Robert Wintemute

Robert Wintemute, professor of human rights law at King’s College London, discusses his book Transgender Rights vs. Women’s Rights: From Conflicts to Coexistence (2025), drawing on decades of work on lesbian and gay equality cases before the European Court of Human Rights. He traces the relationship between the lesbian, gay and transgender movements, explaining how they developed largely separately before forming a coalition in the late 1990s and 2000s. Wintemute considers how many organisations changed their priorities after the achievement of same-sex marriage, with groups such as Stonewall increasingly focusing on gender identity. He describes what he regards as the institutional capture of universities and the narrowing of space for debate, including a seminar at McGill University disrupted by protesters who threw flour and accused him of promoting genocide. The discussion examines freedom of expression and Wintemute’s argument that open inquiry must protect speech that may offend, shock or disturb, rather than treating disagreement as violence. He considers whether lesbian, gay and bisexual organisations should distinguish their work more clearly from gender-identity activism, and explores the implications of self-identification laws. The conversation also addresses how society can accept people whose clothing, appearance or behaviour does not conform to gender stereotypes without making medical transition a condition of recognition. Wintemute argues that equality need not depend on redefining legal sex. Instead, he advocates separating sex from expectations about presentation, clothing and behaviour, allowing greater individual freedom without changing the legal meaning of sex. He sets out a case for coexistence grounded in rights, open discussion and respect for individual difference.