The Humboldt University was heavily criticized for the canceled lecture by a doctoral student on gender equality. Education Minister Bettina Stark-Watzinger commented on the cancellation during the discussion.
German Education Minister Bettina Stark-Watzinger takes part in the panel discussion via video link during her vacation.
The canceled lecture by the biologist Marie-Luise Vollbrecht entitled “Gender is not (gender) gender: sex, gender and why there are two sexes in biology” sparked a debate about the freedom of science.
Twelve days after the canceled event, Vollbrecht catches up on her lecture. Not far from the university building, university activists are protesting with placards that read: “No place for transphobia”. In the lecture hall, however, in which Vollbrecht lectures, it remains quiet. The panel discussion in the other lecture hall took place without Vollbrecht, she had declined an invitation to the panel.
The biologist Vollbrecht spoke on Twitter before her repeated lecture and explained why she was not taking part in the panel discussion that followed. Vollbrecht writes: “The unbalanced composition of the podium suggests that it will not be about biology.”
I decided not to go to the subsequent panel discussion today for 4 reasons:
1. My lecture was about conveying basic biological knowledge. My presentation was correct and does not need to be “contextualized”.— Ms. Summer ? (@Frollein_VogelV) July 14, 2022
Among the guests on the stage were: Peter Frensch, President of the Humboldt University, Rüdiger Krahe, Professor of Biology and PhD supervisor of Vollbrecht and Kerstin Palm, biologist and humanities scientist. Whenever the statement is made that bisexuality is a consensus in biology, both applause and boos follow. Like the panel on stage, the audience is at odds.
The discussion took place in the main auditorium of the Humboldt University. Minister of Education Stark-Watzinger joined in from vacation. When asked whether the university’s cancellation was correct, Stark-Watzinger replied: “Of course, not allowing an event that is on the program to take place requires an explanation.” According to the minister, academic freedom must be protected.
In the course of the discussion, Stark-Watzinger refers to the proposed new traffic light law: “I am happy to be part of a government coalition that is promoting the right to self-determination.” The traffic light coalition plans to abolish the transsexual law and replace it with a self-determination law. In the future, changes to the gender entry in civil status should be possible via self-disclosure.
The gentleman on the far left of the podium (interrogator from the audience) takes the view that there are two #genders. This statement met with strong opposition from some panellists. pic.twitter.com/LSiEmWe4eo
— Ferdinand Knapp (@ferdinandknapp) July 14, 2022
The case put the Humboldt doctoral student in the middle of a smoldering transsexuality debate. Marie-Luise Vollbrecht faces a character assassination campaign. She has since launched a fundraiser to take “legal action against defamation in connection with my canceled lecture on biology and the evolution of the two sexes.” A third of the 15,000 euros that she set as a campaign goal has already been achieved.