Why is UC Davis letting a raging transphobe continue to work around students? | Opinion

UC Davis employee Beth Bourne is a prominent anti-transgender activist who has accosted drag performers and called out trans coworkers by name on social media. She is a serious safety threat to the university’s LGBTQ+ students and faculty members.

In a recent viral video, Bourne confronts a group of drag queens filming a video at the Alohilani Resort in Waikiki on June 23. She accused the performers of “degrading” women and engaging in misogyny by performing in drag. The resort is hosting a brunch this Sunday, during Pride Month, that will feature drag performances.

Opinion

“This type of behavior is unacceptable,” Hawaii Democratic Governor Josh Green said in a statement Monday. “It is not aloha and we will not tolerate it from anyone.”

On Tuesday, UC Davis responded to the viral video in an inadequate statement that addresses Bourne’s obvious First Amendment rights but doesn’t do enough to directly state how harmful Bourne’s words and actions are to the university’s queer and trans students and staff.

“We condemn these statements as deeply hurtful,” the university’s statement (which does not name Bourne) reads. “While the employee’s comments are protected by the First Amendment, they do not reflect the values of respect and belonging that form the foundation of our campus community.”

Notably, Bourne has not kept her work life and her transphobic crusade separate: Her X account (formerly Twitter) is filled with criticisms of the university’s trans population.

She has posted names and photos of trans colleagues and called out LeShelle May, wife of Chancellor Gay May, for promoting the “trans agenda and the erasure of women.”; She has also talked about working to “expose” the “indoctrination into the trans cult” within UC Davis Health; and accused the UC Davis School of Medicine of “brainwash(ing)” students and staff “on gender woo-woo.”

Bourne’s vocal social media call-outs of her employer are, at best, unprofessional and, at worst, threatening trans colleagues and those who support them. She is spreading conspiracies on the internet about the university and making herself out to be an insider working to expose a massive cover-up: that a public university in California is trans-inclusive.

UC Davis representative Andy Fell was asked whether the university is currently reviewing the terms of Bourne’s employment and the extent to which she interacts with students as a program coordinator at the UC Davis Institute of Transportation Studies. Fell said: “At this time I don’t have anything to add beyond what is in the statement.”

What it means to be a woman

Bourne believes that drag performances are “offensive to women.”

This line of thinking, which is popular among TERFs (trans-exclusionary radical feminists) like J.K. Rowling, holds that there are “real” women (those assigned female at birth) and individuals (including trans women and drag performers) whose attempts to pass as female are somehow invalidating and threatening to the womanhood of “real” women.

This is an extremist viewpoint that considers the very existence of trans people a threat — even though trans people are over four times more likely to be victims of violence than a person who identifies with their gender assigned at birth.

In reality, there’s not one right or real way to be a woman. Trans women might not have periods or be able to get pregnant, but is that all it requires to be a woman? To menstruate and have babies? Certainly not. I have always felt like a woman. And just because this realization came later for others doesn’t mean they aren’t — or can’t be — women.

UC Davis’ responsibility

It’s no stretch to worry that Bourne’s escalating activism could lead to the harm of queer and trans students at UC Davis.

Bourne was served a temporary restraining order from Davis Joint Unified School District for sharing teachers’ personal information. She was also at the center of a controversy last December in which an employee of the City of Davis’ main library asked the Yolo County chapter of Moms for Liberty, which Bourne chairs, to leave the space after a discussion about transgender issues turned transphobic — specifically after a speaker present began to call transgender female athletes “biological men.” In response, six bomb threats were made against Davis-area schools and the main library, all of which contained anti-LGBTQ+ language.

UC Davis is not wrong to support Bourne’s First Amendment rights. But the First Amendment is not absolute. We’re not allowed to scream “fire” in a crowded movie theater. As the ACLU says: “To be clear, the First Amendment does not protect behavior on campus that crosses the line into targeted harassment or threats, or that creates a pervasively hostile environment for vulnerable students.”

Bourne clearly has a vendetta against trans people. She works on a college campus where queer and trans students have a right to be. This is a workplace issue as well. To be a trans-inclusive campus community, UC Davis should condemn hate in all its forms and yes even investigate firing Bourne for violating Title IX of the Civil Rights Act and state law that prohibits discrimination based on gender identity.

Sooner or later, Bourne’s vendetta could collide with her work — and the lives of students UC Davis is charged to protect. Bourne should not be working around queer or trans individuals, period. UC Davis will be to blame if even one student is harmed by Bourne’s intolerance.