A group of protestors gathered outside Alumni Hall on Tuesday evening to protest Turning Point USA at Pitt’s most recent guest speaker, Candace Owens.
“We’re here, we’re queer, get these fascists out of here,” the group chanted.
When asked why they decided to protest the event, sophomore ecology and evolution major KateLynn Herrera said the group is protesting Owens because of her comments about trans people.
“I don’t like Candace Owens,” Herrera said. “I don’t like what she supports. I don’t like what she adds, and if Pitt allows her to be on campus, then we need to stop that.”
Herrera said she heard about the event through the club Trans Action Building PGH, a group committed to “fight transphobia on college campuses and throughout Pittsburgh to ensure that gender diverse people live long, healthy and fulfilling lives.”
As a part of the protest, certain members dressed as clowns, inspired by the Clandestine Insurgent Rebel Clown Army, a movement in 2003-2005 where people in London dressed as clowns to protest George W. Bush’s visit to the United Kingdom.
One of the attendees dressed as a clown said the group protested against Owens for her “hateful speech.”
In addition to protesting Owens, the group had a list of demands for Pitt including three fully staffed resource centers, de-escalating mental health crises without police, higher minimum wages for students and faculty and trans-inclusive health care and housing.
Multiple protestors were let into the lecture hall for the actual event, with the exception of the members holding bags, due to the event’s no bags policy, and protest signs with phrases like “fascists are not welcome here” and “T.P. USA, you’re all pigs”.
As a protestor, junior psychology and gender, sexuality and women’s studies major Ashley White said her blackness and bisexuality heavily influence her advocacy.
“This is something that hurts me to my core, that Pitt is allowing these bigots to come on campus and spread hate,” White said.
White criticized the fact that non-Pitt community members were allowed to attend and enter the event, especially because of how it impacted students.
“Students are having a hard time trying to get to their classes,” White said. “There’s so much security and telling people they can’t get in if they don’t have a ticket, but there’s students just trying to get to class.”
White said Pitt needs to do more to regulate the type of speech allowed on campus.
“While I am all for free speech, I am for free speech that doesn’t dehumanize people,” White said.
University spokesperson Jared Stonesifer said Owens was invited to speak by a registered independent student organization and any use of Pitt property for student events “does not constitute an institutional endorsement of the event or the speaker’s expressed viewpoint.”
“Under the First Amendment, universities that receive public funding and permit student organizations to invite speakers to campus cannot legally discriminate against or deny a student organization’s right to host a particular speaker on the basis of that speaker’s viewpoint,” Stonesifer said.
A protester who wished to remain anonymous said although some people don’t understand what the protestors are advocating for, the groups won’t let that stop them.
“They can say whatever they want,” the protestor said. “I don’t care. I’m going to live my life and be happy.”
Editor’s Note: This article has been updated with a University comment.
