By Louise Larrew and the Wyoming Young Communist League
The Wyoming Young Communist League strongly opposes the platforming and defending of transphobic speakers such as Riley Gaines on campus, and we condemn The University of Wyoming’s running defense for rampant transphobia under the guise of “free speech”.
Riley Gaines’ visit does not occur within a vacuum, it happens after nearly a year of escalating tension and debate on this campus around a single trans student and a politically motivated campaign against her on the part of local conservative activists and the national conservative media. University administration would have us believe that this is yet another episode in an ongoing public discourse. Turning Point USA wants you to believe they are brave freedom fighters standing up for common sense and decency in the face of an out of touch and radical student body. Both want you to think this is about lofty concepts like freedom of speech, when the real issue at hand is that one “side” is wielding public discourse like a weapon to terrorize and intimidate a small subset of students.
In a statement this September, Ed Seidel said “But feeling uncomfortable or offended — and, in many cases, even feeling unsafe — is not, in and of itself, grounds for stopping speech.” In reality this isn’t about feeling unsafe, it’s about being unsafe. The queer community on campus has faced recurring threats and harassment, and the events of the last year stand as both an example and a threat to any trans or queer student who might catch the wrong kind of attention. This was all brought on by the ability
of a few motivated anti-trans activists to parley their free speech into a far reaching “public debate” on whether or not an individual student belongs. Organizations like Turning Point USA like to traffi c in stories of being suppressed and marginalized for their views, while the whole time being well connected enough to mobilize this level of backlash.
The greatest risk campus conservatives face is, in reality, feeling uncomfortable, offended, and maybe even unsafe. No matter how much certain conservative students might be hated, there is no equivalent threat to them, only the apparently unbearable oppression of being disliked for publicly expressed opinions. No personal insults in national news, no getting harassed by name in the student union, no one coming to speak in a large auditorium about the danger to society posed by straight white conservative college students and their moral depravity. While trans students, activists, and athletes live under constant threat of being the next target, transphobes only have to fear being known for what they are.
This is in truth not about civil debate, or the university as a neutral forum, or about free speech. It’s about a small minority trying to live their lives, and a select few who for whatever reason refuse to let live. Those select few will doubtlessly try to spin any opposition to their event on Tuesday as unfair and violent while they wield their speech like a hammer against the rest of us, whose words are only words. Don’t get it twisted.
