Professor of Political Philosophy at the University of Cambridge
On 23rd September 2020 I gave evidence to the Women & Equalities Select Committee Inquiry “Changing the Perfect Picture: an Inquiry into Body Image” on behalf of the Nuffield Council on Bioethics. You can view a recording of the evidence session here, and read a transcript here.
My evidence to the Committee was quoted on the Talk Radio news bulletin that night and in a written article in Yahoo News.
I talked about Against Marriage at the Cambridge Festival of Ideas on Monday 15th October 2018, in the Frankopan Hall of Jesus College, Cambridge.
Many states have recently expanded their definition of marriage to allow marriage between same-sex couples: a welcome move towards equality, but does this go far enough? Philosopher Clare Chambers argues for a more extreme position: that the state should not recognise marriage at all. State recognition of marriage, she will argue, is a violation of both equality and liberty – no matter how marriage is redefined.
Tickets were sold out and so the talk was live-streamed. You can watch it on youtube here:
Marriage is an odd mix of sex, religion, and politics. Our speakers ask what marriage is and whether there is there any distinctive moral value in it. Should the state promote it? Is it possible to have an ‘equal’ marriage, or is marriage fundamentally an oppressive institution? Should marriage be rejected in favour of civil partnerships, or something else, or perhaps nothing else?
You can watch a video of the event and listen to the podcast here.
Speakers
Clare Chambers
Senior Lecturer in Philosophy, University of Cambridge
Sir Paul Coleridge
Former high court judge and Chairman, The Marriage Foundation
Peter Tatchell
Activist and Director of the Peter Tatchell Foundation
Chair
Fellow, The Forum
Senior Lecturer in Philosophy, King’s College London
I appeared in a live panel discussion of the Hutton Inquiry into the Iraq war on “Sunday with Adam Boulton” on Sky News, 7 September 2003 with Adam Boulton, Michael Ignatieff and Michael Cockerell.
Can your employer demand that you go to work naked? In this short 
