During the lecture, Walsh espoused plenty of hate speech and misinformation towards transgender and queer people, which included intentionally deadnaming people, denying the existence of trans people, and calling for an end to the “dangerous transgender ideology”, amassing cheers while doing so. This was along with an uptick in expressions of anti-trans sentiments online and from people in the university in the weeks leading up to the event. 

This is what led to everyone gathering in that intersection. The protesters wanted to exhibit their anger and show that they weren’t going to stand for an event like this. Whether the individuals were there to protect themselves or their friends and family, they wanted to be heard. From this position, they could show these sentiments to all those who attended the lecture and now had their path blocked, along with those in power at the university, and the Iowa City community in general. They wanted to make sure that their frustrations were heard, and that an event like this that platformed transphobia would never happen in their community again. 

Students protesting outside the IMU after Matt Walsh’s lecture. Image via John Glab

Recently, on a mid-October evening, a nearly identical scene was reflected in the dusk air. This time, after blocking the entrances to the IMU, the group of protesters formed a blockade at the intersection, with individuals continuously circling the cross walk. The reasoning for this demonstration was nearly identical. The IMU hosted another speaker to espouse transphobic rhetoric and misinformation. Here, Chloe Cole, a teenaged detransitioner, was brought in to speak in what was not as large of an affair. She does not have as big of a name as Walsh’s, and her overall viewpoints aren’t as staunchly transphobic. Often it seems like she is being paraded around by other powerful conservative figureheads, where they are manipulating her to advance their anti-trans objectives. 

Despite this, her speech and presence though were still harmful. Her main talking point that audience members rallied around was her opposition to providing gender affirming care for trans people under the age of 18. Many highlight the importance of having this form of medical care to be available to everyone, citing people’s personal experiences of feeling more comfortable in their bodies, and improving their mental health. This was still another attack on Iowa City’s transgender and queer community. Going through the same things again six months later, their anger here was even more palpable, because after they demanded that something like this would never happen again, it happened again.  

With the content of these lectures, it is undeniable that they cross over into the realm of hate speech. This encourages equally hateful actions towards the group of people it is targeting. That is the whole point behind why someone would say hateful sentiments. They do it to convince others to adopt these ideals, and then carry them out in their daily lives. This of course spells danger for the transgender community that these lectures have targeted, where trans individuals experience more harassment, and potentially exposes them to violent acts. 

So, why did another one of these lectures happen again? If it was just an open platform for people to spout hate speech, and so much of the student body was against it, why would another event like this happen again? To answer that we can look at the student organization hosting both events, the University of Iowa chapter of the Young Americans for Freedom. As a student organization, the YAF has the ability to apply for a space within the IMU to host an event. The process of inviting a guest speaker, even if they are there to discuss political topics and motives, is also permitted. Inviting a guest speaker adds more steps to the planning process with university guidelines requiring that an application for the speaker be sent through for review. The process for Cole’s lecture took about three months’ worth of planning.  

Cole’s lecture. Image via KGAN

Since these events are so problematic, why wouldn’t the university deny them? The main claim that is used is the commitment to free speech principles. As a public institution, the University of Iowa is legally required to allow any student organization, with any political belief to have a platform to speak. Allowing the YAF to host an event that expresses the organization’s thoughts and opinions on certain topics does uphold free speech. There is also a clause in the guidelines that requires an open question and answer section during a hosted lecture if the speaker is deemed controversial. This requirement was strategically worked around. In Walsh’s Q&A section, anyone with a dissenting viewpoint was booed profusely so that they could never get out any of their points. During Cole’s Q&A section, the question that one of our reporters had wanted to ask was turned down by Cole’s team. This outrightly defies the free speech principles that give this event any credibility to exist.  

Recently, about a month after the protest, Iowa City and campus police arrested six protesters who were involved in the protest of Cole’s lecture on serious misdemeanors for the obstruction of official acts. They were identified through video surveillance, and photos taken on the day of the protest. All six protesters were of trans identity. Even though there were many other cisgender protesters there doing the same thing, and the worst offense committed was encouraging others to block people from entering the IMU, these six were specifically arrested. This reads clearly as an attempt by city and campus officials to silence those among the transgender community. Making these arrests strives to strike fear in anyone else who would come out and protest another event like this. It tries to deny those of their right to protest, which goes against their free speech principles.  

With these examples, there seems to be a double standard in how the university handles free speech. Here, protecting free speech principles doesn’t seem to be the main priority of the university for allowing these lectures to be hosted. As with most things, their main priority seems to be money. We at KRUI spoke with a lobbyist, who asked to remain anonymous, that operates within the Iowa government, and University of Iowa. They gave us a rundown of how the YAF is able to host these events, and the money involved with them. 

The YAF, and most right-wing student organizations on campus, all operate in a similar way. The YAF at the University of Iowa itself is just a chapter of the larger national Young Americans for Freedom organization, which acts as an interest group. The organization states its goal is to help promote conservativism. The national organization itself receives money through donations from various wealthy individuals, foundations, and corporations. The YAF does not disclose these donations, but many have been recorded to include several million dollars going to the organization at a time. The national organization then distributes the funds procured from donations to its various member chapters in universities across the county to carry out its goal of promoting conservative goals university campuses.

Police clashing with protesters during Cole’s Lecture. Image via John Glab

The YAF has realized that the best way to make an impact on campus is by being provocative. This is why they invite controversial speakers to come to campus, claiming that it’s in the name of free speech. They do this whether or not they actually fully agree with what those speakers have to say. The YAF fans these flames of outrage to burn as strong as possible. Specifically for the Cole lecture, the YAF brought on Iowa City and campus police from the beginning of organizing the event. They knew that people would protest the event, and if the police were there at the protest, it would raise tensions even further and escalate things.  

Their goal was to create a sensationalist atmosphere, and further polarize the community. Part of it is them wanting to fabricate and push a narrative that conservatives are an oppressed group on university campuses. They take these images of people protesting their event and police clashing to post on social media to further this narrative. Through lobbyists like the one we talked to, the YAF goes to their constituents in Republican, right-wing state representatives. They make the argument to them that the “woke” University of Iowa is not sufficiently protecting the free speech of its right-wing students, hence discriminating against them in favoring more progressive, pro-LGBT views. 

From here, the YAF can rely on these right-wing state representatives to pressure the University of Iowa to allow these events to happen, and to quell the backlash that occurs as a result of the transphobic lectures. The state representatives exert pressure through the state budget, which is voted on every year, and includes how much the University of Iowa receives in state appropriations. Since it is a public university, it is heavily dependent on state spending accrued from taxes to continue to operate year after year.  

Graph via the University of Iowa

Looking at the university’s general education fund, which doesn’t include income sources from non-educational services the university carries out like athletic games and school stores, it brought in $218 million in the 2023-24 fiscal year from state appropriations. This makes up 27% of that budget, an extremely significant amount of that is decided by people in the government. What legislators want is for the university to favor groups like the YAF, so they can push these transphobic and homophobic narratives.  

The University of Iowa is compelled to appease the opinions of these right-wing state legislators, or they would risk losing this major source of funding. This also explains why there were so many Republican state representatives at the Chloe Cole lecture. Specifically at that event, we at KRUI talked with, and got the names of representatives Dean Fisher, Mark Cisneros, and Brad Sherman, all of whom are Republican. Many of these representatives’ stances are staunchly against transgender people, which falls under Governor Reynolds’ administration’s ideals. Fisher, when asked by one of our staff members about his stance on gender affirming care, and if he would propose legislation related to the issue responded, “Your questions reflect the fact that you are very biased, and have little understanding of the issue. Apparently, you didn’t listen to Chloe’s speech.”  

These are some of the representatives who have control over the University of Iowa’s funding. The university would not function without this money, and while state legislators would never outrightly take it all away, they could very easily cut back on it. Yet, the university uses up all of its monetary resources, so it can function to its greatest ability. A reduction in funding would mean a reduction in the quality of education that its students are receiving.

Image via Casper Bakker

State legislators are manipulating the University of Iowa with their own funding. It is in each community in the state’s best interest that this money goes to the university, so it can provide an education for its residents. However, this money comes with strings attached. Strings that can be pulled by those in power. This comes as over the past year, many laws have been put in place that attack the trans and LGBT communities.  

These anti-trans bills include Senate Files 482 and 538, which ban trans youth from using the bathroom that corresponds with their gender, and prohibit gender affirming care for those under the age of 18. There is also Senate File 496, which has banned many books from public school libraries that mention and discuss have LGBT related themes, and forbids teachers from bringing up these topics in teachings. These laws look to silence and undermine these people by erasing any recognition of LGBT people in the Iowa school systems. 

Most recently, the Board of Regents set policies that encouraged rolling back diversity equity and inclusion policies for the universities it oversees. Regent David Barker cited concerns over the rapid growth of DEI programs as a reason to look into them, saying, “any bureaucracy that grows rapidly needs a close look from time to time.” This puts DEI programs, institutions that expand students’ worldview, and provide support for minority and marginalized people, in jeopardy. Many argue that this is a further attempt to continue to restrict diverse viewpoints within education systems in the state of Iowa. 

The motivations of the Board of Regents are perhaps very similar to those of state legislators. The Board of Regents oversees the operation of the public universities within Iowa: The University of Northern Iowa, Iowa State University, and the University of Iowa. They decide things like the cost of tuition, budgets and operational guidelines. The board consists of nine members from varying backgrounds, where one of them is required to be a recent student member. Thes members are all appointed by the governor, and then confirmed by the Iowa Senate. A stipulation of the board is that no more than five members can be of the same political party affiliation.  

Of these members, only one, Nancy Dunkel, is affiliated as a Democrat. Four of them, Sherry Bates, Jim Lindenmayer, JC Risewick, and Abby Crow are registered as independents. The remaining four, Michael Richards, Greta Rouse, David Barker, and Robert Cramer are all affiliated as Republican. However, this doesn’t mean that views are evenly split. Though registered among the Board of Regents with no party affiliation, recently appointed JC Risewick has donated thousands of dollars to Kim Reynolds’ election campaigns. Along with this, regent Rouse worked as Reynolds’ communications director, and Barker was appointed by Reynolds to the Executive Council of the Empower Rural Iowa Initiative.  

Protesters marching after Cole’s lecture. Image via Casper Bakker

This not only gives the Board of Regents a Republican majority, but also gives a position to several members who will make decisions according to Reynolds’ interests. Those interests as of recently have been to violate the lives of, and deny the right to exist for transgender people. What we have seen is an increase of these bigoted policies seeping more and more into the daily lives of people through educational institutions. The Iowa government has been flexing its power over these educational institutions, like the University of Iowa, so they follow suit with their transphobic incentives 

So far, the University of Iowa hasn’t tried to fight back, but they have a very limited range to do so with state representatives controlling their funding. This limits the University of Iowa’s ability to provide a safe and tolerant environment for all its students, and the people in the greater community that it fosters. With this manipulation of governmental power, the University of Iowa will continue to degrade as an open and welcoming space for all. This bigotry that is corrupting university policies and attacking the transgender community within its campus is actively putting these people in danger. 

This article was written with aid from John Glab, and field work from Amman Hassan.

The post The Uses of Money and Power That Goes Into Anti-Trans Lectures On Campus appeared first on KRUI Radio.

Walsh’s presence at the University of Iowa comes at a time when the transgender community in Iowa City has seen repeated attacks on their own existence. Most notable concerns come from Iowa Senate Files 482 and 538. File 482 bans transgender students from entering bathrooms that correspond to their gender identities, while File 538 bans transgender youth from receiving gender affirming care. Along with this, anti-transgender sentiment in the nation has been brought to the forefront. Examples include outrage over transgender social media personalities and blaming the transgender community for a Tennessee school shooting.  

YAF vice chairman John Piaszynski in an interview stated the YAF wanted to create a discussion on the transgender community, stating they wanted to provide an alternate viewpoint on campus, marking it as an opportunity for debate. Some of the issues they wanted to discuss were related to athletics and allowing gender affirming care to children under eighteen. He also mentioned how the organization has been attacked with things like their posters being ripped down, and chalk writings being ruined. In a leaked YAF group chat discussing the chalk writings, a group member used a slur to refer to transgender people.  

A protest formed at Hubbard Park just outside the Iowa Memorial Union, where protesters voiced their anger and distress over a figure like Matt Walsh coming to the University of Iowa. Expressing their frustration, they yelled out chants to those waiting in line to see Walsh speak. Upon speaking with some of the protesters, many expressed how the hniversity holding this event felt like an attack on them or their friend’s existence.  

Image via Wilhelmina Pudol

A transgender protester I interviewed said they were “Disappointed to see so many Iowans come out to see a figure who preaches the destruction of our people.” They went on to say this event bolsters a lot of misinformation around transgender people and inspires hate, which makes many people feel unsafe. They also debunked Walsh’s claim of “child mutilation” in the transgender community, making the point that no doctor would give gender reassigning surgery to someone under eighteen. They said that denying transgender children of hormonal and other treatments to better identify with their body is itself a form of mutilation.  

Many of the people waiting in line denied an opportunity to speak. Dalton, one of those who did speak, said that he was fully in support of the event. He stated while he didn’t hate transgender people, he did oppose what he called the ideology of “transgenderism,” a derogatory term, stating that he thought it was dangerous, and hoped that they could be helped to live more normal lives. 

Another person waiting in line had said that while they do like to watch Matt Walsh’s content, they came hoping for some level of debate. They had wanted to hear the thoughts of both sides, and hoped to have their feelings defined more so they could empathize better.  

Walsh’s speech began shortly after 7:00 pm with a few opening remarks from YAF Chairwoman Jasmyn Jordan. She touted scary proclamations that the event was a “Stand against the dark reaches of the transgender movement,” and a call to “End child mutilation.” Soon after, Walsh took the stage behind a large, round red podium.  

Image via Yahoo News

Walsh spent the first half of his speech talking about how his Twitter account had recently been hacked. He also talked about YouTube demonetizing his channel after he covered the recent Nashville school shooting, and for what he claimed to be “accurately gendering” transgender social media personality and actress Dylan Mulvaney by using wrong pronouns when referring to her. He also said that going against “transgenderism” is the last stand for western civilization. 

From there he went through different, easily debunkable anti-transgender arguments. This included the claim that biological sex is only binary. With this he also said that transgender people’s gender is instead a personality. This is a very similar sentiment to that of Wyatt Phillips, a leading member among the Iowa YAF organization. In my interview with him, he said that his identity as a male is based in biological fact, while the identities of transgender people are based in their mind. He said that this also makes up the basis of their personalities.  

The claim that gender is binary has been proved to be incorrect. Research beginning in the 1950’s examined the incongruences with the binary gender notion. While much less common, people are born with chromosomal differences compared to the typical “XX” and “XY” pairs. On top of this, different people have different hormonal balances. This creates a much more fluid structure of gender in society compared to the binary system that has influenced it throughout history.  

For the belief that being transgender makes up an entire person’s personality that both Walsh and Phillips seem to have, they have no good basis to draw that conclusion on. Walsh has built a name for himself based on being anti-LGBTQ, which brings hostility from members in that community towards his way. Phillips stated the primary experience he has with transgender people are in debate style discussions. These are not good situations to form an impression about someone, and learn about them as a person. It only perpetuates the hostilities between them.  

Image via Wilhelmina Pudol

In his speech, Walsh had also made the claim that transgender people haven’t always existed and it’s a recent phenomenon. This is untrue as accounts of transgender people existing can be found all over the world from antiquity to present times. There has been more visibility of transgender people in the current day due to societal progress and a greater openness to it. Transgender people have always been here, it’s just now more comfortable for them to come out. 

Despite all of these incorrect talking points, Walsh always emphasized them as the truth. He stated that everything he said was based on facts and science, because they went along with the traditional notion of gender. A common rallying cry among the protesters was to drive fascism off campus. Other than Walsh’s own claim to be a fascist, these actions strengthens that position. 

In the 1995 essay “Ur-Fascism” by Italian novelist Umberto Eco, using his experience growing up in Italy under Mussolini’s rule, he listed several characteristics that define fascism. He described them as a common enemy for a populous to rally against, a devout worship of traditionalism, and the twisting of truth to fit ideological needs.  

Matt Walsh did all of these in his speech. He rallied a crowd in a constant beratement of transgender people, where in his rhetoric attacked their very existence and slandered them as people. One of his bases for these attacks is the protection of traditional gender ideals and values. To do this he defined facts and truth as what he wanted it to be in order to fit his agenda, giving no evidence other than calling it fact. This is fascism, and we should fear its onset in our society. We should pushback against it, and it should not allowed here on our campus.

 Image via John Glab

At 7:30 pm the Q&A portion of the lecture began. However, unlike what YAF claimed the event was for, and what many were hoping to see, there was no debate. Those who made points that were anti-transgender, were cheered and reaffirmed by Walsh. Those who presented arguments and questioned the rhetoric of the night were vehemently booed by the audience before they could finish speaking, where then Walsh would respond with hollow bloviated counterpoints.  

There was no discussion, or exchange of ideas. Anti-transgender attitudes were only strengthened and given a platform. This made it clear that the point of the event was to foster a cesspool to spew out vile transphobic hate speech. The YAF and University of Iowa emboldened this.  

At 8:00 pm we filed out of the ballroom of the IMU and onto the street. Protesters had amassed on the street, blocking traffic from leaving the event. Quips among those leaving included, “look at this trans shit,” and “run them over.” During and after the event, protesters had been making noise with the help of a pep band and had been chanting out their frustrations.  

While the situation was somber and scary, the atmosphere of the protest had a festive air to it. Paras, a protester, said, “I’m proud of the community for coming out and supporting trans people. I’m also disappointed the university couldn’t speak up for us, but we came out and did it ourselves.”  They also said the protest better resembled the feelings of the student body, referring to the large amount of middle aged people who attended Walsh’s lecture.

Image via Wilhelmina Pudol

Harry, a protester and transgender woman gave a statement saying “It is the importance of the Iowa City government and school district to reject the recent senate files that were passed through. Every single individual should use their power to protect transgender youth. Make the right decision.”  

Upon hearing some of the things said during the lecture, she had said that being transgender is not a mental illness and isn’t something to be persecuted over. You can’t deny a person their existence, and you can’t tell them how to feel. It’s a matter of protecting human rights. She said being transgender has always been a part of who she is, and was something that she has seen in herself, giving a vivid account from when she was four.  

Just after 9:00 pm, the protest had begun to disperse, where everyone was encouraged to get back home safely. In an interview, a protester gave a few final remarks saying “I am proud of the community for coming out and being willing to stand up for trans rights. I am worried for the future, but we are standing in opposition to them trying to deny our rights, our healthcare, and who we are. If you’re not out here, get out here.” 

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