Action Announcement: Penn State students and people of State College, show Penn State Administration that you oppose white supremacy, transphobia, xenophobia, and neofascism by gathering in a student-led protest against Milo "Pray the Gay Away" Yiannopoulos on October 28th in the evening at Heritage Hall in the HUB-Robeson Center. At this moment, it is critical that we stand with marginalized communities against the threat of the neofascist movement and its agents such as Milo Yiannopoulos.

For updates, follow @scds_sc on Instagram. For questions or to get involved in the struggle against white supremacy, transphobia, xenophobia, and neofascism, DM us on Instagram or email scdsstatecollege@protonmail.com.

On October 28, 2024, far-right organization Uncensored America is planning to hold a "speaking engagement" with Milo "Pray the Gay Away" Yiannopoulos at Penn State. Penn State Administration has been intentionally vague in their statements on these "controversial speakers," refusing to identify the neofascists who they are allowing to come to our campus and into our community or the organizations that are inviting them.

Milo is not a "controversial speaker," as the Penn State Admin wants us to believe. He materially supports neofascist organizing and legitimizes and profits off anti-trans and white supremacist violence.

Milo is not coming to engage in "free speech"—he is coming here to generate monetary and political value for himself and to legitimize the nationwide wave of anti-trans violence. By allowing and facilitating these far-right events, Administrators are actively facilitating violence against the trans community, people of color, and other marginalized groups at Penn State.

Admin cannot play both sides by trying to satisfy bigoted forces and support marginalized communities at the same time. Those, like Milo and Uncensored America, who invalidate the existence of others based off of their identity, are not welcome members of our community. They are an anti-people force that is facilitating violence against marginalized groups and using students' money to do so. There is no legitimate reason that these anti-people forces deserve to make careers off by endangering students and taking their money. This is not "free speech." Administrators claim to value student safety as a top priority, yet their actions reveal the opposite.

Our Demands

We, the students and community of State College, as well as people committed to social justice from around the country, make the following demands of the Penn State Administration:

1. We demand the Penn State Administration deny Uncensored America permission to pay and platform Milo Yiannopoulos with a "speaking engagement" in October 2024.
2. We demand the Penn State Admin go to court if it has to do so in order to deny Uncensored America permission for this event. We do not accept empty lawyer-speak claiming that Penn State, which has a special legal status, has to pay and platform fascists for "state funding"—denying permission to pay and platform someone does not violate their first amendment rights.
3. We demand the Penn State Admin delink student speaker funding from the Student Initiated Fee, which has only been policy since 2017. Delinking it would prevent Admin from using the legal precedent of "viewpoint neutrality" to finance neofascists.
4. We demand the Penn State Admin dissolve the far-right organization Uncensored America for endangering our community on numerous occasions and for violating the University's policies for RSOs and student conduct.
5. We demand the Penn State Admin stop their protracted attack on marginalized communities and, instead, materially invest in the wellbeing of students and faculty who are trans, people of color, and other marginalized people. Particularly, we demand that the money that would have been spent on Uncensored America's Milo Yiannopoulos event be given to marginalized students and student groups who can educate students on how to change university policy to stop the spread of far-right extremism on campus.

Paying and platforming bigots like Milo while allowing them to network and build political prestige in far-right circles goes against everything for which we Penn Staters stand, including the core values of our university. Paying and platforming neofascists actively undermines what many professors teach in their classes. Paying and platforming racist, homophobic, transphobic political agents within our academic community disrupts our educational experience without adding anything of merit to our campus.

Let us Penn Staters and friends join together and make the Penn State community a world leader in opposing the wave of anti-trans, racist neofascism in deeds and not only in words.

*SCDS is a group of Penn State student organizers who operate independently from the university's system, which is ultimately controlled by Penn State Admin.