600+ W&L Members Move to Ban Matt Walsh
600+ W&L students, faculty, and alumni protest Matt Walsh event
Resistance includes a petition, counter-events, the destruction of flyers, and a death threat
By Kamron M. Spivey, ‘24
[Update: Matt Walsh has decided to reschedule his visit to Washington and Lee University on March 30, 2023, following threats and security concerns in Nashville, Tennessee. The new date for Walsh’s speech has not yet been determined.]
A petition composed by law students to prevent prominent conservative author and talk-show host Matt Walsh from speaking on campus on March 30, 2023, has circulated throughout Washington and Lee University this week; 605 students, faculty, and alumni had signed it at the time this article was published.
No Washington and Lee University administrator has signed the petition, and the event is expected to continue as planned.
[Update: President William Dudley released a statement regarding the petition on March 28, 2023. In it, he upheld the university’s commitment to freedom of expression, as well as their commitment to diversity.]
Sources to The Spectator have confirmed that multiple professors from different departments have asked their students to sign the petition both during and outside of class.
Of the over 80 faculty signers, examples include Bill Hamilton — Chair of the Biology Department — and Brenna Womer, Visiting Assistant Professor of Creating Writing.
[Update: Another biology professor, Gregg Whitworth, wrote the following statement, which has since been removed from the petition: claiming to be “the guy who will be standing up to ask Matt a few questions if he comes to our campus. It might be disruptive.”]
Womer, the first faculty member to sign the petition, sent an email to 49 colleagues on March 21, stating, “as I understand each of you to be either members or allies of our LGBTQIA2+ students, I hope to see each one of you add your names to this petition.”
“Matt Walsh,” Womer continued, “is an extremely dangerous person who represents a very real threat of physical violence against trans and nonbinary people specifically, but also to all women, queer people, and people of color. I hope to see your names on this petition because the students need to see their professors and staff across departments and facilities vocalizing our support of them as members and allies of the vulnerable communities on campus.”
She then copied the petition into her email and concluded, “please don't share this with anyone you don't trust will respect the integrity of the document.”
“We ask,” the public petition says, “that the University prevent Matt Walsh from speaking on our campus and that the University live out its Statement of Commitment to Diversity by taking action to protect its minority students from future harmful events.”
The Statement of Commitment to Diversity — adopted by the Board of Trustees in 2002 and revised in 2018 — recognizes the “many experiences, cultures, points of view, interests, and identities” of students, faculty, and staff.
Despite this policy, the petitioners state, “W&L continues to approve speaker events that provide one-sided platforms for harmful ideologies.” The petition then cites several grievances about Matt Walsh, such as how he “openly refers to himself as the ‘Transphobe of the Year’ in his Twitter bio.”
This title was first attributed to Walsh by critics in 2022.
Other grievances include Walsh’s “repeated accusations that Boston’s Children Hospital was ‘mutilating’ children who seek gender-affirming medical care,” and that “he repeatedly and intentionally misgenders well-known trans TikTok creator Dylan Mulvaney.”
“These are not the only harmful views welcomed onto our campus this semester,” the petition declares, alluding to Rodney Cook’s January 12, 2023 speech about the reconciliatory aims of President Robert E. Lee and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. “This event insulted the sacrifices of the civil rights movement and reduced the history of white supremacy,” the petition continues, “to ‘flimsy both-sideism’ that alienated Black students, faculty, and staff.”
Cook’s event was met with a protest and walkout of around 150 students, despite clarifying that his “lecture was about peace and reconciliation, not focused on Lee, the Lost Cause, or whitewashing.”
Similar protests are planned for Walsh’s speech next week, though a walkout seems unlikely.
According to a March 22 email sent by the Executive Board of OUTLaw, an LGBT+ law school student organization, a “counter program” will begin with a “brief protest” at roughly 6:55 PM on March 30. The protest will be followed by a fundraiser and movie night at the law school.
“[W]e will launch our own fundraising campaign with proceeds going to a local organization serving the health needs of transgender individuals,” OUTLaw said. They hope to raise $20,000, which they say “may or may not be” Matt Walsh’s speaking fee.
“We know that Matt Walsh is a professional inciter. He has online support from people who harass those who disagree with him, and he uses counterprotests as a way to market himself further. We do not plan to go to the event and feed this more,” the email said.
Further plans are being withheld until Monday, March 27, “for safety” reasons. OUTLaw listed several other safety precautions in anticipation of their protest, having spoken with school administrators and campus security earlier this week.
They asked protestors to “remain professional,” to “not block the University Chapel,” and to “be careful of the crowd that gathers for Matt Walsh. He does have private security coming, so please be wary,” the email said.
“Public safety will be briefed and present at the protest for our safety[,]” they continued.
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Security was recently increased for Walsh’s event due to the rising opposition to the event, some of it threatening.
Blake Ramsey, ‘23, made waves on conservative platforms beginning on March 15, after posting on Instagram a famous 1945 image of fascist leader Benito Mussolini’s public hanging, with the caption “Because Matt Walsh is now apparently speaking at this school, I thought I would post an important reminder of what happens to fascists.”
Ramsey, the former vice president of College Democrats, was an outspoken critic of the university’s name in 2021 and has earned a reputation around campus for his passionate left-leaning beliefs.
Interim Director of Public Safety, Mac Testerman, initially determined that the university would provide four or five Public Safety officers for the event.
However, following news of Ramsey’s post, the planned protest, and Testerman’s unannounced departure from the university — the second director to leave in recent months — Lieutenant Chellie Bergos determined that the number of Public Safety officers would be increased to ten.
This number is in addition to the Lexington Police Officers and private security who will also oversee the event.
•••
Other forms of resistance to Walsh include the destruction and satirization of the event and the persons associated with it.
Over 100 flyers reading “What is a Woman?” — the title of Walsh’s 2022 documentary and the subject of his national College Campus Tour — have been torn down or ripped up since The Spectator announced his visit to Lexington on March 14.
This type of behavior is by no means an unprecedented reaction against conservative events or messages, but has been particularly rife this time around.
So too have some opponents made a mockery of the event, tearing down or covering up the flyers with a spoof version that reads “What is a Fallacy?” and features Walsh in makeup.
Many of those mock flyers were accompanied by a page-long statement saying that inviting Walsh “is a dangerous decision that clearly places ignorant bigotry above thoughtful discourse.”
“There is no sufficient way to clearly define what makes someone a woman,” the statement continues.
Other groups, like the student-run leftist satire, The Radish, mocked Matt Walsh, Mike Pence, and The Spectator editor-in-chief, comparing them to Nazis and the Ku Klux Klan.
•••
The Walsh event faced additional opposition off campus on March 22, when Eventbrite — the ticketing service used for his upcoming talk — deleted the event for violating the “Community Guidelines” and “policy on Hateful, Dangerous, or Violent Content and Events.”
Eventbrite did not respond to The Spectator’s request for further clarification about the decision.
Ticketing has since moved to TicketSpice; all ticket holders have been alerted that the change in platform has not affected their reservation.
For those unable to reserve a ticket, the event will be livestreamed here, and an overflow will be set up in Stackhouse Theater on campus.