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Kath Murray vs. transgender people

Kath Murray is a Scottish criminologist, sex segregationist, and anti-transgender activist.

Background

Katherine Helen “Kath” Murray was born in February 1970. After attending York Sixth Form College, Murray earned a bachelor’s degree from The Open University in 2009. Murray then attended The University of Edinburgh, earning a master’s degree in 2010 and a doctorate in 2014. From 2014 to 2015, Murray was a Fellow at Scottish Centre for Crime and Justice Research. In 2016 Murray founded Kath Murray Research and Consultancy. Much of Murray’s early work focused on Scottish policing, especially “stop and search” policies.

In November 2018 Murray co-founded Murray Blackburn Mackenzie with Lucy Hunter Blackburn and Lisa Mackenzie. It was incorporated in 2022. A self-published biography on their site states:

Dr Kath Murray has a background in criminology. She completed her PhD in 2014, looking at the disproportionate use of stop and search on young people in Scotland. Her research in this area led to major legal and policy reform in Scotland, for which she received an ESRC Outstanding Early Career Impact prize. Since then she has published extensively, and worked on a range of research projects and commissions. She has also undertaken influential research on the proposed integration of the British Transport Police into Police Scotland, for which was shortlisted for the Herald Higher Education Awards.

Anti-transgender activism

Much of Murray’s work focuses on claims that how transgender people are classed is confounding sex-based crime data. Murray is also critical of policies for accommodating transgender prisoners in sex-segregated facilities.

Murray, Alice Sullivan, and Lisa Mackenzie contributed a chapter titled “Why Do We Need Data on Sex?” to the 2023 anti-tran book Sex and Gender: A Contemporary Reader.

References

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

Wade, Mike (October 10 2023). Edinburgh academics demand ‘Sex and Gender’ book launch is scrapped. The Times https://www.thetimes.com/culture/books/article/edinburgh-academics-demand-sex-and-gender-book-launch-is-scrapped-rwck6wdc0

Murray, James (June 25, 2019) Academic Freedom of Speech and trans rights policies – does one take precedence over the other in universities? Taylor Vinters, 25 June 2019. https://www.taylorvinters.com/article/academic-freedom-of-speech-and-trans-rights-policies-does-one-take-precedence-over-the-other-in-universities [archive]

Fazackerley, Anna (14 Jan 2020). Sacked or silenced: academics say they are blocked from exploring trans issues. The Guardian https://www.theguardian.com/education/2020/jan/14/sacked-silenced-academics-say-they-are-blocked-from-exploring-trans-issues

Spowart, Nan (11th May 2016). Kath Murray, the doctor who exposed scandal, up for award. The National https://www.thenational.scot/news/14903018.kath-murray-the-doctor-who-exposed-scandal-up-for-award/

Selected anti-trans writings by Murray

Murray, Kath (12 September 2024). Police Scotland’s ‘inability to see a problem’ with its gender policy is a hard concept to grasp. Daily Mail https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-13844365/Police-Scotlands-inability-problem-gender-policy-hard-concept-grasp.html

Murray, Kath; Hunter Blackburn, Lucy; Mackenzie, Lisa (19 March, 2024). How trans activists captured the hate crime agenda. The Critic https://thecritic.co.uk/how-trans-activists-captured-the-hate-crime-agenda/

Murray, Kath (27th February 2024). The politicisation of Scottish policing and the risks of gender identity ideology. Policing Insight https://policinginsight.com/feature/opinion/the-politicisation-of-scottish-policing-and-the-risks-of-gender-identity-ideology/

Murray, Kath; Hunter Blackburn, Lucy; Mackenzie, Lisa (11 January, 2024). The revised Scottish Prison Service transgender prisoner policy is not fit for purpose. The Critic https://thecritic.co.uk/the-revised-scottish-prison-service-transgender-prisoner-policy-is-not-fit-for-purpose/

Murray, Kath (February 3, 2023). Isla Bryson: Scotland’s transgender prisoner policy was assessed as not affecting women. The Conversaion https://theconversation.com/isla-bryson-scotlands-transgender-prisoner-policy-was-assessed-as-not-affecting-women-198909

Mackenzie, Lisa (22nd June 2021). “The process is the punishment”: the policing of feminist thought in the workplace. Woman’s Place UK https://womansplaceuk.org/2021/06/22/policing-feminist-thought/

Murray, Kath; Hunter Blackburn, Lucy; Mackenzie, Lisa (November 2020). Women and Equalities Select Committee: Reform of the Gender Recognition Act Submission from MurrayBlackburnMackenzie https://committees.parliament.uk/writtenevidence/17343/pdf/

Murray, Kath (December 10, 2019). Sex, gender identity and academic freedom https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/academicfreedom/author/v1kmurr7/

Murray K, Hunter Blackburn L (2019). Losing sight of women’s rights: The unregulated introduction of Gender Self-Identification as a case study of policy capture In Scotland. Scottish Affairs, 23 (3): 262-289. https://doi.org/10.3366/scot.2019.0284

  • Cowan S, Giles HJ, Hewer R, Kaufmann B, Kenny M, Morris S, Baines KN (2021). Sex and gender equality law and policy: a response to Murray, Hunter Blackburn and Mackenzie. In Scottish Affairs (Vol. 30, Issue 1, pp. 74–95). https://doi.org/10.3366/scot.2020.0347
  • Murray K, Hunter Blackburn L, Mackenzie L (2020). Statement from the authors of ‘Losing sight of women’s rights.’ In Scottish Affairs (Vol. 29, Issue 1, pp. 1–2). Edinburgh University Press. https://doi.org/10.3366/scot.2020.0303
    • “Lisa Mackenzie removed her name from the paper to address a perceived conflict of interest on the part of her then employer.”

Resources

Murray Blackburn Mackenzie (murrayblackburnmackenzie.org)

Scottish Centre for Crime and Justice Research (sccjr.ac.uk)

Sceptical Scot (sceptical.scot)

X/Twitter (x.com)

LinkedIn (linkedin.com)