Buffalo, N.Y. (WBEN) - A Buffalo councilman, LGBTQIA+ advocates and UB students are speaking up in response to the university's decision to allow their Young Americans for Freedom club to have a guest speaker Michael Knowles come to campus Thursday.
Conservative political commentator and podcaster working for The Daily Wire, Michael Knowles, is known to be critical of transgenderism. During a speech last Saturday at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC), Knowles made headlines after saying, “transgenderism must be eradicated from public life entirely."
"As a city official, I understand that Mr. Knowles will be in the City of Buffalo and can speak and say his views," said Buffalo's Fillmore District Councilman Mitch Nowakowski.
"I'm not going to allow him to come into this community and eradicate trans voices. That's why we're here, to uplift trans voices in the City of Buffalo, to make sure that they get their voice and their due. And when he has hate speech that is trying to make trans people feel lonely, we're here today to search to show that there are spaces for them not to be lonely, and that their voices need to be uplifted too."
University at Buffalo's President, Satish K. Tripathi released a statement Tuesday, following petitions from professors and students pleading to not let Knowles come to campus.
"Hateful and dehumanizing rhetoric is an affront to everything our community embraces. To all those who are disenfranchised, marginalized and persecuted, including our transgender community, please know that we support you, and we will continue to uphold UB’s cherished values of diversity, equity and inclusion to ensure that the university remains a safe and welcoming place for you.
As a public university, we must support the constitutionally protected democratic principles of the First Amendment. The First Amendment to the Constitution protects speech no matter how noxious the content. The law is clear on this point. So long as a student group abides by university guidelines and state laws concerning public events on campus, we cannot disallow the student group from inviting the speaker of their choosing to campus. As a university community, and as members of a democratic society, we have the responsibility to uphold free speech."
Knowles will be giving his speech titled “How Radical Feminism Destroys Women (And Everything Else).” at 7 p.m. Thursday March 9th, at Slee Hall. This event is free to public and students.
"Universities have the right to condemn speakers, they have their own free speech rights to express their own views about the speakers that come to campus. And it's important to recognize that universities need not endorse or agree with every single speaker or a student group that is on its campus, it can have its own views about what it believes," said Zach Greenberg of The Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression or FIRE.
"And the important thing is that the speaker is allowed to come to campus and students are allowed to protest the speaker without disrupting him, of course, and present their own views in this marketplace of ideas. So it's a good response for glad to see and we're hoping University follows through on its commitment on his promise to allow the speech to go through and to allow students to confront the speaker."
A protest may break out before Knowles speaks. Signs have been posted around the University at Buffalo campus saying that sign supplies are available to those who wish to make a sign regarding their disdain for Knowles and another signs accompanying with the time the doors open, which could imply that a protest will ensue.
WBEN reached out to the University at Buffalo's YAF club, they did not respond for comment.
"These are people's lives. That is a very, very real risk that we're talking about here. This isn't conjecture," said Jack Kavanaugh, Executive Director of GLYS Western New York Inc.
"This isn't us thinking about what might happen. This is about what's happening right now. And it is documented every day. Unfortunately, for so many of our transgender young people in our community, again, particularly those of color, they do not have spaces that they can call safe. They didn't have schools or home environments that they can feel safe. And what we know is that consistently not having access to those spaces, increases the rates of suicide and violence every day."
"Be aware of the words that you use the words that you speak, because they have power and they have evidence of what is to come. As Buffalo I know, we all will pull together. And we have to make this a learning experience for all of us. And everyone out there. Okay, keep having those conversations," says Ari Moore, a transgender Western New York griot.
The advocates and the council are calling on UB to bring a speaker to talk about transgenderism to balance out the voices of Knowles and let those students of the LGBTQ commumity know that they have a voice and a space on campus.
Visit pridecenter.org for more information regarding services and safe spaces.