YAF Hosts Dr. Ryan T. Anderson, Other Organizations Host Inclusion and Belonging Events

Posted By Katie Oglesby and Alli Dayton on Oct 19, 2022 | 1 comment

By Katie Oglesby, Editor-in-Chief, Alli Dayton, Managing/News Editor, and Ella Prieto, Staff Writer

On Tuesday in College Union Building (CUB) 260, Dr. Ryan T. Anderson spoke with Gettysburg College students on the subject: “Responding to the Transgender Moment.” The speaker was sponsored by the Gettysburg College chapter of Young Americans for Freedom (YAF).

Director of the Office of Student Activities and Greek Life Jon Allen said 116 people were present at the event, including College staff members and Anderson himself. 

After a few weeks of on-campus tensions regarding the event, and discussions of potential protests, there was a Campus Safety and College Life presence at the event. The seating area outside CUB 260 was blocked off, and multiple Campus Safety officers stood outside checking with people entering the event. 

The Chairman of YAF John Riccardi ’24 explained that Dr. Ryan T. Anderson provided his own security for the event.

According to previous reporting by The Gettysburgian, in March 2022, YAF asked Student Senate for funding for the event and they were denied. Many members of Student Senate at the time expressed concern about the event making LGBTQ+ students on campus feel unsafe. 

Social Affinity Group leader at the time EJ Gill ’23 said, “I heavily pushed to deny funding on the basis that it was not right to spend Senate money to have this hateful guy come on to campus and attempt to invalidate so many students. During the budget request and surrounding it, a handful of the executive board last year tried to push the ‘Freedom of Expression Policy’ in defense of funding this event. I simply just did not agree on the basis that Student Senate has a right to deny funds from events that they felt the majority of their constituents did not want here…Several clubs in my affinity group were LGBTQ+ clubs. I did my due diligence to make sure senate funds did not go towards the speaker.”

That discussion has continued into this week with College Democrats hanging posters in opposition to YAF posters saying, “Responding to YAF’s Transphobia…Thinking about Attending YAF’s Transphobic Event? Why Not Do Anything Else?” and members of YAF hanging their own posters with packing tape after students on campus were taking them down. 

At the Event

Inside CUB 260, YAF hung signs that said, “Disrupting Speech is Fascism,” “Practice the Tolerance You Preach,” and “Tolerance Includes Listening,” on the walls. 

Associate Vice President of College Life Jeff Foster began the talk by saying, “We recognize that members of the community may disagree with the speaker. However, interfering with others’ ability to see or hear the speaker violates College policy and will result in action through the College’s conduct process.”

Vice Chairman of YAF Chris Fleres ’26 introduced Anderson as the speaker. He noted that during the question and answer portion after Anderson spoke, priority would be given to those that disagreed. 

Anderson is the president of the Ethics and Public Policy Center, a conservative think tank based in Washington D.C. He is also the founding editor of Public Discourse, the Witherspoon Institute’s online journal. He graduated from Princeton University, and received his doctorate at the University of Notre Dame. His most recent book is “When Harry Became Sally.” 

Anderson began by saying, “It’s good that we have so many people here from a variety of probably ideological backgrounds, political backgrounds, philosophical backgrounds, so it’ll give us a good exchange of ideas.”

He divided his talk into six parts pertaining to “how we regulate our embodiment as male and female.” These categories were privacy, safety, equality, liberty, bodily integrity, and ideology.

When discussing privacy, Anderson brought up the issues of separate bathrooms on the basis of sex.

“[Our embodiment as male or female] is a difference that makes a difference when it comes to the bathrooms and locker rooms and dorm rooms and homeless shelters and prisons, because bodily privacy matters,” he said. 

For the issue of safety, Anderson brought up California changing their prison assignments based on gender identity rather than sex. 

“One of the reasons why we have separate facilities, in this case, prisons, for men and women is that there are safety concerns,” he said. “So when you’re in a situation of vulnerability, like a bathroom or a locker room or a prison, it makes sense to have separate facilities for male and female.”

He extended the concern for safety to athletic competitions in physical contact sports, like mixed martial arts.

“One of the reasons why we have separate athletic competitions for boys and girls, for men and women, is that there’s a safety concern,” Anderson said. “Male and female bodies are different when it comes to physical competition. And that may be why you don’t want them competing in contact sports.”

This led into his next point about equality, where he discussed transgender individuals competing on sports teams, especially the NCAA championship swimming competition where a member of the University of Pennsylvania, a transgender student, was the star member of the women’s swim team.

“Men are now better than women at being women,” he said, pointing to this member being named “Female Athlete of the Year,” despite being previously unsuccessful on the men’s swimming team, according to Anderson.

Anderson’s next point about liberty refers to, what he said, is “whether or not you will be forced to speak someone else’s belief, rather you will have to speak what someone else believes to be the truth.”

He asked if in a “free country,” you should have the authority to tell someone else to believe or speak certain things pertaining to gender identities and pronouns. He referred then to Jordan Peterson, a Toronto professor.

“[Peterson] thought that as a college professor, what he owed his students was his best understanding of the truth,” Anderson said. “And that to use a preferred pronouns, to use made-up pronouns, to use the new names, affirming a misunderstood identity, was actually to no longer be doing what was in his student’s best interests.” 

Anderson also pointed to doctors who would rather not transition someone, and view it as a violation of the Hippocratic Oath. He suggested that to provide hormonal and surgical procedures is like prescribing liposuction to someone with anorexia.

“We’ve seen a 4,400 percent increase over the past five to ten years in the number of young women presenting themselves to gender clinics seeking testosterone and double mastectomies,” he said. “That’s the concern that many physicians have with this. So one is whether or not those physicians who think the proper response, the most loving, the most compassionate, the most scientifically- and medically-grounded response is to actually engage in basic talk therapy.” 

He also addressed the Affordable Care Act’s requirement of not discriminating on the basis of sex, and the recent redefinition of sex as gender identity, and the implications this has for health care requiring insurance companies cover and physicians perform “sex-reassignment procedures.” 

This led into his concern of bodily integrity, where he said, “We’re now using our civil rights laws to mandate bodily harm to minors.”

He explained that he sees giving puberty blocking prescriptions and letting minors go through transition surgeries as harm to their bodies that is irreversible. 

“America’s…a free country and I’m free to make my own choices, my own mistakes. It’s another thing to say that about children,” he said. 

His final point about ideology has to do with how gender theorists “disagree” on gender. Some, as he noted, say that gender is performative, whereas others see it as an inner truth. 

He focused on the causality of gender dysphoria, saying, “They’re not making it up. They really exist, which is why it’s so idiotic when people say, ‘Oh, you don’t think they exist, or you’re denying their existence?’…The only question is what’s the underlying causality of that set of feelings?…And then second, what is the best response?”

The floor then opened for the question and answer section. 

Senate Representative for YAF Andrew Breschard ’22 asked Anderson about “the shift of most trans people from being men to women” and why Anderson theorized that might be.

Anderson noted that there isn’t much research on the subject, but pointed to a “social contagion aspect” when whole friend groups would come out as non-binary or transgender, and the #MeToo movement and culture of sexual harrassment against women.

Dan Margolis ’24 challenged Anderson’s point that being transgender is a new phenomenon.

“And I don’t understand where you see that as being like a damaging component to society, and there is a historic precedent for it. I’m just not sure I see the kind of threat you’re talking about at all,” he said. 

Anderson called the historic references Margolis referred to “isolated incidents,” pointing toward “The Danish Girl” and referring again to the 4,400 percent increase.

“I think it’s harmful for those two middle school girls in Loudoun County who were assaulted by a boy in their bathroom. I think it’s unfair to those female athletes who lost the chance to actually win an athletic competition because there was a man competing in their category,” he said.

One member of the audience said, “you’ve been infamously against gay marriage. When did you switch your political motivations from trying to solve gay marriage…to trying to solve trans people?”

Anderson noted that his work has been cited by the Supreme Court in same sex marriage cases. He also noted that he began to see a “rolling revolution in our culture and in our law, and I thought many of these changes didn’t make sense.”

“Everyone who hates me, already hates me because of the gay marriage stuff,” he said. “I have nothing to lose.”

Ethan Bruemmer ’23 asked, “How do you feel about the College holding LGBTQ+ events on the same day?”

“It’s a little silly for the College itself to be sponsoring opposition events to a student-led initiative. For me, I just think it’s fine…if one student group wants to host this event, other student groups want to host a different event,” Anderson said. “It just strikes me as not quite the role of the College…to more or less pick sides…How do you think that makes the students who organized tonight’s event feel?…It makes it seem like a certain class of students might not have the full support of the administration, which could actually raise civil rights questions, whether or not the College is discriminating against students.”

Riccardi called Anderson’s visit a “great success.”

After the talk, Riccardi said, “The turnout was so large that the event space ran out of seating. Even with so many students present, of different backgrounds and opinions, there were zero disruptions. Those in attendance asked insightful questions and witnessed firsthand that speech is, in fact, not violence. This clearly demonstrates that our campus is capable of having a dialogue on important issues.”

Though, he countered the events that were present at the same time, saying, “It proves how inappropriate it was for the College and Cristina Garcia to advertise a total of seven protest events. The administration should not be in such direct opposition to conservative students and Young Americans for Freedom, a student-led and Senate recognized group.”

Inclusion and Belonging Events on Tuesday

Students at the Inclusion and Belonging Barbecue on Tuesday, Oct. 18, 2022 listen to Listeners and Performers (Photo Eric Lippe/The Gettysburgian).

Many campus organizations and student groups hosted inclusion-focused events throughout the day, including pride chalking and signs for solidarity. 

Prior to the lecture, the Office of Multicultural Engagement, the Center for Religious and Spiritual Life, the Gender and Sexuality Resource Center, International Student Services, and Hillel sponsored food for the Inclusion and Belonging BBQ on Stine Lake. 

Director of Religious and Spiritual Life and College Chaplain Bright explained, “This event is about being able to…hang out and have a great time and just enjoying being a part of the community…that’s what this event was for.”  

Regarding the proximity of the event to the YAF lecture, Associate Dean for Inclusion and Belonging Cristina Garcia said, “The [timing of the] event absolutely was a coincidence. It was very intentional. It was meant to create…a bridge for the community, and we purposefully end at the time their speaker begins so that people do have the opportunity to go.” 

The event, which was advertised as “a celebration of identity and community,” included a concert by Listeners and Performers, a performance from Four Scores, a barbeque, and kite decorating.

Four Scores Acapella also performed at the Inclusion and Belonging Barbecue on Tuesday, Oct. 18, 2022 (Photo Eric Lippe/The Gettysburgian).

“I think [the event] is a beautiful expression of identity, camaraderie, and support for students who are feeling particularly alienated tonight,” said attendee Tom Cassara ’23. 

Garcia continued, “As the Associate Dean for Inclusion and Belonging, I wanted to offer something to the Gettysburg community so that those that felt singled out or attacked or felt like they…didn’t have a place of belonging on this campus.” 

“A lot of students feel that allowing the speaker, we’re endorsing it. None of our speakers express our values as a college,” Garcia added. 

Bright added, “I’m going to the event not because I support them, but because I support our students and I believe that they need this opportunity.” 

Additional events that occurred at the same time as the lecture included an open house hosted by the Department of Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies (WGS) and a game night sponsored by the Department of Sociology. 

WGS Chairperson and Professor Nathalie Lebon said, “The idea [of the WGS open house] is to offer a positive space for people to be together and support the LGBTQ+ community.” 

Students also viewed these evening events as alternative spaces to the location where the lecture took place. 

Sociology Office Assistant Tiffany Gonzalez ’24 said, “The sociology department wanted to offer an alternative safe space than people doing their homework in CUB because that is where the event is taking place.” 

WGS Ambassador Samantha Martin ‘24 continued this idea stating, “With people like Ryan T. Anderson, so much of their power is getting people to be upset and react. They want to humiliate those who oppose them. This event gives a safe space with something to do instead and keeps people from going to the Ryan T. Anderson event so that they do not argue with someone who has nefarious intent.”