Hostile to Conservative Voices: SFSU TPUSA Chapter Forced to Host Event Off-Campus
After a lengthy back-and-forth between a Turning Point USA chapter and San Francisco State University, students were left with no choice but to take their event with Faith Contributor Jon Root off-campus.
Root’s event, titled “How Wokeness is Destroying America,” was initially approved by the university to take place on campus yesterday evening, using the same room Riley Gaines was chased out of by radical transgender activists earlier this month. Gaines was assaulted and barricaded in a room for nearly three hours on campus, to which administrators responded by calling the protestors “brave.” On April 11, just days after the ambush, the chapter president reached out to administrators citing safety concerns, and requested a potential room change or additional security for their next guest speaker.
The school agreed to find a new venue for the event but quickly retracted their agreement when they were informed that hundreds of people had RSVP’ed. Ultimately, administrators refused to provide any venue at all. Just two days before the event was scheduled to take place, an SFSU administrator told the TPUSA chapter president, “If you do end up showing up on the San Francisco State University Quad on April 19th, this a non-San Francisco State-approved and unscheduled event that does not have an approved reservation on campus.”
The chapter was also threatened with “disciplinary action” if they refused to move the event to an off-campus location, online, or cancel altogether. One day before the event was scheduled to take place, the university issued a statement to the community explaining that although the school has the legal obligation to respect everyone’s freedom of speech, it did not give the chapter an approved venue to host the speaker of their choosing. The school warned students and staff that the chapter event may “occur spontaneously on the Quad.”
The school’s president implored students not to “inadvertently amplify the divisive messages of others,” by protesting the event, “and instead amplify values of inclusion and not values or speakers we find objectionable.”
Rather than risk further conflict with school administrators or aggravated protestors, the chapter opted to host Root off-campus. “Since [SFSU] has shown their campus is hostile & violent toward conservative speakers & has refused to provide proof that TPUSA students would not receive disciplinary action for hosting my speech in the quad, we’re moving the event to Stern Grove Concert Meadow across the street from campus,” Root posted to social media the day prior to his event.
Hours leading up to the event, the TPUSA chapter tabled on SFSU’s campus. Students handed out promotional materials for the event and attempted to engage in conversation with their peers. Root told TPUSA that students “verbally attacked” him and the chapter members, calling them “racists,” “bigots,” “colonizers,” and “white supremacists.”
“When I was walking to the TPUSA table [on SFSU’s campus] I saw the ground was littered with leftist propaganda in chalk. The plaza and walkways throughout the quad had messages saying ‘pro-choice,’ ‘BLM,’ ‘Trans rights are human rights,’ and much more.”
Jon Root — TPUSA
After updating the location of the event, the San Francisco Parks and Recreation Department shut down the area which was reserved for the TPUSA SFSU chapter event, citing “inclement weather.” The event was moved once again and finally took place across the street from the Stern Grove Concert Meadow. The event was not interrupted by inclement weather, in fact, clear skies can be seen in photos attendees took while at the event.
A small group of protestors gathered at the event, holding signs reading “cis silence = cis violence” and “trans lives matter,” and Root noted that the group did not seem interested in engaging with him or attendees in discussion or debate. He told TPUSA that about a dozen protestors tried to “drown [him] out” by chanting and using a speaker.
“Though these protestors refused to have fruitful dialogue, tried drowning out my voice with their portable speaker & hurled insults throughout my speech,” Root said, “I’m glad they were there. These people need the truth & I gave it to them.”
One student pressed Root on his Christian faith and explained that in her opinion, he should be willing to accept transgender ideology because Christ “accepting” of everyone. Their interaction can be seen below.
“I believe the event was a success. Everyone that needed to be there was there . . . TPUSA students deserve so much credit for their resiliency in the face of threats from students, faculty, and staff who desperately wanted to shut this down completely. I did this speech for them.”
Jon Root — TPUSA
