The loony Uni

From a place of critical thinking, to an autocratic conveyor belt. Universities now hinder learning, and have more in common with cults than cultivation

Plonkers protesting

Amid all the brain rot that is currently inherent to university culture, I thought the worst that could happen would be yet another course on Judith Butler, a Queer Studies professor so concerned about the safety of women she said in a recent interview that if trans women (men) are placed in male prisons, “they will be raped and they will be hurt”.

However, she may yet be upstaged: the University of Canberra has a brand-new offering, in the form of a Graduate Certificate in LGBTQIA+ Policy. Aimed at “professionals and aspiring changemakers”, this qualification will, the university claims, help students influence “decisions that count” and strengthen their “credibility in driving social change”.

God help us. But it was when I saw that students will be learning to “identify where systems fall short” that my blood ran cold at the thought of the “unbiased policy” they might come up with. Just look at what happened to Holly Lawford-Smith, lesbian, feminist and a philosopher at the University of Melbourne, who was subjected to harassment and investigations for stating that a trans-identified man is, ahem, not a woman.

University learning platforms might be, as advertised, “user-friendly” – but university culture is not lesbian-friendly. And this matters, because it is at university that many young lesbians come out, meet others, begin to socialise and feel that they are not alone in the world.

So forgive me for failing to be reassured by the information that there will also be “critical examination of community-led approaches to inclusive communication”.

University culture spills out into other areas of life. The University of Sydney, for example, uses a similar alphabet soup to describe its “queer” students. Its website states that the university supports “staff and students of all genders, sexualities and sex characteristics”. I’m not sure what they mean by that, but bearing in mind that in recent years MAP (for “minor-attracted person”) has been added to the mix, presumably pedophiles are included too. And it’s anybody’s guess what support “asexual” people (who’d rather have a cup of tea than a roll in the hay) need from their university.

External activities promoted for students by Sydney University include participation in the Mardi Gras parade, which is unfortunate given that it is currently losing money hand over fist, resulting in the after-party being cancelled for 2026. Perhaps the reason why this particular gravy train has slowed down is because corporates are no longer able to claim to be super “DEI”-focused when the Pride board is at loggerheads. It rejected member motions to centre the parade this year on transgender rights and to adopt slogans such as “Embrace trans rights not Trump”.

Operating under a protection racket reminiscent of UK-based Stonewall, this university is recognised as a Gold Employer of Choice for the Australian Workplace Equality Index – which effectively means they get a nice Kitemark for doing away with single-sex facilities and pretending that “trans women are women”.

But I digress – what will those who sign up for this bonkers course actually learn? It’s promoted as being potentially beneficial to public services, including to those in governmental roles (at local, state or federal level), charities, media communications and campaigns, and (of course) diversity and inclusion roles.

This is a course designed to train the next generation to be Trans Taliban, or perhaps Queer ISIS. Students will learn to “lead conversations that shift perspectives and drive lasting change”. But for lesbians or gay men who are critical of gender ideology, all it will mean is that the graduates of this course will be better equipped to shout “Terf” and “bigot” at them.

What universities could really do with right now is a course that traces how the ever-growing gay rights movement came to encompass heterosexual kinksters, bored straight folks and young people with interesting haircuts, not to mention men in pup-fetish gear.

We need to teach the history of the Gay Liberation Movement, the actual one – not that imagined and distorted by the likes of Butler. Let these students learn about how and why genderism took such a hold over our institutions – an ideology so powerful and toxic it threatened the very basis of a democratic society – free speech and active learning.

In the meantime, when I give seminars on feminism and lesbian liberation to students, I mention such small matters as the sexual exploitation of homeless lesbian and gay youth; the scourge of chemsex culture among vulnerable gay men, and; the punishment rape and risks of forced marriage of lesbians in deeply conservative cultures. Call me old-fashioned, but I reckon these things matter more than where to buy a new pup mask for Mardi Gras – and what, in academic terms, this symbolises.