An administrator at San Francisco State University has defended the actions of student protesters after athlete and activist Riley Gaines, who has campaigned against the entry of transgender women into women’s sports, was allegedly assaulted during an on-campus event last Thursday.
In a statement released on Saturday, SFSU Vice President for student affairs and enrollment management, Jamillah Moore, thanked the “students who participated peacefully,” and praised the mob for “demonstrat[ing] the value of free speech and the right to protest peacefully.”
The statement also offered “counseling and psychological services” to students who needed to “reflect, process and begin to heal” after hounding Gaines off campus. “It took tremendous bravery to stand in such a challenging space,” she wrote.
Gaines, later confirmed she had been trapped on the SFSU campus for three hours and missed her flight home “because it was not safe to leave,” she told Campus Reform on Tuesday.
“These ‘peaceful’ protestors stormed into the classroom where I was explaining why sex-protected sports are necessary for fairness and safety and ambushed me,” Gaines said.
Protesters allegedly demanded money in exchange for her safe passage, and she was repeatedly hit by an individual she believes to be a biological male. Video of her attempted escape posted to social media shows a crowd of people shrieking slogans, including “trans rights are human rights,” while pursuing her through classrooms and hallways.
The SFU administrator later blocked Gaines on Twitter, to which the swimmer responded that Moore “won’t be able to ignore my lawsuit.”
The riot at SFSU attracted the attention of conservative legislators, including House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, who described it as “an appalling attack on free speech on a college campus” and pledged House Republicans’ support.
Increasingly aggressive protests at conservative events have exerted a noticeable chilling effect. Last month, Daily Wire commentator Matt Walsh, whose film ‘What is a woman’? has sparked controversy, canceled speaking events at Washington and Lee University “due to threats against [his] family.”
Conservative commentators are not the only ones being pressured into silence – economist and transgender woman Deirdre McCloskey recently backed out of a debate with anti-trans conservative Michael Knowles scheduled for this month at the University of Pittsburgh after 11,000 people signed a petition to cancel the event.