The British University and College Union has managed to stir up quite a ruckus online by announcing its stance on racial and gender identification.
According to Metro, the union, which represents some 120,000 academics, made the statement after weathering a backlash over “the labelling of transgender people.”
“UCU has a long history of enabling members to self-identify whether that is being black, disabled, LGBT+ or women”, the union said. “UCU also supports a social, rather than a medical, model of gender recognition that will help challenge repressive gender stereotypes in the workplace and in society.”
UCU’s stance elicited a wave of criticism, with Sussex University philosophy professor Kathleen Stock describing it as “nonsensical, anti-intellectual propaganda.”
Many social media users also did not seem particularly thrilled by the union’s statement, though some of them looked amused by it.
And a number of people joked about how the principles espoused by UCU might be utilized.