Pro-transgenderism activists at University of Louisiana triggered by event featuring detransitioner

Pro-transgenderism activists were recently outraged by an event at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette that addressed the threat of irreversible transgender “treatments” for minors. 

The event, which was organized by the school’s chapter of the conservative group Turning Point USA, was titled “The Dangers of Transgender Ideology” and took place on Monday.

The event featured the detransitioner Chloe Cole, who spoke about the lifelong damage that so-called “gender-affirming treatments” and surgeries inflict on children. 

[RELATED: Protesters halt detransitioner documentary screening at University of Utah]

Cole began to “transition” when she was young, taking cross sex hormones and undergoing a double mastectomy, before deciding to stop. She now “speaks with firsthand authority on the deeply traumatic effects experienced by minors undergoing such treatments,” according to Young America’s Foundation. 

Cole’s appearance triggered pro-gender ideology protesters, around 100 of whom demonstrated at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette against her appearance. “We don’t think it’s correct morally or technically for such hate speech to be allowed on UL’s campus,” said Malek Richard, one of the activists, according to The Advocate.

Richard also added: “Free speech is free speech, but when free speech infringes on other people’s rights to exist peacefully, especially on a college campus, I’m not a fan of it.”

“We will not play nice, we are fighting for our lives,” other protesters yelled out, according to KATC 3. 

The event drew opposition from some faculty as well. Karen Smith, a biology professor at the school, said: “As a parent of a transgender child, I need to speak out now and I don’t think that one detransitioner should have more rights to say over my child’s healthcare than I or their doctor does,” KATC 3 reported. 

Turning Point USA hired the services of several police officers to guarantee the safety of the speaker and attendees, according to KATC 3. 

A University of Louisiana at Lafeyette official told Campus Reform: “UL Lafayette is a public institution and is committed to the free, safe and lawful expression of ideas. Open dialogue is fundamental to the University’s academic mission and its role in advancing the public interest. UL Lafayette’s Campus Free Speech Policy governs the time, place and manner for such discussions and is designed to ensure that events that involve the free exchange of ideas are orderly, safe and respectful.”

Other colleges and universities have also seen vehement opposition by pro-transgenderism advocates to any events discussing the dangers of irreversible “transition” surgery and hormones. 

[RELATED: Columbia offers ‘Trans History’ of US by instructor who researched ‘Radical Faeries’]

Berklee College of Music in Boston, for example, canceled an Oct. 20 event titled “Born in the Right Body: desister and detransitioner awareness.” The event was set to feature Simon Amaya Price, someone who “[o]nce identified as trans [but] now is committed to advocating for social, legal, and medical change, to prevent ongoing medical malpractice in the treatment of gender dysphoria.”

Price became the target of overwhelming harassment and threats online after he tried to raise awareness about his planned appearance at Berklee, leading to the school administration eventually canceling his talk, a decision that Price characterized as a “violation of my academic freedom.”