As anti-transgender rhetoric increases across the country, University of Pittsburgh LGBTQ+ students and staff are protesting events they say make them feel unsafe on campus – both physically and emotionally.
Two conservative student groups are hosting speakers who have condemned transgender people.
Pittsburgh-based Trans YOUnitingis organizing a rally ahead of Monday’s speaker, Riley Gaines. The former collegiate swimmerhas condemned transgender women competing in women’s sports. Protest organizers say they are holding the university accountable, “for allowing hate on its campus.”
“The university must serve the neighborhoods it owes its existence to by protecting and making amends to trans and other marginalized communities,” Trans YOUniting organizers said in an Instagram post for the rally.
Then on April 18, Pitt student group College Republicans is holding a debate on “transgenderism and womanhood.” They’ve invited Michael Knowles, a commentator for conservative online news site The Daily Wire, who recently said at the Conservative Political Action Conference that, “transgenderism must be eradicated from public life entirely – the whole preposterous ideology.” They’ve also invited Dierdre McCloskey, a professor and transgender activist.
While students and faculty have urged the university to cancel events, legal experts caution against that move.
The ACLU of Pennsylvania, for example, says that Pitt could face legal liability if they tried to cancel the events.
“The ACLU is committed to ensuring that transgender people can live in our society with dignity, respect, and peace. As a public university, Pitt is also subject to the First Amendment and can't discriminate against speakers, even if the expression is despicable,” said Sara Rose, deputy legal director for the ACLU of Pennsylvania.
“Of course, those free speech rights also apply to everyone who rejects the views of the transphobic speakers,” she said. “The best way to counter their views is to organize, show up, and speak out.”
That’s what hundreds did on Friday ahead of one of the events – a talk with The Daily Wire writer Cabot Phillips, which was advertised as “Everything the media won’t tell you.”
Hundreds stood outside of the Cathedral of Learning chanting: “When trans lives are under attack, what do we do? Stand up, fight back.” Pitt grad student Pat Healy read testimonies from trans students who didn’t feel like they could speak in public. They read an account from one student who said they finally felt safe being themselves at Pitt, but that allowing anti-trans speakers on campus threatens that.
“I want to live my life in peace. I never asked for any of this. I never chose to be trans and I never chose to live in this world. Please make it just a little easier for us to exist,” they read.
In a statement on its Instagram account, the president of the Pitt chapter of Turning Point USA – which is hosting Monday’s speaking event – thanked the university for protecting free speech rights. The statement called free speech, “a two-way street.”
“We invite members of the Pitt community who disagree with us to attend our events and hear an opposing viewpoint,” the statement reads. “A college campus should be a place where different ideas can be challenged and talked about civilly, even if you are from the opposing viewpoint.”
In a statement earlier this month, Pitt administrators said – while the events are “toxic and hurtful for many people in our university community” – it permits student organizations to bring speakers to campus without university administration, “deciding what is acceptable and what is not.”
University values
Outside of protesting the events, students can participate in what Duquesne Law professor Bruce Ledewitz calls the venerated American tradition of heckling speakers.
“The idea is not to actually shut down the speaker, but to make your point,” he said.
Then there’s the third option of making a case that the person coming to campus is outside of the bounds of civilized discussion.
That’s the case that theauthors of a petition with more than 11,000 signatures are making. They say that the language Knowles used at CPAC, “directly threatens violence against trans individuals.”
The petition quotes the University’s strategic plan ‘Plan for Pitt’ which states it is, “committed to supporting and sustaining an inclusive and equitable campus environment — one that welcomes, values and embraces the diverse perspectives of community members of all sexual orientation, gender identities, and gender expressions.”
“With that in mind, it is unacceptable and against the values of this University to allow groups under its administration and on its behalf to host events featuring individuals who wish to advance a platform of hate and transphobia and make our beloved institution an accomplice to the trending attacks that place trans bodies and humanity in the middle of a culture war fabricated entirely for political gain,” the petition states.
But as lawyers like those with the ACLU of Pennsylvania say, restricting free speech of student groups could set a precedent to restrict speech for the groups protesting.
As University of Pennsylvania professor Sigal Ben-Porath notes in her new book, “Cancel Wars: how universities can foster free speech, promote inclusion, and renew democracy,” higher education institutions are in the position to rebuild civil dialogue.
She doesn’t think that Pitt should cancel events organized by student clubs. While it has the ultimate responsibility of keeping students safe from harassment and violence, she said there are other ways the university can support students without limiting student-run events.
“It doesn’t mean that the university doesn’t have the power to organize its own events. Of course it does. It has graduation and other university or campus-wide events that it’s organizing. That’s where it can communicate who the university is endorsing as an institution,” Ben-Porath said.
