As the University of Wisconsin campus prepares to host Matt Walsh, a right-wing political commentator, members of the LGBTQ+ and gender-nonconforming communities on campus have expressed feelings of hurt and concern.
Recent targeted incidents toward the groups have exacerbated these emotions.
Upon arriving at Sterling Hall Monday, Oct. 10, MA student and TA for the Gender & Women’s Studies Department Jesikah Leeper found the Gender and Women’s Studies floor covered in posters for the Walsh event.
When Leeper first arrived, she only saw a couple of posters and said she was “annoyed but not surprised.” But upon further investigation, she found that every bulletin board and chalkboard in the hallway had been covered. While Leeper did not count the exact number of posters she took down, she estimated it was at least 40.
Leeper found only one or two event posters in the other departments in Sterling.
During his visit to campus, Matt Walsh will discuss his controversial film “What is a Woman,” in which he questions the movement to redefine gender roles by asking people the question “what is a woman?” Walsh’s film purports that transgender people pose a threat to children, society and femininity. But critics call the film transphobic and homophobic. Young Americans for Freedom, a conservative youth activism organization, invited Walsh to campus.
According to Leeper, there is a lot of hurt, anger and exhaustion among the TA students in the department.
“Any credibility that the University had in an academic commitment to providing speakers of diverse opinions is lost in the wake of Monday’s targeted act of hate speech,” Leeper said. “The YAF has now, with this action, made it abundantly clear that their goal with bringing Walsh to campus is to intimidate and endanger the trans and gender-nonconforming community.”
Leeper filed a bias incident report to the Dean of Students Office. The report asked the school to take the incident seriously as a targeted act of hate speech and revoke YAF’s permission to use the Great Hall for their event. There has not been any follow-up to the report at this time.
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A student in the Gender & Women’s Studies department, who wished to remain anonymous due to privacy and safety concerns, said that more than anything, they were concerned for the safety and well-being of the trans, nonbinary and GNC community on campus.
“We were already upset about Walsh — with an explicitly anti-trans project — coming to campus,” the student said. “And to me, the event organizers bringing their hate directly to this space just furthers my concern over the whole event, and the university’s ongoing lack of care for its marginalized students.”
YAF, the group that invited Walsh to campus, was founded in 1960. According to their website, YAF advocates for “free market principles, constitutional rights, a strong national defense, and individual liberty and responsibility.” Past YAF events on campus have included talks by Texas senator Ted Cruz.
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Walsh has continually sparked controversy by making divisive comments. For example, Walsh spoke in favor of teen pregnancy and most recently, called the casting of a Black actress in Disney’s “The Little Mermaid” “scientifically inaccurate.” Walsh later said this was a joke.
Walsh has made visits to other universities, too. His recent visit to Middle Tennessee State University caused protests from students in political and pride groups. Walsh is set to speak Monday, Oct. 24, at Memorial Union.
The GWS student said they are concerned for the wellbeing of the marginalized students on UW’s campus.
“I personally don’t think that it is appropriate for an educational institution to offer platforms to speakers like Walsh who would instigate harm to trans and GNC folks,” the GWS student said. “It’s really hard for me to understand how Walsh’s comments on trans lives could be understood as anything but hate speech.”
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Early Thursday morning, Leeper and other members of the GWS department found their hallway had been targeted. The majority of their notices had been torn down — some were temporary notices about upcoming events, but many of them were permanent notices about the department.
In response to the upcoming event, the Gender and Sexuality Campus Center is offering space for folks to be in community on the day Walsh comes to campus.
“We recognized the impact and thought to offer space that would counteract erasure, isolation, and ostracization; in turn, we crafted space for students to cultivate belonging and encounter affirming narratives,” Warren Scherer said in an email statement to The Badger Herald.
GSCC will hold a daylong engagement at the GSCC from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. and in Union South from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m.
