2022 in Review: Matt Walsh's 'What is Woman?' Saga

Pro-transgender ideology activists protested Walsh and his film, which challenges gender theory narratives.

Daily Wire host Matt Walsh released his film What is a Woman? earlier this year. The movie caused a sensation and proved controversial on campus. 

Pro-transgender ideology activists protested Walsh and his film, which challenges gender theory narratives. 

Below is a recap of this year’s saga. 


1. EXCLUSIVE: Injured student assaulted during Matt Walsh event

Walsh made a tour stop on Oct. 24 at the University of Wisconsin-Madison where Young Americans for Freedom member, Lane Whitten, was assaulted and threatened by protesters. 

As Whitten was recording the protest an unidentified man hit his left hand leading to his phone going flying into the mob. 

Whitten went to retrieve his phone while protesters pushed, shoved, and yelled threats such as, “I will beat the f**k out of you!”


2. Students rail against Matt Walsh speech at Illinois campus

The Campus Union for Trans Equality and Support at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign protested Walsh’s tour with singing, chants, trans flags and posters. 

Prior to the event flyers advertising the What is a Woman? tour were torn down in an attempt to prevent students from attending. 350 students attended the tour and 400 students were turned away due to max capacity. 


3. Matt Walsh campus appearance met with left-wing protesters

Student protesters at the University of Central Florida made obscene gestures to attendees of the tour as well as called them “fascists,” Nazis” and “pedophiles.” Protesters held “no-hate” and pride flags.


4. Protestors rage at Matt Walsh campus appearance in Texas

Antifa protested Walsh’s tour stop at the University of Houston. Prior to the event, a petition of 146 signatures pressured the university to cancel the event. One protester was arrested while another ran through a barricade and got tackled. 


5. University president condemns TPUSA chapter for showing conservative film

Central Connecticut State University’s (CCSU) chapter of Turning Point USA was recently called out in an email from the university’s president for a watch party it hosted showing Matt Walsh’s documentary What Is a Woman?

In the November 16 email obtained by Campus Reform, President Zulma Toro said that “CCSU does not support the transphobic rhetoric espoused in the film.” 

She also included her personal assessment of the film, labeling it as “odious.”