Students protested outside Great St Mary’s last night (05/05) following the invitation of “gender critical” feminist Simon Fanshawe to speak at Gonville and Caius College, hosted by Caius don Joe Herbert.

Equipped with megaphones, protesters could be heard from within Caius College. They were seen flying trans flags, banging pots and pans, and chanting popular refrains such as “No TERFs on our turf!”.

The protest was intended to oppose the platforming of Fanshawe, who is a key supporter of the “trans-exclusionary” advocacy group LGB Alliance. He has previously suggested in the Daily Mail that trans activists have “wrecked” the work of Stonewall, an LGBTQ+ charity that he helped found.

The protest was endorsed by the SU’s LGBT+ campaign and led by the ‘5th May Reaction Group’. The organisers stressed that students should not have to “argue for their existence” and that the university has a responsibility to “not platform views harmful” to its students.

As the evening progressed, protesters marched from the entrance of St Mary’s Church to outside Caius library, closer to the Bateman auditorium where the event was being held. At the protest’s peak, almost the entire lane between the Bateman and Senate House was filled.

It appeared that the Caius porters were on high alert, with several attendees commenting on the “tense” nature of the environment around the college. A student from Caius noted the generally high-spirited atmosphere of the protest, particularly as attendees shared experiences and speeches in support of trans rights. The student felt that by “trying to divide a community who had already been through enough,” the event had inadvertently brought the community “closer together”.

Attendees of the protest expressed frustration at the invitation of another “transphobic” speaker to speak at events held at Caius in such a short period of time, following Helen Joyce’s talk last October. One student on the Facebook confessions page Camfess urged peers to attend the protest, so colleges would “understand” that “students don’t want transphobes being propped up”.

Speaking to Varsity, the LGBTQIA+ rep for Caius condemned the “reduction of people’s lives to a purely academic affair” and applauded the efforts of students to “get their voices heard”.

The protest came following an open letter to the Master and Senior Tutor of Caius regarding the talk, written by its GCSU President and LGBTQIA+ officer, and signed by 112 Caius students. The letter expressed disappointment regarding Fanshawe’s invitation, condemning his views as “out of step with the values of the progressive and accepting Caius undergraduate community”.

In response to the open letter, Pippa Rogerson, the Master at Gonville & Caius, drew attention to the College’s Statement on Freedom of Speech and the fact that a trans woman, Jacqui Gavin, took part in the event alongside Fanshawe.