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Alice Sullivan vs. transgender people

Alice Sullivan is a British sociologist and anti-transgender activist. Sullivan is affiliated with the Gender Critical Research Network at Open University and is closely associated with anti-trans group Sex Matters. Sullivan co-edited the 2023 anti-trans book Sex and Gender: A Contemporary Reader with Selina Todd. Sullivan led the 2025 “Sullivan Review,” a document commissioned by the UK government to promote retaining a sex binary in law and policy.

Background

Alice Sullivan earned a bachelor’s degree at Balliol College, Oxford in 1995, then attended Nuffield College Oxford, earning a master’s degree in 1996 and a doctorate in 2000, followed by postdoctoral work there through 2003. In 2003 Sullivan joined the University College London (UCL) Institute of Education, initially as a Research Officer. Sullivan was Director of the 1970 British Cohort Study  at the Centre for Longitudinal Studies (CLS) from 2010 to 2020. In 2020, Sullivan was appointed Head of Research at the UCL Social Research Institute (SRI).

Sullivan gave evidence to the Scottish Parliament on the Scottish Government’s gender reforms.

2025 Sullivan Review

In 2024, the Conservative government commissioned a report designed to reflect their views about sex and gender. Upon publication, Wes Streeting ordered immediate ban on NHS changing children’s gender on medical records.

LGBTQ+ advocacy groups TransActual and the Feminist Gender Equality Network (FGEN) claimed the report was rooted in “factually incorrect assertions about the binary nature of sex and gender”.

Via PinkNews:

Dr Kevin Guyan, a chancellor’s fellow at the University of Edinburgh Business School and a director of the Gender + Sexuality Data Lab, said the review, a “hangover from the former Tory government’s mission to address ‘wokeism in science’”, went against a “fundamental principle” that methodology should change based on “specific questions under investigation”.

He went on to say: “The review’s similarities to what is currently unfolding in the US are stark. [The Department of Science, Technology and Innovation], the UK government, researchers, funders and public bodies need to recognise this Trumpian intervention for what it is: an attempt to erase trans and non-binary people from existing in data.”

References

Belcher, Helen (March 21, 2025). The Sullivan Review Treats Trans People as an Inconvenience Whose Experiences Can Be Dismissed as Invalid.’Byline Times https://bylinetimes.com/2025/03/21/the-sullivan-review-treats-trans-people-as-an-inconvenience-whose-experiences-can-be-dismissed-as-invalid/

Hansford, Amelia (March 21, 2025). Government asked to reject ‘biased’ review by academic with ties to gender-critical group. PinkNews https://www.thepinknews.com/2025/03/21/sullivan-review-sex-matters/

Sex Matters (March 19, 2025). Why the government must act on the Sullivan Review and fix the sex data problem urgently. https://sex-matters.org/posts/updates/why-the-government-must-act-on-the-sullivan-review/

Walker, Peter (March 20, 2025). UK data recording of biological sex causing potential risks, report finds. The Guardian https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025/mar/20/uk-data-recording-biological-sex-gender-identity-report

Aoife Walsh & Euan O’Byrne Mulligan (March 20, 2025). Public data should not conflate sex and gender, review says. BBC News https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cvge4jyz9dyo

Grive, Jack (March 19, 2025). ‘Widespread loss’ of sex data in gender question confusion. Times Higher Education https://www.timeshighereducation.com/news/widespread-loss-sex-data-gender-question-confusion

Scott, Geraldine (March 19 2025,). Biological sex erased from official data on health, crime and education. The Times https://www.thetimes.com/uk/politics/article/sex-gender-review-alice-sullivan-25rgbk8vj

Sullivan, Alice; Todd, Selina [Eds.] (2023). Sex and Gender: A Contemporary Reader. Taylor & Francis, ISBN 9781032261195

Sullivan, Alice (19 March 2025). Review of data, statistics and research on sex and gender: executive summary. https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/independent-review-of-data-statistics-and-research-on-sex-and-gender/review-of-data-statistics-and-research-on-sex-and-gender-executive-summary

Resources

Professor Alice Sullivan (profalices.co.uk)

UCL (profiles.ucl.ac.uk)

X/Twitter (x.com)