A conservative political organization’s scheduled talk at the University of the Pacific about transgender issues has riled the LGBTQ+ community, eliciting calls for the event’s cancellation.
Turning Point USA — a conservative youth activist organization led by Charlie Kirk — is sponsoring the March 19 event titled “The Truth About Transgenderism” at the Stockton campus. In an Instagram post, the group’s Sierra Chapter says a pastor, Junsun Yoo, “will shed light on the truth about transgenderism and other LGBT-related topics.”
The planned event has outraged many in the LGBTQ community. A Change.org petition seeking to stop the talk calls it a “transphobic event” that “has no home at Pacific.”
“Pacific prides itself on fostering an inclusive environment for all students, faculty, staff, and community members,” states the petition, which had gathered more than 2,000 signatures as of Tuesday. “This event does not align with one of Pacific’s ‘Six Core Values,’ which is Diversity and Inclusion.”
The San Joaquin Pride Center, a Stockton-based organization serving and supporting LGBTQ+ people, also registered its opposition to the event, which it labeled an attack.
“This is not about free speech or open debate — trans and nonbinary identities are not up for discussion,” the center wrote in its own Instagram post.
Cristopher Bunnell, the center’s director of administration and development, said he has been collaborating with the university’s Center for Identity and Inclusion to air concerns through “town hall” sessions.
“We stand firm in our belief that events promoting harmful rhetoric and misinformation pose significant risks, including the potential to incite violence and hate speech,” Bunnell said in an email to Stocktonia. “While we support free speech, it must not come at the expense of student safety, or the university’s responsibility to uphold an inclusive learning environment.”
Stocktonia reached out for comment to Turning Point USA and the author of the petition and did not receive a response.
A UOP campus spokesperson referred to an official statement concerning opposition to the event. The memo notes that the gathering is sponsored by a student organization, not the university itself.
“We understand that this event will be upsetting for many within our community,” university officials said in the statement. “We take our community’s concerns seriously and are working closely with campus partners to ensure that all appropriate measures are in place to uphold our standards for respectful dialogue.”
The university says it upholds freedom of expression, even speech with which it disagrees. Student organizations are welcome to invite speakers to campus — “even when the speakers espouse views that are antithetical to many of our understandings of how to best honor human dignity.”
The campus’ Center for Identity and Inclusion plans to host its annual LGBTQ+ summit, “There’s More To Us: Centering Trans Narratives, Empowerment & Liberation,” during the same time as the Turning Point USA event. The conference, slated for 4-8 p.m. March 19 at the McCaffrey Center, will run opposite Turning Point’s meeting at 6:30 p.m. at the nearby Janet Leigh Theatre.
Organizers say the summit will offer a space for students, staff and faculty “to deepen their understanding of trans and queer experiences while combatting anti-trans rhetoric.”
This isn’t the first time a Turning Point USA event has put pressure on a university.
An event called “Protect Women from Men: The Threat of the Trans Agenda” was canceled at the University of Washington in January after an outcry, according to reports from the campus student news organization, The Daily.
Protests were led by Students for a Democratic Society, a radical student group that came to fame during the Vietnam War. The cancellation was also prompted by a fire alarm that forced the evacuation of the hall where the event was to be held. There was no fire.
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