Conservative speaker Matt Walsh comes to UW-Madison campus, attracting protest and controversy

MADISON – An anti-trans rights, conservative commentator who held an event on the University of Wisconsin-Madison campus Monday generated controversy, protesters, vandalism − and a long line of people who wanted to hear him speak.

The sold-out event included a screening of speaker Matt Walsh's film, "What is a Woman?" followed by a question-and-answer session. The movie questions sex reassignment surgery, gender identity, pronouns and transgender athletes. It reinforces Walsh's belief that individuals born with male genitalia are men and those with female genitalia are women. He has previously compared transgender health care to pedophilia.

Ahead of Walsh's appearance, extensive vandalism appeared across the student union. Photos showed graffiti across the Memorial Union's front steps, on the Terrace, in Alumni Park and over a Bucky Badger statue. The profanity-laced graffiti disparaged Walsh and the Young America's Foundation, the student group that invited him.

One phrase said "Trans women are women" while another equated Walsh to a Nazi. A third called him a pedophile.

"The university is deeply committed to the right to free speech," UW-Madison spokesperson John Lucas said. "However, criminal damage to the university’s buildings and spaces − for any reason or purpose − is unacceptable and will not be tolerated."

UW-Madison Police is investigating the graffiti, he said. The university will take action to hold responsible individuals accountable.

By mid-afternoon, the graffiti was gone. In its place was about a hundred protesters who rallied outside the union in support of the trans community, chanting "Hey, hey! Ho, ho! Transphobia has got to go!" and "When trans rights are under attack, what do we do? Stand up, fight back!"

A small group of mostly male counter-protesters appeared across the street and began preaching from the Bible using a microphone. Some of the protesters approached them, shouting "Fight the right" and ripping up their Bible. A few scuffles ensued until police drew the counter-protesters to a location further away.

Among the protesters was Max Vale, a transgender student at Madison Area Technical College who plans to transfer to UW-Madison. Vale was outraged to hear of Walsh's invitation to speak on campus, which Vale said will only cause the student body harm because Walsh spreads misinformation about the trans community.

"He has a right to free speech," said Vale, who was among several rally-goers who wrapped their shoulders with the light blue and pink trans flag. "But the university also has a right to not platform him and to protect their students."

UW-Madison freshman Ash Thiele also was drawn to the rally to express his disdain for "this guy on campus who thinks (trans) people shouldn't be treated with the same decency and respect."

The protesters, however, were outnumbered by the individuals inside the union wanting to hear Walsh. The hall where he spoke held 400 people and others waited in an overflow line hoping to score an extra seat.

Over the weekend, Dean of Students Christina Olstad and Gabe Javier, an associate vice chancellor who works with underrepresented students, shared a statement on social media offering support to the LGBTQ community and calling Walsh a speaker whose views "we believe are harmful to the trans community."

Walsh argued the statement showed UW-Madison was "taking their side," and demonstrating "the worst cowardice I’ve ever seen by a university."

The UW-Madison chapter of the Young America's Foundation didn't respond to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel's request for comment. On social media, the group criticized UW-Madison for what it saw as emboldening protesters' rage by lamenting the impact of the event and "choosing to vilify our speaker."

"Try as they might, the leftist mob will not intimidate or silence us," the group said.

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The event costs $10,000, $8,000 of which is being paid by the national Young America's Foundation led by former Republican Gov. Scott Walker and the rest covered by the student government's grant programming budget. The student government must provide funding for political events in a “viewpoint neutral” manner, said Meghan Savaglia, student government spokesperson.

Walsh has recently appeared at other colleges across the country. Earlier this month, hundreds of University of Houston students protested the right-wing commentator's views outside the student center where his film was screened. Similar protests took place at the University of Illinois-Urbana Champaign and the University of Central Florida.

Conservatives have long criticized college campuses for stifling conservative voices.

Walker, for example, in response to Monday's vandalism posted on Twitter: "They don’t want mainstream discussions on campus." In 2016, UW-Madison students briefly shouted down and traded obscene gestures with conservative columnist Ben Shapiro for about 10 minutes before his event continued.

The UW Board of Regents tried implementing a three-strikes free speech policy that would have required campuses to suspend students who disrupt the free expression of others in a substantial way after a second time. If students are found to have done so three times, they are expelled.

The policy, pushed by Republican-appointed regents in 2017, was controversial. Some saw it as vague and worried it would end up chilling students from exercising free speech out of fear of punishment.

The suspension and expulsion provisions of the policy aren't in effect because Democratic Gov. Tony Evers didn't support moving it forward to become part of the state code. He's locked in a tight reelection race against Republican Tim Michels, whose campaign spokesperson didn't immediately respond to whether Michels supports the policy taking effect.

The current policy requires UW campuses to report to the board any formal complaints of violations of academic freedom or freedom of expression and their institution's response. The most recent data show no formal complaints were filed in the 2020-21 school year.

Republicans have more recently encouraged the UW System to survey its students about free speech. The survey was previously slated to be administered last spring. But concerns about potential politicization of results ahead of the November election, questions about the research protocol process and allegations of political interference led officials to postpone it.

UW officials have said the survey will be distributed sometime this fall though a more specific timeline wasn't available Monday.

Questions on the first version of the survey asked students about the First Amendment, how much they value free speech, whether they see problems with a lack of diverse viewpoints, whether they censor themselves, and whether they have ever been sanctioned or punished for exercising their free speech rights.

Kelly Meyerhofer can be reached at 414-223-5168 or at kmeyerhofer@gannett.com. Follow her on Twitter at @KellyMeyerhofer.

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This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: UW-Madison event with Matt Walsh sparks protest, vandalism