Dozens of students and staff at Central Connecticut State University protested Thursday about a controversial film being shown there, saying it’s transphobic and insulting.
The university said it doesn’t endorse the message of the film, while the leader of a conservative student group says there’s nothing wrong with showing the film.
Chants of protest were heard with transgender students and their allies leading the march, protesting the showing of the controversial film “What is a Woman?” on campus.
The film, produced by conservative political commentator Matt Walsh, is described as “exploring the changing concepts of sex and gender in the digital age, particularly the transgender rights movement, transphobia, and what it means to be a woman.”
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Junior Cody Cody says the film is transphobic and doesn’t represent the trans community at all.
“This documentary has been widely discredited. A lot of the statistics have been deliberately manipulated or directly made up,” Cody said.
In response, students and faculty said they want to show CCSU as a welcoming place for trans students, especially during Trans Awareness Week.
“We’re here to have a welcoming place for trans people. We’re here to have fun, be human,” junior Lily Mercado said.
Marcelina Halas, president of the Turning Point USA chapter at CCSU, a conservative student group which hosted the screening, says different viewpoints should be presented.
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“Our subjective perceptions on gender. That does not do away with biology,” she said.
Halas pushed back on the idea the film hurt the trans community.
“I would say that not anything that’s being shown is shown with malice or bad intentions with the desire to dehumanize or humiliate,” she said.
University President Zulma Toro says being a public institution, the screening was allowed to go forward on free speech grounds. However, she says the school stands with trans students and doesn’t endorse the message of the film.
“I am behind them because they are part of our community. They are human beings who deserve the right to free speech and be valued and respected,” Toro said.
Halas said she was disappointed by Toro’s response.
“Her usurping her authority as president to sort of impose her view on the student body because I think that can lead to alienation,” she said.
Cody says he wants to send the message that trans students are just like everyone else.
“We don’t want to have to march or throw events to feel accepted to let other people like us know they’re accepted and to live our lives normally,” he said.
