Democratic State Rep. La’Tasha D. Mayes questioned University of Pittsburgh chancellor Patrick Gallagher's choice to allow conservative speakers on campus during a hearing on Tuesday.
During a 2023-24 House Appropriations budget hearing, Mayes demanded the university cancel events featuring speakers who have been critical of transgender ideology. The petition, "Hold the University Of Pittsburgh Accountable in Protecting LGBTQIA+ Individuals," which is later cited by Mayes directly, warns of incoming guests such as competitive swimmer Riley Gaines, Daily Wire commentator Michael Knowles, and Daily Wire podcast host Cabot Phillips.
Mayes specifically called out Knowles for his comments at CPAC that "Transgenderism must be eradicated from public life entirely." Transgender advocates have interpreted this rhetoric as genocidal or violent.
"It has come to my attention that three speakers who have crossed the line of free speech over into hate speech targeting transgender students and the transgender community, they're coming to campus beginning this Friday," Mayes told Gallagher. "One of them saying essentially that transgender people should be eradicated."
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She added, "So, Chancellor you're allowing them to come on campus. How does this keep transgender students safe? 'How does this keep LGBTQ+ students safe at my Alma Mater and how does this align with the values at the University of Pittsburgh and its commitment to diversity, inclusion and equity, and you know, making sure that it’s an inclusive place for all students."
"We fully stand with all of our students including our trans and non-gender conforming students who have a lot of concerns about this," Gallagher responded during the hearing. "We understand the concerns, and we agree that a lot of the rhetoric that is happening both nationally and will potentially happen on campus is enormously problematic for them."
However, he professed he is obligated to support freedom of debate on campus.
"The other part of this though is that the university is a place of dialogue and in fact both constitutional and academic free speech are things that I am obligated to support. Which means that many of the rules governing, in this case extracurricular activities by registered student organizations has to be applied independent of the content of the events," he said. "The safety of our students is never a question here, even in these difficult times."
He later added that "The one thing that makes this very challenging is there is a tendency to want to define what the university stands for by who's allowed to speak on the campus and therein lies the problem."
He compared the values of being an inclusive institution while allowing freedom of speech for all.
"It is at times when the speech is most repugnant that these values are the hardest to uphold, and we’re doing our best to make sure that we support the rights of our students, our faculty, our staff, and our community while at the same time upholding their rights of expression and to invite speakers and to do this," he said.
Mayes was unmoved, and repeated her previous line of rhetoric.
"From here as the Representative and Pitt as part of my district I certainly echo my call for you to cancel the speakers who are coming to campus and I stand with the almost 11,000 students and supporters on campus who have asked you to do the same."
Gaines has become a national figure in women's sports after she called for the fair treatment and to stop allowing transgender women from competing against biological females in high level competition. Gaines tied with then-Penn swimmer Lia Thomas, who is transgender, at the NCAA championships last year.
