alignment with Stonewall, with implied endorsement of its positions,” UCL’s press release stated.

LGBTQI+ students, organizations and UCL alumni have been expressing their disappointment in UCL’s decision.

Students’ Union UCL released a statement on how the university’s withdrawal from Stonewall’s schemes could have a “serious impact” on trans students and could “create an environment where gender prejudice and transphobic language is justified under the guise of academic freedom.”

Historian of early Muslim Studies and UCL alumnas Ian D. Morris posted a screengrab of an email in responding to the university about their decision: “If there is a threat to academic freedom in this arena, it is not the humane and critical understanding of sex and gender promoted by Stonewall, but a disciplined and highly cynical campaign of reaction against trans visibility that dominates our national media.

Mainstream media in the UK is notorious for upholding transphobia on its platform: in response to UCL’s decision, the Guardian published a foreboding article suggesting how the university was the “first '' to set this precedent of cutting ties with LGBTQI+ advocacy organizations.