A small but vocal crowd of leftist students and community activists gathered on the evening of April 3 outside the University of Florida auditorium to protest the speaking appearance of Ben Shapiro, a far-right political pundit who has been touring college campuses around the country to counter what he calls the “liberal indoctrination” of U.S. youth.
Topics covered by Shapiro’s college appearances include the “myth” of white privilege, the “problem” of diversity, denial of rape culture and patriarchy, and the “fact” of the gender binary. His notorious catchphrase, “Facts don’t care about your feelings,” was in evidence on signs held up by students waiting in line to attend the event.
“Maybe if he knew the facts, he would understand our feelings,” said Nate Quinn, a psychology major at UF, Party for Socialism and Liberation member, and organizer of the protest. “As a trans man, I think his claim that trans people are suffering from a mental illness is super harmful, and that it contributes to the overall hate and violence against trans people in this country.”
The overwhelming majority of hate crime homicide victims in the U.S. are transgender, and trans people are seven times more likely to experience physical violence at the hands of police, according to a study by the National Coalition of Anti-Violence Programs.
Protesters united to voice a diverse array of concerns against Shapiro’s reactionary agenda. “Stop rape culture,” read one sign. A wire coat hanger adorned another, in reference to the ugly days before legalized abortion, when women were too often driven to extreme measures to exercise their reproductive autonomy.
Black Lives Matter activists traveled from Tampa and Sarasota to help lead the crowd in chants of “Stand up, fight back,” and “Say it loud, say it clear: bigotry’s not welcome here.” Several signs also showed support for Muslims, immigrants, and the struggle for Palestinian liberation.
“Healthcare is a human right” was another common theme of the protest, present on signs and shouted in chants. Shapiro has recently criticized President Trump for moving “too far to the left” in trying to preserve
extraordinarily popular provisions of Obamacare such as the protections for patients with pre-existing medical conditions in his troubled efforts to repeal and replace the healthcare law. Shapiro, a “never Trumper” from the right, has frequently complained that Trump’s radical rightwing agenda is
“too liberal” for his taste.
In the face of the rising tide of the far-right in America and elsewhere in the world, the need for an organized, radical struggle for justice has never been clearer. Said Quinn, “We need to be protesting and organizing and being as involved as possible with any form of resistance we are capable of to fight back against this country’s fall to fascism.”
