Tonight, the Penn State University Student Programming Association (SPA) is hosting transgender activist and TikToker Dylan Mulvaney on campus for a moderated conversation.
A survey of SPA’s Instagram account indicates that SPA is infatuated with hosting transgender and other leftist speakers. Since 2017, SPA has hosted Dominique Jackson, Hunter Schafer, Laverne Cox, and Schulyer Bailar, all of whom are transgender. SPA has also hosted multiple drag shows and a sex toy bingo night and sponsored talks from Patrice Cullors, co-founder of Black Lives Matter, David Hogg, and Jill Biden.
SPA, which is funded through mandatory student fees, states that their mission is “to serve the student body by providing diverse activities, programming, and resources for Penn State students.” SPA is failing in this mission, and is almost exclusively pushing leftist ideas.
YAF’s survey indicates that only two conservatives have been invited to speak on campus since SPA’s founding in 2006. Of these two conservatives, one was a debate between Karl Rove and Howard Dean in 2009. The other event in 2020 was the former Lt. Governor of Maryland, Michael Steele.
If SPA was truly dedicated to “diverse programming,” they should not be only bringing in leftist speakers, and instead should seek to host a broad range of conservatives and liberals on campus.
The absence of conservative speakers from SPA is just another illustration of Penn State’s disdain for conservative ideas on campus.
Less than a month ago, Penn State attempted to force the Penn State Young Americans for Freedom chapter (PS YAF) into a room at the school’s basketball arena on the far corner of campus for their lecture with Dr. James Lindsay. Only after YAF sent a demand letter to the school threatening a lawsuit was the chapter given an actual classroom, however the event was still on the edge of campus.
Contrastingly, Mulvaney’s event is in the heart of campus, and is being paid for with student funds–$40,000, to be exact. Unlike Mulvaney’s discussion tonight, the YAF chapter’s event with Dr. Lindsay, like all YAF events, was open to any questions from the audience. Why does Mulvaney have to rely on moderated questions and not face questions from the audience? And which is a better use of funds – an event that encourages discussion, or an event that limits what questions a speaker can face?
In response to this event, PS YAF is organizing a campus screening of the Daily Wire’s new movie, Lady Ballers. This screening will occur at 7:00 pm in Hall Name Room Number.
