On March 2, I attended a conservative event at my university.
It didn’t go well: I had to be hidden in a janitor’s closet as protesters and rioters searched for me. I was later evacuated under police protection.
The event was hosted by my student organization, the Young Conservatives of Texas at the University of North Texas. We were hosting Jeff Younger, a local candidate who would be speaking about criminalizing child gender transitions and his personal experience with this topic regarding his son. It quickly became clear that a police presence would be needed at the event to ensure safety despite the topic being one of mainstream conservative discussion.
The sheer amount of police at the event was alarming considering we were just trying to have a meeting! There were police on roofs of nearby buildings, officers in riot gear, Texas Rangers, and more. The meeting room had about 60 protesters inside, with perhaps 200 others outside the building waiting for us to leave.
As the event began, protesters inside the room immediately started screaming and banging on tables. Their intent was clear: They were determined to prevent our presentation from being heard. The protesters were spitting on anyone who “misgendered” them, standing on tables and shrieking, and running around the front of the room so as to get in our faces. The behavior was shocking. We initially tried to mollify the protesters by telling them there would be time at the end for them to ask questions and discuss, but they didn’t care.
Police ended up evacuating Younger and me due to the number of protesters gathering outside. As we exited the building, people threw signs in my face to cut me off from the police escorting me to the car. I ended up stuck outside with this mob of people swarming around me, chanting “F*** Kelly.” Officers ended up putting me in a janitor’s closet in a nearby building, which protesters then breached. We turned the light off in the closet, and we heard the protesters running and screaming in the hallway — they even shook the handle of the closet we were in. Soon, more officers showed up to get me out of the building and into a car. I was genuinely scared for my life as we stood in that janitor’s closet with the light off.
What to make of all this?
The phrase “tolerant Left” has become an oxymoron, and the “Left” itself has become synonymous with hatred and, at its worst excesses, violence. There is nothing tolerant about causing students to fear for their lives simply because they won’t bow to the left-wing orthodoxy.
The cost in terms of chilled philosophical contemplation and speech is very real. Left-wing activists such as those who accosted me have created such a toxic environment on campus that many conservative students stay silent. They don’t share their political views even with their closest friends. After all, as soon as you are labeled a conservative, you become a target. College has turned into an echo chamber, no longer a place for open discussions.
This is happening at universities across the nation, not just at UNT. Still, this isn’t the only time UNT leftists have disrupted events and harassed conservatives on campus. In my 2 1/2 years at UNT, I’ve been hexed by a coven of leftist student witches and witnessed my club’s pro-life memorial vandalized and ransacked. Just last semester, about 250 students/antifa members crashed my club’s prayer vigil, chanting “F*** your God” as they threw condoms at us. These students, inadvertent followers of the Taliban, which is a Pashto word for “students,” are out of control. Unfortunately, our university president has sided with them and condemned my conservative club.
But there is cause for hope. Although nearly everyone on campus seems to be against myself and my conservative group, we have no intention of backing down. It is more important than ever to have a strong conservative presence on college campuses. Free speech matters.
Kelly Neidert is a conservative student activist at the University of North Texas.
