The biggest British Parliamentary debate competition in the world run by the Oxford Union pressures hundreds of children as young as 14 to declare their gender pronouns every year. The Mail has the story.
Competitors at Oxfords Schools, aged 14-18, are instructed by organisers to specify whether they are “he/she/they etc” at the start of each round.
Anyone who fails to comply with the equity policy may be disqualified from the contest “with immediate effect”.
Oxford Schools – whose 2025 competition is currently ongoing – is the largest British Parliamentary school-level debate competition in the world, and the largest debating contest in the UK.
It states thousands of students are invited to participate every year and that last year, over 350 schools competed.
A statement unearthed by MailOnline reads: “We operate a gender pronoun policy at Oxford Schools. At the start of each debate, the judge will ask each speaker to introduce themselves with their name and their gender pronoun (such as he/she/they etc), or they may declare no preference.
“This is intended to stop people being misgendered, and prepares students for other competitions and university debating, where such policy is standard.
“Just as people like to be called by their correct name, so they should be called by the pronoun they feel most comfortable with.”
Student testimonies suggest that in practice, participants are not given the option to declare “no preference” when they are each asked in turn to stand up and make their pronoun declaration.
The policy, which has been in force over the last seven years, has been branded “unacceptable” by free speech advocates and “indoctrination pure and simple” by gender critical activists.
Lord Young, the General Secretary of the Free Speech Union, told MailOnline: “This is unacceptable.
“What if the schoolchildren are debating whether sex is an immutable biological characteristic or a social construct that’s merely ‘assigned at birth’?
“By forcing the participants to declare their pronouns, which is a tacit acknowledgement that someone can become a member of the opposite sex, the organisers of the competition are siding with those who believe that sex is a social construct.
“This is particularly egregious given that the organiser of this debating contest is the Oxford Union, which is supposed to be a bastion of free speech.
“The conflict between sex-based women’s rights and trans rights is the subject of an ongoing public debate and not an issue on which the Oxford Union should take a side.
“The Free Speech Union will be writing to the Oxford Union, which is a registered charity, asking it to intervene and instruct the organisers of this competition to uphold the Union’s storied tradition of upholding free speech.”
Worth reading in full.
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If you wish to refer to me how about you use my name?
Yes. Pronouns can be avoided entirely and many people are now doing this.
I thought that but if you’re talking about the person to someone else you can’t really avoid referring to them as ‘she/he’ all the time. Maybe if you made a conscious effort but it wouldn’t roll off my tongue naturally.
“John’s leading by three points and he only needs two more points to win. Jane’s in second place and she needs to answer this next question correctly to equalise with him.”
Imagine the palaver trying to remember who wants to be called “they/them” and who wants to be known as the opposite sex? I’d make a right hash of it and end up offending many people, I think.
Yes, it’s ridiculous; that’s the point. It’s irrational behaviour and what happens when people are subjected to gaslighting. (Which is supposed to be illegal). It’s a way of resisting without being cancelled or worse. How did we get here?
I’m sure it would be considered a micro-aggression. If I were doing it, it would be.
To consider Mogwai’s point above…
“John’s leading by three points and only needs two more points to win. Jane’s in second place and needs to answer this next question correctly to equalise with John.”
As a bit of a
mathsarithmetic nerd. I note Jane’s question is worth three points.Just call them all ‘it’.
Too much mental illness is pandered to nowadays, plus too many snowflakes getting offended at the drop of a hat. Loads of emotionally unhinged people taking to social media to upload a film of themselves having a spaz attack just because they’ve been misgendered in a shop.
I think this illustrates my point. I was born in the 1970s;
https://x.com/LibertyCappy/status/1910542070080750043
Anyone with any self-respect even a child would just tell them where to go. Who wants to be part of a debate organised by such a sad sack of trivial losers. You would feel grubby taking part after that. We will make you wear the pink panties of submission one way or another. Free-thinking on our terms.
As Groucho Marx always used to say, “I don’t want to belong to any club that would have me as a member!”
Same goes for the South Midlands Arts College Debasing Society.
The arrogance of dictating how you want to be referred to in your absence is astounding.
Excellent point.
Well how you refer to me when I am not around does not matter. If you use a pronoun to refer to me directly then is that not offensive anyway? Of course it is best to make a joke about and not be offended by anything like that anyway, but the whole thing is a bit of a fuss over some nonsense that you should not be using to some ones face.
It is part of the general attack upon seriousness which constitutes a larger part of the demoralisation element of managed decline. Can you imagine someone announcing something really important to you and stating their pronouns first? Like if the police turned up in the morning to tell you that your son had been killed in a car crash or anything of moment. You would feel enraged by their triviality. You need to be mindful that their evil works best when it is an attack upon seriousness. Like a mallet they use to soften the meat up.
Like when I was readmitting my mother into A&E with a stroke and they persisted in asking her for her religious orientation.
They have so screwed you that you don’t know how to get back. It is sad and disappointing. They have you by the balls and you are crazy scared. I don’t hate you but I think less of you and feel that contact with you is dirtiness. Look at the disgusting mess that you have become.
What a load of shite… far too complicated. Just ignore the crap
Does your post indicate ‘shitmunchers’ and ‘Hamassholes’ are now allowed to be posted on here, or is it just another case of “Rules for thee but not for me”?
Perks of the job, right?
The trick of political subversives is to win public office. (It is much easier to gain the power offered by public office than it is to win such influence by merit alone).
Once they are ‘in’ they work to make the conditions so oppressive, to right minded people, that they refuse to contest (I wouldn’t wish to stand for public office).
The little tikes gleefully taking up this challenge are on the path to telling us all what to do and think for the rest of all our lives. Let’s egg them all.
Someone needs to stand up and say that their preferred pronouns are Jedi Master, or just Master for short. Halfway through the competition they could transition and ask to be called Sith Lord, or just Lord for short.
Kids won’t read this, but if they did, I would suggest they band together and take the P out of the request. The majority should follow the rule in stating how they wish to be called, BUT, say things like my pronouns are “Your Highness” “your Majesty”, or on the planet I come from my pronounsa are “Zeyfod, Zeyzar”. I am sure these bright young people can come up with lots more. Oxford will not be able to deny each child their right as to do so is to offend their chosen belief in what they are, thus making a lie of the thing they are asking each child to do.
Frankly if all logical, free thinking individuals be it children or Adults adopted this very simple pin prick to the balloon of magical thinking it would soon stop.
Today I am feeling that I am really a Pope so please address me as your Eminence.
Sounds like they’re all mass debaters.
Perhaps pronouns could be a topic for debate?