Shouting Down Speakers Who Offend

Students at the State University of New York at Albany don’t view their recent protest of Ian Haworth, a conservative writer and podcaster who has made provocative statements about transgender people, as a disruption of his speaking engagement on campus. Rather, they consider it a demonstration of positivity, joy and support of LGBTQ+ students, meant to counteract the hate they said Haworth brought to campus.

Officials ended up relocating Haworth’s speech to another room in UAlbany’s Campus Center, which was “configured at the time for about 30 people,” according to university spokesperson Jordan Carleo-Evangelist. The UAlbany incident is part a string of recent events in which left-leaning protesters have shut down or interrupted conservative voices invited to speak on college campuses.