Alabama Young Americans for Freedom has successfully defeated an effort by their school to force gender ideology onto all campus organizations and stifle free speech on campus.
Last month, The New Guard published a story detailing how the University of Alabama initially refused to renew Alabama YAF’s chapter constitution because the club rightly refused to include pro-gender ideology language in their constitution. This move would have banned the chapter from participating in any activity on campus
In response, National YAF helped our chapter write a formal complaint to the university and we called on our in-state allies to push back against this leftist attack against our club’s free speech rights.
Last week, the school removed all language forcing clubs to accept leftist gender ideology into their club constitutions. This applied not only to YAF, but to every club on campus. Through hard work, a push for free speech, good use of resources, and perseverance, YAF flipped the entire policy on its head and did not waver under the pressure put against us.
Since then, several state news outlets have picked up the story and the school paper has run many stories on it. All the while, we were promoting free speech and the arrival of our latest speaker- Seth Dillon, CEO of the Babylon Bee.
Leading up the events with Seth Dillon, the campus Left was determined to intimidate us. They resorted to erasing our chalk, tearing down our flyers, and getting in shouting matches with our chapter. However, the day before Seth spoke, we saw a post from the College Democrats’ group chat that six leftist organizations were banding together to protest YAF. After a successful event with Seth, we ventured to the quad the next day to see this protest.
On my approach to the quad, I initially thought I missed the protest. I saw plenty of tape and traffic cones, but not anymore people than usual. Then I saw a group of about 30 students and activists gathering on the other side of the quad. Besides the six leftist groups, they had hired an activist from Montgomery to lead their protest. Upon further investigation, his Instagram bio included the pronouns “He/They” and a Venmo named “Black Moses”. He proceeded to lead the protestors in chants such as “YAF we call you out, we’ll fight for our rights there is no doubt.” And “The South shall not rise again”, which was perplexing to passers-by as race had nothing to do with anything that was going on. In addition, they referred to the “CAUCASITY of wh:+e fragility” and made chalk displays saying things like “white silence = violence”, “Live, Laugh, Lesbian” and displays about trans issues and abortion. Alabama YAF chairman, Trenton Buffenbarger, was also the target of dozens of online personal attacks.
YAF stood firm, holding a sign that read “UAYAF Will Not Concede to Compelled Speech” and “I’M THE PERSON YOU’RE PROTESTING!”. Ultimately, our discussions with the school and pressure over the clause proved fruitful.
Real change only requires a few individuals and a worthy cause to fight for. YAF condemns compelled speech and the gender cult that has infected so many campuses across our country. Regardless of how tough the fight is, or how many rally against us, YAF will always stand for the truth, and we will never bow to leftist bullies.”
