Republican Threatens to Pull Penn State Funding Over Transgender Activists
Turning Point USA and Young Americans for Freedom at Penn State held a "Free Speech Rally" in support of Gaines but were soon met with counterprotests on the HUB-Robeson Center Lawn.The counterprotest drew many in the transgender and LGBTQ+ community and student activists, as Gaines—host of OutKick's Gaines for Girls—has become a controversial figure to some for her call to ban transgender athletes from women's sports.In a video shared to X, formerly Twitter, by The College Fix shows the counterprotesters along with the Republican senator as he calls out the counterprotesters for their behavior and threatens to pull Penn State funding."You wanna lose 150 million dollars to the campus for your friends.
I'm state senator Cris Dush, if you guys don't behave yourselves, you very well...," Dush said.In response, a counterprotester asks the senator if he supports anti-trans people."I support the people who are here like Riley Gaines," Dush said.The exchange came after Penn State leaders in early September requested an increase in appropriations for the 2024-25 fiscal year that, if approved by the state, would narrow the per-student funding gap that exists between Penn State and Pennsylvania's other public universities.As a state representative in 2017, Dush complained about sending money to universities after schools threatened to raise tuition rates for the 2017 spring semester if the state funding didn't come through.In response to Tuesday's protests, Gaines supported Dush's stance to stand with women in a statement emailed to Newsweek."Civil discourse and freedom of speech are critical for academic institutions like Penn State to embrace and uphold," she said. "Without them, we will never find common ground and solutions to issues.
