Protesters decry UW speech by Matt Walsh as transphobic; conservative commentator takes aim at campus leadership

October 24, 2022 10:25 PM

Posted: October 24, 2022 10:25 PM

Updated: October 24, 2022 10:42 PM

MADISON, Wis. — The presence of conservative commentator Matt Walsh on the University of Wisconsin-Madison campus Monday attracted hundreds of students and community members in and around Memorial Union – though not all fans of his. Dozens protested his visit and the film he was screening as transphobic and harmful.

“They are certainly feeling unheard and unprotected and uncared for, and I think that it was important that the community members showed up for them if the campus isn’t going to,” said Rayna Cordon, there on behalf of Madison Abortion and Reproductive Rights Coalition for Health Care, or M.A.R.R.C.H. 

The protests come after parts of Memorial Union and the adjacent Alumni Park were vandalized with graffiti messages against Walsh’s event.  

RELATED: Memorial Union, Alumni Park vandalized with messages criticizing conservative commentator 

“For the UW to be allowing such a man to invite such followers onto our campus, it really poses a lot of risk to those community members like our trans brothers and sisters, like our nonbinary folks,” Cordon said.  

About an hour and a half before Walsh spoke, a different group of protesters gathered across the street from the building, holding anti-abortion signs and reciting bible verses over a loudspeaker.  

Eventually, much of the anti-Walsh crowd surged to their side of the street and tensions rose, causing Madison police officers to close Langdon Street. The “counter-protesters” then dispersed to a different part of Library Mall.  

Walsh has been screening his film, “What is a Woman?” at college campuses across the country.

“I want to thank also the leftist crybabies for the free advertising spray painted all over the campus,” he said beginning his remarks at Memorial Union Monday.   

A self-proclaimed “theocratic fascist,” Walsh has come under fire for the film and his beliefs, including his position that transgender people are biologically the sex they were assigned at birth and that gender-affirming care for minors is child mutilation. Critics have blasted him as being transphobic.

“I don’t fall on the right side of the spectrum when it comes to this issue,” he said. “In fact, what I have to say on the topic isn’t really my perspective at all; it’s just the simple truth, it’s simple basic biological truth, that’s it.”

Walsh also took issue with a university statement released ahead of his visit offering support to the trans community and calling his viewpoints “harmful.”

“UW-Madison, by telling a bunch of delusional psychos who are already defacing property that my perspective is harmful — the university, one could argue, is inciting violence against me,” Walsh said.

In a statement, university spokesperson John Lucas said “The university is deeply committed to the right to free speech… However, criminal damage to the university’s buildings and spaces– for any reason or purpose– is unacceptable and will not be tolerated.”

Still, Walsh took aim at campus leaders directly during his remarks.

“To the UW-Madison administration: you should be ashamed of yourselves. You are disgraceful, self-debasing cowards, and you spineless, gutless clowns owe me an apology,” he said.

Walsh’s speech was a ticket-only event at Memorial Union. Some protesters said they should have been allowed a chance at the mic, or at least in the room to voice their concerns.  

“I think that it’s wonderful that the campus isn’t restricting who student (organizations) bring onto campus to speak,” Cordon said. “But at the same time, unfortunately, they restricted our — the protesters’ — freedom of speech. It’s like a double standard to allow the Nazis and the transphobes and the self-proclaimed fascists to have the mic and not give it to the actual community members that are funding your school, that are attending your classes, that are teaching your classes.”

Last month, Walsh spread accusations from the Twitter account “Libs of TikTok” targeting UW Health’s Gender Services Program.  

The account similarly targeted a hospital in Boston which later evacuated for a bomb threat. However, Madison police did not find any security threats after investigating the tweets here. 

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