To protest recent transphobic messaging from two on-campus groups at the University of New Hampshire, students at the school’s Franklin Pierce School of Law staged a walkout and rally with more than 100 students and faculty last week.
Reports The Keene Sentinel:
The walkout was sparked by an email that a student group, the Christian Legal Society, sent to the student body Tuesday about this week’s deadly shooting at a private Christian school in Nashville.
In the email — ostensibly an invitation to a vigil for the victims planned for Wednesday evening — the group claimed the push for trans rights has fueled anti-Christian hate and suggested trans rights advocates bear some responsibility for the shooting. (Law enforcement authorities have yet to publicly identify the shooter’s motive.)
“Tragically, this incident comes after a barrage of rhetoric demonizing Christians and anyone perceived to oppose the ontological premises of transgenderism,” the email states, adding that activists, journalists and others have “fueled this hate and paranoia” against “anyone who opposes the trans agenda.”
Speakers at the rally said the email was just the latest example of what they described as anti-trans messaging by the Christian Legal Society and another campus group, the Free Exercise Coalition. They said the groups’ activities are making LGBTQ people feel less safe on campus.
Law student AhLana Ames, who helped organize the event, said no one had a problem with CLS organizing a vigil. But “the email then spirals down a rabbit hole of dangerous and offensive transphobic rhetoric,” she said.
Another organizer, second-year law student Hannah Neumiller, said students have raised concerns about the group to the school, but administrators have been slow to act.
“I’m tired of waking up to headlines and acts of hate against the trans community, and then I have to come to school and see hateful messages against the trans community,” she said. “We have asked for change. We have asked for better policies for actions and consequences but it’s always just ‘under review.’ ”
Read the complete Keene Sentinel story here.
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