When Daily Wire host Michael Knowles spoke last month at the University of Utah, he was met with a host of leftist protesters and university-approved transgender flags filling the building he was speaking in — a demonstration that was in part supported by the school faculty.
The protest took place as Knowles, who had been brought to campus by the Young America’s Foundation, gave a speech on the problems with transgender ideology on April 8 at the university. At the same time, Philip Osteen, the dean of Utah’s College of Social Work, reportedly extended the school’s Pride celebration so that it coincided with Knowles’ speech and approved for transgender and LGBT flags and banners to fill the building Knowles was set to speak in.
Osteen, the dean of the building where Knowles spoke, approved the trans flag demonstration, but said he couldn’t give the go-ahead for students to put up American flags when pressed by YAF representative Breana Marsh.
“I think it’s a gross misuse to say that we’re going to make a safe place, we’re going to make students feel represented and protected, and everyone feels safe, at the absolute hanging of your conservative students,” Marsh said in audio shared by YAF with The Daily Wire.
Osteen said she should bring her concerns to the dean of students, saying that YAF could put up American flags in the room where Knowles was speaking but “not in the decoration of this building.”
He then said that if YAF got approval from facilities and the dean of students that they could put up American flags. When asked why he could approve Pride flags, but not the American flag, he said “because I approved these to go up as a celebration of our pride.”
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When asked about why Pride week had been continued into a second week, Osteen said it was because the school wanted students to know it was “an inclusive place to support trans rights, LGBTQ2s rights.”
Later, during his speech Knowles commented on the amount of students who had shown up to oppose him. He said he was surprised that even in “meek and mild Utah,” he saw a video of “some wild banshee-like lady accosting, assaulting one of the students here as the student was hanging up flyers for this lecture tonight.”
One protester, who did not listen to Knowles’ speech, sat down with The Daily Wire host after to discuss their views. During their conversation, Knowles pushed him to reconsider his acceptance of transgender ideology.
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