Matt Thompson
© London School of Economics
A paper presented by a student at the London School of Economics in the gender studies department calls for direct and sustained violence against women, specifically those who hold gender critical views. The paper was presented first in April 2021 and then again in June at a conference in the Department of Gender Studies, which is organized by doctoral students.

Author of the paper Matt A. Thompson read from his work:
"We go unnoticed, right up until the moment they scream for mercy. Am I a threat to you? Do I send chills down your spine? Picture this, I hold a knife to your throat and spit my transness into your ear. Does that turn you on? Are you scared? I sure fucking hope so

The work was done as part of a course called Transnational Sexual Politics, taught by Dr. Jacob Breslow and Professor Clare Hemmings. The session, called "No Time, No TERFs, No Norms," featured four papers:
  • "Trans* Endemics: Embodying Viral and Monstrous Threat in Times of Pandemic,"
  • "Nationalism's Cannon Fodder: the Birth of Transpatriots,"
  • "Is Letting Trans Children Die "Common Sense"?, and
  • "Vomit and Time"
The organizing principle for the session "No Time, no TERFs, No Norms" was to engage "with trans as a site of collective affinity, these student scholars take a stand for solidarity to say: No TERFs on our turf!"

Thompson's paper was toward his masters degree, and constituted 30 percent of the final grade for the course. The author identifies as "genderf*ck," a gender identity designation that, according to LGBT Wiki, is an intentionally "self-conscious effort to 'f*ck with' or play with traditional" gender roles and expression; "it falls under the umbrella of the transgender spectrum."
Matt Tweet
© Twitter/mattadamthompson.com
In Thompson's "Trans* Endemics: Embodying Viral and Monstrous Threat in Times of Pandemic," they (preferred pronouns are plural) explore their own threat to women as a trans person. Thompson writes, in rather confusing academic prose:
"Taking seriously the transphobic notion of transness as an endemic threat to feminism, gender, and rights, I present 'trans* endemics' as a political and scholarly strategy that asks, what does an embodiment of threat, indeed, being a threat, do as a possible site of survival and resistance for trans* bodies? I take the toxicity and virality of trans* threat to its theoretical limits to piece together avenues for embodied resistance.

"In drawing from contemporary trans* explorations of posthumanism, nonhumanism, and inhumanism, and critiques of the racial and colonial dimensions of transness and animalities, I re-explore early work on trans* monstrosity to argue for a revisitation of virality and toxicity through a trans* politics that harnesses the endemic. Trans* will forever be threatening; what happens when we take threat as a site of politics to say: 'Yes, we are a fucking threat'?"
Thompson has since made his WordPress site private.
essay excerpt
© Screenshot/mattadamthompson.com
Comments on the paper were decidedly positive. One person identified as Alice said that the piece was "provocative," "poignant, funny and enraging all at once."

Chrissie agreed, saying that it was "insightful and provocative," as well as "really clever." This person also liked the "take on Andrea Chu," an author who is a biological male who identifies as transgender. Chu has previously said: "People transition because they think it will make them feel better. The thing is, this is wrong."
responses
© screenshotResponses
The London School of Economics took down the paper once they were alerted to its content, stating on Twitter that they appreciated it being brought to their attention "This presentation," they wrote, "did not abide by the School's Code of Practice on Free Speech and has been removed from the relevant student conference pages."

After LSE claimed that they were not aware of the paper's content, and had taken it down, Sex Matters, a UK based group that advocates for women's rights, called on the school to
"make an urgent public commitment to commissioning an independent review of these events by a discrimination lawyer" and to publish "the findings and recommendations of that review."
At issue for Sex Matters is more than just Thompson's paper, but the entire programme for the masters course on Sexuality, Gender and Globalisation, which is:
"an interdisciplinary course within which intersectional, black feminist, postcolonial, queer, crip, trans, and critical race perspectives are used to interpret particular sexual phenomena and contexts - rights, citizenship, fertility, representation, kinship, asylum and technology, for example. The course will allow a thorough grounding in sexuality and gender studies and includes a high element of student participation."
They demand that LSE then explain
"the steps the university will take to address its findings so as to ensure that female students and staff, and gender critical students and staff do not encounter a hostile environment across LSE as a whole."

To see the actual article go here.