In the wake of Penn State’s canceling of a Real Women’s Day speech set to be delivered by former NCAA swimming champion Riley Gaines, Republican lawmakers in the Keystone State are threatening to pull state funding from the university.
The Save Women’s Sports activist had planned an event to urge support for real women that was set for Tuesday at Penn State University (PSU).
But on the day the event was to take place, Gaines jumped to her X account to tell supporters that the school refused to allow the event and claimed she “missed a deadline” to file a request to reserve the room.
Gaines slammed the school for hypocrisy and posted a video to prove it, featuring PSU President Neeli Bendapudi piously proclaiming that her school is a big supporter of free speech.
Gaines found it absurd that the same school claiming to represent freedom of speech canceled her speech for women.
“No way President of Penn State makes a whole video explaining why public institutions are legally obligated to let ‘bigots’ apparently like me on campus to speak then proceeds to CANCEL my speech tomorrow for real women’s day (X/X),” Gaines said in her Oct. 9 post. “Have it your way. See ya tomorrow with a soap box and megaphone, Penn State!”
No way President of Penn State makes a whole video explaining why public institutions are legally obligated to let "bigots" apparently like me on campus to speak then proceeds to CANCEL my speech tomorrow for real women's day (X/X)😭😂
— Riley Gaines (@Riley_Gaines_) October 9, 2023
Have it your way. See ya tomorrow with a… pic.twitter.com/vHTPbK6hBZ
The school claimed it was Gaines’ fault for not reserving the room “in time,” but Gaines also posted communications from school officials that she says shows how they slow-walked the approval process and heaped more and more rules and conditions on her appearance.
I mean do you need confirmation that I was scheduled a room on campus? The cancellation was done after scheduling through Leadership Institute (not campus affiliated group) after TPUSA didn't meet the deadline. Btw TPUSA DID initially meet the deadline, but the University… https://t.co/sHE5o5uOtx pic.twitter.com/C1O4hGadd6
— Riley Gaines (@Riley_Gaines_) October 10, 2023
Consequently, Turning Point USA and Gaines held a rally at UPenn and gained the support of Pennsylvania State Senator Cris Dush, who attended the event. Dush used his appearance at the protest to threaten UPenn’s funding.
According to Newsweek, the senator was seen calling out the leftist counter-protesters.
“You wanna lose 150 million dollars to the campus for your friends. I’m state senator Cris Dush, if you guys don’t behave yourselves, you very well…,” Dush exclaimed in a video reported by the magazine.
When one counter-protester demanded to know if Dush supports trans people, the senator replied, “I support the people who are here like Riley Gaines.”
The College Fix added that Dush blasted the counter-protesters for being anti-free speech.
“The people who were here yelling and trying to shout things down had no interest in [civil discourse]. It’s all about feelings and emotions and not about having a real intellectual discourse about the issues,” Dush said.
“We hold the purse strings for an awful lot of universities in Pennsylvania,” he added. “We can make them sit up and take notice that you guys have a responsibility [to uphold free speech on campus].”
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