This past Tuesday a protest broke out at the University of Pittsburgh over a guest speaker.

Conservative political commentators Micheal Knowles and Brad Polumbo were scheduled to host a discussion surrounding transgender issues when protestors showed up hours before in outrage over their presence.

If you don’t know, Micheal Knowles is a Daily Wire commentator and is famous for a speech he gave recently at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC), during which he says, “…for the good of society…transgenderism must be eradicated from public life entirely”. At the conference, this speech was met with cheers and support from the audience. However, a vast majority of outsiders were outraged by this speech, as it uses genocidal rhetoric and supports harm toward a marginalized and highly-vulnerable group.

This is also not the first time Knowles has spouted anti-trans propaganda; just a week before, he had called for a ban on “transgenderism”. When he was accused of using genocidal rhetoric, he claimed that “I don’t know how you could have a genocide of transgender people because genocide refers to genes, it refers to genetics, it refers to biology,” and that, “Nobody’s calling to exterminate anybody because the other problem with that statement is that transgender people are not a real ontological category.” 

His defense for his hateful speech was that transgenderism is not a “legitimate state of being” and therefore cannot be discriminated against or marginalized. If this sounds familiar, it’s because these were the exact lines of reasoning that the Nazis used while attacking people of the Jewish faith.

Originally, Knowles was supposed to debate Professor Deirdre McCloskey, who is also transgender. However, she backed out last second, claiming to now know who Knowles was and accusing him of attempting to stir up hatred. Polumbo was more of a second thought in the wake of McCloskeys’ absence.

The event, sponsored by the Pitt College Republicans and the Intercollegiate Studies Institute, has been called “anti-trans” by Pitt students and resulted in over 250 protestors showing up outside of the O’Hara Student Center during the debate. Both Knowles and Polumbo taunted the protestors, with Knowles referring to them as an “opening act” and Polumbo saying they needed to “grow the hell up…the debate is happening whether you like it or not.”

The protest has been compared to riots by the president of Pitt College Republicans. The Pitt police had also cautioned students and citizens to stay away from the student center during the time, however, did report no injuries.

The University and the police reported several smoke-producing devices, as well as an incendiary device being present and used during the protest. The incendiary device was thrown in the direction of the police officers, however, none were reported injured. The University also stated that both College and State police were on-site during the time of the protests.

There were also reports of body dummies with Knowle’s face attached being burned on the street. Protests who made their way inside the event were heard chanting, “Trans rights are human rights” for nearly a minute before police escorted them away.