The student government at Gettysburg College denied funding to its Young Americans for Freedom chapter to host a conservative speaker, absurdly claiming that their proposed Ryan Anderson lecture would cause safety issues to the LGBT community.
According to video footage obtained by Young America’s Foundation, several student senators disparaged the YAF chapter throughout Monday’s budget meeting, accusing the chapter of bringing a conservative speaker to “rail against minority communities” on campus.
NEW: The student government at Gettysburg College denied its YAF chapter 100% of funds requested for a proposed @RyanTAnd campus lecture.
— YAF (@yaf) March 22, 2022
Leftists accused the YAF activists of trying to incite violence against transgender students by bringing a conservative speaker: pic.twitter.com/WgFRPqTBa6
Dr. Ryan Anderson, a renowned author and policy expert whose work has been cited by two Supreme Court justices, is one of the leading thinkers in conservatism on the topics of gender and marriage. The chapter had hoped to host him this spring on campus.
Social Affinity Group Leader EJ Gill questioned whether “discourse” should be prioritized over the “safety” of LGBT students on campus, without citing any evidence that violence against transgenders would occur during Dr. Anderson’s speech.
Former President of Student Senate Luke Frigon stated in the meeting that “it’s important to have discourse, but we don’t have to listen to transphobes.”
Several senators argued that the chapter has the right to host Dr. Anderson, but that the student senate should not be obliged to fund the event––despite the fact that conservative students at Gettysburg pay equally into the student activities fee fund.
One community member went as far as to attempt to draw a link from an increase in violence against transgenders to speeches by conservative speakers on this topic. “I’m disgusted that this is even being considered,” he lamented.
“Last night, Gettysburg College Student Senate contributed to an overarching culture of intimidation against conservatives,” Gettysburg YAF Chairman Andrew Breschard told YAF.
“Their words and actions reflect an unwillingness to engage in respectful discourse on important issues. Their mischaracterizations of conservative positions on these issues are harmful to the campus climate and to individuals who share our views,” he said.
“The Student Senate had a chance to allow us to bring Dr. Anderson to campus to articulately lay out the conservative view on transgenderism and interact with students who disagree with him. Instead, they chose to continue to perpetuate a culture of silencing views they do not wish to hear, labeling conservatives as transphobes and their ideology as bigoted.”
Gettysburg College defended the student government’s decision in a statement. “YAF has the right to invite Dr. Anderson to campus. No action taken by the Senate last night interferes with YAF’s right to invite Dr. Anderson to campus,” a Gettysburg College spokesperson told YAF. “That said, our Student Senate did decide to not allocate funding for this speaker, for which it has discretion. Importantly, last semester, the Senate agreed to support a request from YAF to fund a different speaker. To be clear, if YAF wishes to invite Dr. Anderson to campus then it has the right to do so—subject to the College’s ordinary rules about time, place, and manner.”
