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Mar 2, 23

Davis to Protest Charlie Kirk Tour After CEO Calls for Trans People to Be “Taken Care Of The Way We Used To In the 1950s”

After calling for trans people to be “taken care of,” Turning Point CEO Charlie Kirk is launching a campus tour. Students and community members in Davis, CA are calling for protests. Originally posted to Indybay.

Far-Right multi-millionaire and Trump cheerleader Charlie Kirk, CEO of Turning Point USA, a network of far-Right student groups on college campuses that includes crossover with neo-Nazis and white supremacists and is backed by massive foundations and billionaire donors, has launched a spring 2023 speaking tour of college campuses.

Students and community groups are mobilizing to oppose them.

From Trump to Stop the Steal

Turning Point USA and Kirk rose to prominence during Trump’s 2016 run for election, made possible by Kirk’s wealthy father being the lead architect on Trump Tower. Since then, TPUSA has grown to bring in tens of millions of dollars every year, which it uses to push everything from COVID misinformation to supporting the election campaigns of far-Right Republicans.

Kirk and TPUSA were heavily involved in popularizing the “Stop the Steal” movement which falsely claimed that the 2020 election was “stolen” and also worked to chart buses to DC on January 6th.

Far from promoting “free speech” and opposing “big government,” Turning Point USA actively maintains a “Professor Watchlist” and promotes an authoritarian Christian Nationalist worldview.

A Platform for the Far-Right and a Home for White Supremacists

Turning Point USA works directly with many on the far-Right, including the murderous Kyle Rittenhouse, “Pizzagate” conspiracy peddler Jack Posobiec, Candace Owens, who made a movie attacking Black Lives Matter and claimed Hitler wasn’t so bad, and far-Right grifter Andy Ngo. Even its “honorary board” includes figures such as fascist-linked Sebastian Gorka and election denier Mike “Pillow Guy” Lindell.

Turning Point USA has also helped launch the careers of notorious white supremacists. Kaitlin “Gun Girl” Bennett, infamous for taking part in the TPUSA “diaper” fiasco, went on to promote white nationalism, anti-Semitism, and replacing the US with a “monarchy.” Las Vegas Turning Point leader Riley Grisar, was kicked out of the organization after a video went viral of him screaming, “White power! Fuck the ni*gers!” Former TPUSA leader Jaden McNeil, went on to work with Holocaust denier Nick Fuentes after being kicked out of the organization, and finally, far-Right troll Milo Yiannopoulos, went from speaking at TPUSA events to working with Nick Fuentes on the anti-Semitic 2024 Presidential campaign of Kanye West, himself a former associate of Charlie Kirk.

Other Nick Fuentes supporters remain welcome within Turning Point despite promoting white supremacist and anti-Semitic ideas.This includes people like John Doyle, a guest speaker at a recent Turning Point event in Santa Barbara who argued that “being assassinated was like the best thing that could have happened” to Martin Luther King, Jr., white supremacists like Tyler Russel, who has gone from speaking at Turning Point events to campaigning on college campuses for Kanye West, promoting open Holocaust denial and Hitler worship, and local TPUSA leader Brandt Wiggins in Alabama, a follower of Nick Fuentes who has organized Turning Point events with other white supremacists.

Proud Boys Attack the Davis Community

White supremacist and fascist groups like the Proud Boys also have a history of showing up to Turning Point events looking to engage in violent assaults against counter-protesters.

In October of 2022, at least 8 Sacramento Proud Boys showed up at a Turning Point event on the UC Davis campus and viciously attacked community members and people counter-protesting the far-Right speaker, MAGA Hulk. Proud Boys threw metal barricades and punched passers-by, while Jeff Perrine (known Proud Boy and white nationalist), claimed on a live-stream that UC police were absent because, “They know we’re here. They want us to fight them.”

This attack was only the latest in a string of coordinated far-Right assaults by the Proud Boys and aligned neo-Nazis against LGBTQ+ events, school board meetings, and anti-racist protesters in the Sacramento area.

Charlie Kirk Calls for Trans People to Be “Taken Care Of The Way We Used To In the 1950s or 60s”

While the Proud Boys attack counter-protesters outside of Turning Point events, people like Charlie Kirk are pushing for violence against marginalized communities on a mass scale. On a recent episode of The Charlie Kirk Show, Kirk attacked trans athletes, and stated that “someone should have just “took care of it” the way we used to take care of things in the 1950s or 60s,” seemingly calling for lynchings. Kirk’s comments echo other Christian Nationalists and gender fascists like Matt Walsh, who also call for violence against trans people and their imprisonment.

These comments aren’t taking place in a vacuum – but are part of a rising tide of violent attacks, mass shootings, and a growing number of laws targeting the LGBTQ+ community. Turning Point USA and Charlie Kirk are at the center of this push, and it’s up to us to build a movement in our streets, in our neighborhoods, and in our schools – that counters them.

Join us on Tuesday, March 14th at UC Davis in Davis, California to stand with our community in solidarity against Charlie Kirk, Turning Point USA, and the fascist Proud Boys and white supremacists who show up to support them.

From Milo to Richard Spencer, we’ve shut these fascists down before. When Proud Boys attacked us last fall, people held their ground and fought back. We’ve driven Alt-Right groups off our campuses in the past and we can do the same again today.

Bring signs, banners, and noise at 5PM to the Credit Union Center / Pavillion. Doors open at 6pm, Kirk is scheduled to speak at 7pm.

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The San Francisco Bay Area Independent Media Center (Indybay) is a non-commercial, democratic collective of bay area independent media makers and media outlets, and serves as the local organizing unit of the global Indymedia network.

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