Campus rattled by Turning Point USA Event
Students, faculty, and local activists gathered outside of the Ohio Union Wednesday to protest an event hosted by Turning Point USA. The event featured a Q&A session with organization founder Charlie Kirk and political commentator Candace Owens. The campus chapter and the university received backlash for hosting an organization with conservative viewpoints on education, the economy, race, and the LGBTQ+ community.
“The rhetoric of Charlie Kirk and his colleagues has led to escalating violence against the LGBTQ community, censorship of LGBTQ+ inclusive education, militias showing up armed at LGBTQ+ events, and the passage of LGBTQ+ laws,” Ohio State Revolutionary Student Front, organizers of the protest, said in a statement.
According to their website, Turning Point USA’s mission is to educate students about the importance of fiscal responsibility, free markets, and limited government. TPUSA activists are the community organizers of the right wing.
In response to their presence at Ohio State, Revolutionary Student Front said it was,
meant to create division among the student body.
“Turning Point USA challenges academic freedom by harassing progressive professors, forcing them to be quiet or to be expelled. For example, their project ‘Professor Watchlist seeks to ‘unmask’ disproportionately Black and Bbrown, ‘radical’ professors to silence them,” Revolutionary Student Front said.
Dr. Pranav Jani, an associate professor of English at Ohio State, said that he was once named on the Professor Watchlist.
“There are many professors and faculty that are with you in spirit, but cannot be here tonight because they are terrified,” Pranav said.
“All of the free speech statements coming from the right always have a contradiction,” Jani said.
TPUSA host, Jobob Taelefi, approached the protestors outside the Ohio Union and said that they were welcomed inside the event to voice their opinions on the microphone. However, he was met by yelling through bull horns and nearly physically pushed back inside.
The campus chapter of TPUSA did not respond to our request for comment.