Turning Point USA has cancelled a planned event at the University of Washington featuring conservative activist and detransitioner Chloe Cole, citing the murder of a transgender UW student last week and a wave of violent threats directed at the organisation that it says were designed to falsely link the event to the killing.
The event had been scheduled to feature Cole, who transitioned genders before later reversing that decision and has since become a prominent conservative voice against transgender healthcare and what she describes as transgender ideology. The plans were shelved after a transgender UW student was stabbed to death in her off-campus apartment on Sunday night, the same case Seattle Today reported on earlier this week in which police are still searching for an armed and dangerous suspect.
In a statement, the UW chapter of Turning Point USA condemned the murder in unambiguous terms. “No one should ever be subjected to such senseless brutality. Our thoughts and condolences are with the victim’s family and friends,” the statement read. The organisation said an overwhelming surge of violent threats followed the killing, with the threats appearing deliberately designed to associate the planned event with the murder. “Threats that appear deliberately designed to falsely associate our peaceful event with the murder have led us to make the difficult decision to postpone,” the statement said. The organisation was clear that the postponement does not represent a withdrawal from campus. “TPUSA at UW is not leaving campus. We remain fully committed to promoting free speech, open dialogue, and intellectual diversity at the University of Washington,” it said.
Cole offered a different characterisation of the cancellation in a video posted to X. “Antifa has assembled a local militia, in their own words, to shut down this event,” Cole said. “Their actions, their explicit threats on my life, have raised this event to national attention, a level of attention our security team and our PD are frankly unprepared for.”
It is not the first time a Turning Point USA event at UW has drawn controversy. At a previous event on campus, a counterprotester was arrested after repeatedly playing drums despite warnings from campus security to stop.
No rescheduled date for the Chloe Cole event has been announced.
