On Tuesday at 6:15 p.m., blue and pink lights shined on the outside wall of the Fisher Science (Bldg 33). A crowd gathered, waving transgender and nonbinary pride flags, holding signs that read “Trans rights are not up for debate” and “My friends deserve to feel welcome here.” Many were waiting to watch the opening act of a Drag show hosted by Cal Poly Drag Club, in direct response to the event occurring inside.
Meanwhile, Fisher Science Rm. 286 slowly filled to capacity as people waited for a guest speaker panel hosted by the Cal Poly chapter of Turning Point USA (TPUSA). San Luis Obispo and Cal Poly Campus Police watched from behind a barricade while pre-registered attendees checked into the event.
The event, called “A Dad and a Detransitioner’s Take on the Transgender Movement” on TPUSA’s Instagram post, featured talks from Chris Elston – also known as “Billboard Chris” – and Chloe Cole. The speakers were followed by a Q&A segment – TPUSA wrote on Instagram that “peaceful debate and disagreement is encouraged.”
The speakers were initially set to start at 7 p.m., but delayed until 7:15 p.m. Right up to the start, Drag Queen Skinny Mocha performed a dance to “I Will Survive” as the crowd sang along next door.
“It really just ended up being more of a dance party than a performance,” Graduate student and co-president of Cal Poly Drag Club Vinny Torres, also known by their drag name Skinny Mocha, said.
Liberal studies junior Alli Arnsdorf thought the showcase of queer joy was important for students to see.
“I thought the drag show was so sick,” Arnsdorf said. “I’ve gone to drag shows on campus for the past couple of years. Like my whole time as a student here.”
The event, called Queer Joy, was advertised as “a dance party,” “a guerilla drag show,” “a protest” and “a good time” on Instagram. According to Torres, Cal Poly Drag Club, Young Democratic Socialists of America, Students for Quality Education and Gala Pride and Diversity worked collaboratively to organize the event in less than a week.
“We obviously felt a moral obligation like we wanted to be there, but we also felt like we had a duty to be there because the art form that we participated in is so rooted in trans joy and queer joy and gender expression,” Torres said.
At 7:30 p.m., the local band Carpool started playing in front of Baker Science in protest of the event.
Electrical engineering junior and Paperboats band member Mackenzie Miranda protested the TPUSA event. She said she doesn’t think this speech belongs at Cal Poly because it can negatively affect students.
“[I feel] quite awful about it and angry,” Miranda said. “It is making me very uncomfortable to even be a trans student on campus.”
Some attendees were Cal Poly students who came to listen to Elston and Cole. Civil engineering freshman Kristin Smoots sat in on the talks because she wanted to hear both sides of the argument. She said she believes the best way to strengthen one’s reasoning behind an opinion is to test your theories and see if they can be debunked.
“I feel that the people who are protesting against us should come in and listen so that they can argue and see if they still agree with their ideas or change their mind,” Smoots said.
Many non-Cal Poly students came to see the speakers as well.
“I’m here supporting Billboard Chris and Chloe Cole because I believe in reality,” attendee Charlotte Johnson said. “We can’t be silent, children are being harmed.”
TPUSA is a “nonprofit organization whose mission is to identify, educate, train and organize students to promote freedom,” according to their website.
According to Co-President of the Cal Poly chapter of TPUSA and industrial engineering senior Madison Pierce, the club is all about “promoting the constitution, promoting free speech, the ten amendments and limited government and teaching those values.”
This is the first speaker the chapter has brought to campus.
“I hope that everyone shows up and is excited to see the speaker,” Pierce said before the event. “I hope that everyone that doesn’t want the speaker is there and that are protesting, just keep it peaceful and we encourage them to protest…I’m glad there are protesters. I mean, that’s the beauty of America, that there can be.”
During the talk, Elston talked about how he believes the transgender rights movement is negatively impacting kids and the dangers of “gender ideology.” After his speech, he turned the floor over to Cole and did a Q&A with her about her process of transitioning and detransitioning.
Elston then invited the audience to ask questions. However, one audience member in opposition of the event was removed by the police officers for asking a question directed at Elston and proceeding to read a story off his phone about the care of ferrets. Other attendees began booing at them and demanding they be removed from the event.
After the event, audience members were told to use an alternative exit.
Materials engineering sophomore Raphael Hazan said he found the event eye-opening.
“It was an interesting topic to hear about,” Hazan said. “To hear a first-hand experience, that is not an opportunity you get very often.”
Attendee Wes Yerty wanted to hear Cole’s message and more about her personal story.
“I think that that young lady is an angel after the things she has been through,” Yerty said. “To be able to voice what her life has been and it can just affect tens of thousands of young women who are going through the same thing.”
After the TPUSA guest speaker event ended at 9 p.m., the band Suburban Dropouts played in front of the Warren J. Baker Center for Science and Mathematics with a crowd gathered around them. Band member Jamie Larkin is outspoken about his support for the transgender community and he said he’s sad to see Cal Poly allow this event to happen on campus.
“It is really disappointing that the school I had to pay $130k and they say it is safe and they go behind my back and do this,” Larkin said.
Suburban Dropouts played until 10:50 p.m. Paperboats then closed out the night with one more song.
“I will say I have been very encouraged and enthused by the student response,” agricultural business senior and Suburban Dropout band member Luca Carnevale said. “It’s been great to see all the positive feedback, all the support we’ve received. The fact that it seems that the student body here, although we can’t necessarily do anything to stop it from happening, we have all sort of banded together as one big voice to stand against it.”