Tallahassee, FL – On October 20, students at Florida State University, led by FSU Students for a Democratic Society (FSU SDS) gathered to counter-protest an on campus appearance by conservative mouthpiece Charlie Kirk. Kirk is the founder of Turning Point USA (TPUSA), a national organization that peddles racist, homophobic, alt-right talking points on college campuses.

FSU College Democrats President Alexis Dorman states, “Charlie Kirk has resorted to indoctrinating young people with made-up information that benefits himself,” and “Charlie Kirk is a Trump pawn without a single original idea.”

This is not the first time Kirk has made an appearance at FSU. In in 2020, right before the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, TPUSA hosted Kirk’s Tallahassee stop of his “Culture War” tour. In response, student groups like FSUSDS, FSU College Democrats, FSU Generation Action, and more formed a coalition called FSUnite Against Kirk. In 2020, the FSU student government paid TPUSA more than $3400 in tuition dollars to fund Kirk’s appearance.

Two days before Kirk’s October 20 appearance, FSUSDS was made aware of a “situation report” created to point police repression in their direction. SDS responded with a statement announcing that “by hosting far right racists and homophobes, the university itself has created an unsafe situation. If FSU is scared of possible hate crimes and physical conflict committed by the followers of fascists, then they should stop inviting fascists on our campus!”

About 25 students joined FSUSDS outside of TPUSA’s event on October 20 to protest Kirk’s second appearance at Florida State. Some chants included “FSU let’s make it clear, Charlie Kirk’s not welcome here!”, “This is what democracy looks like!” and “Bigotry has got to go!” The right-wingers tried to out-chant protesters for about an hour to no avail.

“TPUSA has no support in the community,” stated FSUSDS’s Vice President Alex Carson. “They are funded by billionaires and come from out of town to rile up racist and homophobic sentiments. FSU willingly hosts them and shows they will prioritize platforming racist influencers. SDS is the complete opposite, we are run entirely by our members and have no big-money backing. All our support comes from the community.”

Other student organizations joining the protest included the Graduate Assistants United, FSU College Democrats, Students for Justice in Palestine, Student Farmworker Alliance, Planned Parenthood Generation Action, and VegFSU.

Despite repeated and persistent heckling by Kirk’s quite scant supporters in attendance, students remained firm in their protest.

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