Anti-abortion speaker with transphobic and ableist views invited to Wellesley By Ann Zhao, India Lacey, Renée Remsberg
Wellesley NewsOctober 21, 2021
CW: This article contains discussions of transphobia, ableism and anti-abortion views.
On Oct. 14, posters titled “The Future is Anti-Abortion” began to appear around campus advertising a guest speaker named Kristan Hawkins. Sponsored by the student organization Wellesley for Life (WFL), the event is slated to take place on Oct. 21. Student backlash was immediate — Twitter threads, Instagram stories and Facebook posts discussed the speaker’s attitudes towards abortion and transgender people, as well as a variety of methods to protest the event.
As part of her initial response, student Maddie Paoletti ’22 created a document that compiled student concerns about bringing Hawkins to campus, including the assertation that her transphobic and ableist viewpoints constituted a breach of the College’s official non-discrimination policy. Among other things, the document included an email template to send to Director of Student Activities Jessica Grady, created by Tazrean Hossain ’24. This eventually became the planning document for a protest that was slated to occur during the event.
While the Google document was initially open to all members of the public, it was locked on Oct. 20 when Hawkins shared it in a public statement from her affiliated organization, Students for Life of America. Among other things, the statement said that “preparations are being made to address any violence instigated by protestors during the event.” ...
This is the poster defaced by the tolerant leftists at Hillary Clinton's
alma mater: