Trans Teen Has Ultimate Response To Transphobic Protestors
Four college students are receiving backlash this week after posing for a photo with signs that read, "Get your agenda out of my restroom," "There are only two genders" and "Transgenderism is a mental disorder."
The students were coming from a talk by blogger Matt Walsh at UCLA called "An Encroachment on Liberty: How the Left Exploits Transgender Laws," and they stood by their decision to pose with the signs, despite the adverse reaction from the community afterwards.
“Nowhere on our signs or posts did we call for stigmatization of mental illness or the oppression of any group," said Victoria Metzel, who can be seen holding the "transgenderism" sign. "We were supporting an opinion that Matt Walsh offered during his speech at UCSB that is not often heard on college campuses. The left has twisted it into ‘hate speech’ and all this shows is their blatant intolerance of opposing views."
UCLA's student government wrote a post on Facebook saying that freedom of speech is vital, but that it should “not be exercised in centering on hate and discrimination.”
This didn't sit well with Julia Nista, also pictured in the photo.
"This post is hypocritical in its highest form," she said. "It is despicable that the higher offices of UCLA wish to stifle this institution’s educational process due to the diversity of opinion exemplified by some of its students.”
The students were both defended and criticized on social media as the photo went viral, but it was one trans teen's response that really got the attention of the internet.
15-year-old Twitter user Ian Alexander responded with a photo of himself holding up a sign that simply says, "Shut the f*ck up!"
Ian spoke with Buzzfeed News about what inspired his response, and whether or not he was expecting it to get so much attention.
“I was frustrated, but decided to use humor rather than waste my energy on people who clearly don’t understand what they’re against," he said. "I definitely didn’t expect that much response."
He said that, overall, he has received mostly support from Twitter users, but has gotten into a few arguments as well.
“I figure if they have their freedom of speech, I might as well lessen the blow by using mine as well," Ian said.
