EXCLUSIVE: UW-La Crosse shells out $5,000 for speech from transgender activist
The University of Wisconsin-La Crosse shelled out $5,000 to a transgender activist for two hours of speaking time.
The activist told students that “true freedom isn’t choosing from pre-selected, societally-accepted options, but writing in your own option for who you are.”
The University of Wisconsin-La Crosse paid $5,000 to a transgender activist for two hours of speaking time.
According to a contract obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request, Campus Reform learned that the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse paid Alok Vaid-Menon — an “internationally acclaimed gender non-conforming writer, performer, and public speaker” — for a talk on February 16 about the activist’s new book Beyond the Binary.
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The book encourages readers to “see gender not in black and white, but in full color.” Vaid-Menon draws upon experience “as a gender-nonconforming artist” to show that “gender is a malleable and creative form of expression.”
“The only limit is your imagination,” says the book’s description.
The contract obtained by Campus Reform states that Vaid-Menon was paid $5,000 to speak for a total of two hours on the evening of February 16. The event included a forty-minute period of questions and answers, as well as a meeting with “Queer and Trans, Black, Indigenous, and other students and staff of color.”
UW-La Crosse shells out $2,500 per hour for speech from trans activist by Campus Reform on Scribd
According to the university’s Pride Center, Vaid-Menon told students that “true freedom isn’t choosing from pre-selected, societally-accepted options, but writing in your own option for who you are.”
“Transness is strength and the trans community is powerful,” he also said.
Months earlier, the University of Wisconsin-Madison paid Robin DiAngelo — the author of bestselling critical race theory book White Fragility — $12,750 for a two-day speaking event.
Campus Reform reached out to the University of Wisconsin La-Crosse for comment; this article will be updated accordingly.
Follow the author of this article on Twitter: @BenZeisloft
