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Maeve Halligan on trans activism, free speech and campus censorship

The Free Speech Union

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The Free Speech Union's Connie Shaw is joined by her friend and fellow activist Maeve Halligan.

They met through free speech, gender critical networks in London while undergraduates at different universities. At university, both found themselves at odds with a woke orthodoxy which seemed particularly popular among female students.

When Maeve Halligan spoke against trans activism at a Cambridge Union debate in summer 2026, her speech went viral. It was a spectacular finale to her year as founder president of the Cambridge University Society of Women (CUSW). Maeve explains why, even though she lost the vote at the debate, she hasn't given up hope of winning over young women.

00:00 - Introduction & Maeve’s viral Cambridge Union speech
01:15 - Navigating gender-critical beliefs as a young student
06:16 - Language, Orwell, and semantic inflation
10:32 - Living a "double life" between university and free speech circles
14:02 - The Leeds University stall and facing campus protests
18:57 - The Cambridge Union debate experience
25:00 - Founding the Cambridge University Society of Women
38:32 - Ideological trends among Gen Z and remaining hopeful

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20 Comments

@nnnkkk1312 1 day ago

As a young girl, I’m very lonely with my views. I’m very glad that there are girls like them! Thank you!!

@BJ12121 1 day ago

Fabulous to see Connie and Maeve together discussing their experience as young women finding their powerful voice and freedom of expression.

Thank you for your work ❤

@qbobcode1823 1 day ago

It is comforting to see, that there are in fact, some young people who refuse to go along with the current gender madness. Maeve's Union speech was one of the best myth busting and coherent presentations on the subject that I have personally ever seen. This gives me hope that the tide is finally turning back to common sense and that the culture of character assassination as a counter argument is rapidly running out of steam and credibility.

Great work!

@andychips 1 day ago

Two women with a devastating combination of maturity, common sense and eloquence.

@TheoZoffrok 10 hours ago

Just brilliant. You two are reason to hope that reason isn't completely lost.

@eb3222 1 day ago

Thank you so much, you brave and intelligent ladies! ❤❤

@janebennetto5655 18 hours ago

Oh you Ladies give me so much hope. Thank you both. ❤️🇬🇧❌❌

@phoeberichards1356 23 hours ago

You are both absolutely incredible, I have so much admiration. You have been so influential for so many young girls (myself included) who are afraid to voice their opinions. I really resonate with the feeling of being able to breathe when you finally find people you can have discussions with. I'm a year into uni now and NO ONE I have met has been willing to have this discussion. People are too afraid of cancel culture to even broach it. The uni itself is poisoned - all the womens societies are for w*men and lectures about EHRC guidance get shut down. I've felt completely isolated until recently and it was only when I noticed that a friend of mine had liked one of Maeve's reels that I realised I wasn't utterly alone and reached out to her about it. It's ludicrous that I have to surreptitiously send someone a reel behind a screen to spark discourse. Thank you so much for everything you're doing.

@kdog3908 1 day ago

It's all too easy to fall into the ennui that comes as a result of relentless 'black pilling' but with such impressive young people willing to hold the line and push back, it does provide a glimmer of a promise of something better.
Thank you ladies!

@guitaraflamenco 1 day ago

You two are groundbreaking.

@honeywhite1 1 day ago

I absolutely adore the both of you. So clever & brave.
Thank you ❤.

@cactus1234-k4z 13 hours ago

I still can't grasp the fact that people are openly lying about men being women. And the violence directed at women. Very few men are targeted the way sex resist women are routinely targeted. And the police? Have they arrested anyone who was actively inviting the murder of women.

@thelifeandtimesofjames4273 1 day ago

What a shame that one of these amazing individuals felt they had to curtail their own speech whilst at university. Devastatingly casual in this discussion.

@gingercat68 1 day ago

Two fantastic women.

@ttttiiimmy10bit 1 day ago

16:24 This mob mentality she's talking about is EVERYWHERE on the left and it drives me crazy. These people who cannot think for themselves think its OK to be very aggro and disgusting to people who have different beliefs. The fact that they all do the same thing tells me that they have been instructed on how to do it and disrupt and scare people. Utterly disgusting people imo.

@rebeccadeighton4298 12 hours ago

Amazing things are ahead for this brave and incredibly intelligent articulate young woman, in fact both of you. Wishing you both nothing but good things