UCSB students create ‘safe space’ ahead of conservative speech: Here’s what they’re scared of

Matt Walsh’s points on liberty and transgenderism to be made Thursday at UC-Santa Barbara are already causing fear, and he hasn’t even spoken yet. A safe space has been set up for the same time as the event, The College Fix reported.

The St. Michael’s University Church is hosting a “Transgender Solidarity Meal” close to campus.

“Recently, the transgender community in Isla Vista has been the target of hateful, abusive, and belittling statements and gatherings,” the Facebook event noted.

The “Cinco de May-themed meal” promises to “be a safe place for all who identify with or support the transgender community.”

Walsh’s event “An Encroachment on Liberty: How the Left Exploits Transgender Laws” is hosted by the UCSB Young Americans for Liberty and sponsored by Young Americans for Freedom

“Some persons have been suggesting that our upcoming event on transgenderism is somehow contrary to libertarianism,” the YAL chapter noted, which they called “a baseless suggestion.”

A post from the group said, with original emphasis:

In fact, this event is not merely not contrary to libertarianism—it instead *dovetails* with libertarianism. Why? Because in the last couple years we have seen *the state* force businesses and citizens to, e.g., create “gender neutral” restrooms, or to pay for sex reassignment surgery, or to not “misgender” someone on pain of a fee of $250,000, etc. Insofar as libertarianism is a thesis about the proper role of the state and insofar as such things are contrary to Liberty (understood, as it is by political philosophers, as a right of non-interference, particularly against interference by the state), the transgenderism movement presents obvious threats to Liberty.

The suggestion, then, that this event is somehow contrary to libertarianism is false and demonstrably so. It is instead the case that this event *furthers* the cause of libertarianism (and once again demonstrably so).

The YAL chapter posted a Facebook response to the “Transgender Solidarity Meal,” noting students who disagree should come to the event and voice their concerns during the Q&A session.

Carlos D. Flores shared the Walsh event on the solidarity meal’s page. “We at YAL do not shun disagreement—in fact, we welcome it and we welcome you—anyone: people on the left, right, libertarian, whatever—to the event,” he wrote.

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