Students Confront Turning Point USA and Transphobia at PSU

On May 5, 2025, Turning Point USA (TPUSA) hosted transphobe Riley Gaines at Portland State University in Portland, Oregon, holding the event in the Smith Memorial Student Union. In response to TPUSA’s ongoing bigotry and platforming of transphobes, students at PSU organized multiple demonstrations to push back against the hate.

Riley Gaines first attracted media attention in 2022 when she tied with Lia Thomas for fifth place in a swimming competition. At the time, Thomas had just become the first trans athlete to win an NCAA Division I title. Right-wing and TERF groups like Save Women’s Sports and Concerned Women for America immediately seized on Thomas’s success to fuel anti-trans narratives.

Gaines’ former teammate, who asked to remain anonymous out of concern for graduate school applications, told Uncloseted Media that tensions were already high before the competition, and escalated once Gaines and Thomas tied.

Shortly after, Gaines was profiled by The Daily Wire, the far-right outlet cofounded by Ben Shapiro, and quickly became a rising star in anti-trans circles. In typical grifter fashion, she leaned hard into transphobic rhetoric: within a month, she testified before the Kentucky Senate in support of a bill banning trans women from women’s sports. By May 2023, she had appeared on Fox News at least 29 times and was hired as a spokesperson for the Independent Women’s Forum, a far-right group known for its anti-trans agenda.

When news spread that TPUSA would be bringing Gaines to PSU, students quickly mobilized. One flyer called for people to “stand up to transphobia on PSU’s campus,” and outlined plans to meet in the Park Blocks at 6:15 PM and walk to the 3rd floor of Smith by 6:30, when Gaines’ event was set to begin. Another flyer promoted a “trans/queer pride block party” at 6 PM with games like frisbee and badminton, emphasizing: “sports are for everyone.”

JJ Christensen, a nonbinary independent student journalist at PSU, said the response was inevitable.

“Oh, of course. On this campus? Yes. God, yes,” they told We Will Free Us. “PSU is a very politically active campus, Portland, there are the city is a very politically active city, as it is known for being, and also, there’s a lot of trans students on this campus that felt directly threatened. I mean, I’m nonbinary. I felt threatened by this event. I wasn’t receptive to it at all. And so yeah, of course people were going to counter this event.”

They added that while Turning Point and other far-right groups do have a presence on campus, they rarely find a warm reception.

“From what I saw, most people on campus were not receptive to this event, and there was another large group of students that felt the need to explicitly counter it,” they said.

“When TPUSA tables on campus, they regularly get heckled. There are small conservative groups here,, and not to downplay their existence, they do exist and they’re certainly threatening. These people do exist on campus. They’re small in numbers, but that doesn’t mean they can’t do harm.”

When asked how they felt about the university’s decision to allow TPUSA to host Gaines under the guise of “free speech,” Christensen said they weren’t surprised, just disappointed.

“Yeah, no, I was disappointed but not at all surprised that admin let these people on campus,” they said. “They say they support free speech, but when it comes to stuff like this, especially pro-Palestinian protests or anything explicitly critical of the administration, they obviously crack down harder on those than they do events they see as more palatable.”

During last spring’s student-led occupation of the PSU library, and in response to other pro-Palestinian demonstrations, the university publicly extended support and resources to students it said were affected by "antisemitism." But when asked whether trans and queer students received similar institutional support ahead of the Gaines event, Christensen said not even a little bit.

“Yeah… no. Nothing on that level, not from the administration,” they said. “There were things endorsed by student groups, and the Rec Center, but that was mostly students and campus employees. Never from the university itself.”

Another student, Gabe, told We Will Free Us that the university’s support of far-right organizing on campus sends a chilling message.

“It’s concerning because PSU is a campus with a lot of progressive and left-leaning folks, a lot of queer folks, and these organizations like TPUSA, but also all the other right-wing weirdos who came out of the woodwork for this event, like to film students and harass them,” they said. “They directly hate those members of our community too." Gabe is referring to various dangerous far-right internet trolls who were present that day, filming and harassing students, such as Jonathan Choe.

“The fact that Portland State University actively platformed, not just passively allowed, these people to come on campus, to purchase space and equipment and use it to target our community, is deeply alarming. The university talks about supporting students, but they’re appeasing people who want us out of public life, or dead.”

Gabe added that the police response sent an equally disturbing message.

“When you have police, armed in riot gear, showing up to defend people who want members of your community either out of public life or dead, and then arresting students for literally just being there, it’s absolutely detestable in every sense of that word.”

I arrived on campus early that Monday. Around 5 PM, I drove past the Smith building and saw dozens of Portland Police Bureau (PPB) bike cops and officers already stationed across the street. By the time I parked and made my way to the Park Blocks behind Smith, about 50 people were hanging out in the sun, waving trans flags, painting signs, and listening to music.

The police presence was excessive - at that point, it was just some queer students in a park. PPB’s Rapid Response Team bike squad was out in force- at least 50 officers on bikes is my conservative guess. Campus police were out too, along with Police Liaison Officers in those white polos and tactical vests. They even had riot cops out.

Christensen said the escalation from law enforcement and police presence on the ground felt wildly out of step with the reality on the ground.

“All of the events that were planned that I saw, with flyers and group names behind them, were clearly peaceful. There was the speaking event, but also a half dance party in the Park Blocks. There was even a volleyball match that was organized by a different group of students just a few feet away,” they said. “These were not threatening events. These were kids planning dance parties and volleyball. And then to have that met with a flood of cops, in the Park Blocks, around Smith, all over the place, it just felt like they wanted a fight more than we did. And I say ‘we’ as a student body. It felt like they wanted a fight more than the students did.”

PPB officers had already stationed themselves on every visible corner, both behind the Smith building in the Park Blocks and out front on Broadway. KATU News later reported that PPB only got involved after PSU’s Campus Public Safety Office (CPSO) requested help around 7 PM. That’s categorically false. While arrests didn’t happen until later, PPB was absolutely present, posturing, intimidating, and interfering from the jump.

Security was intense. In addition to the excessive police presence on campus, CPSO and event staff security were posted up inside and outside of the front entrance. Around 5:30 PM, an hour before the event, I saw students unrelated to the protest being stopped and asked for ID just to enter the building. Event staff and campus police were posted up outside and inside.

The crowd continued to grow, eventually reaching a few hundred. Most people stayed in the Park Blocks, but a smaller group gathered at the front of the Smith building, waving flags, holding signs, and confronting people waiting in line to see Gaines.

At 6:30 PM, I heard shouting: “Nazi! Nazi!” A man in khakis, a pale blue button-up, red baseball cap, and white face covering was walking around Smith with a large duffel bag, handing out literature, which turned out to be national socialist propaganda. Protesters followed and confronted him, but PPB immediately stepped in, surrounding and escorting him safely across campus to Cramer Hall. There, officers held a line as he scanned an RFID badge granting access to the university building. Police then stood guard to protect the entrance.

About 30 minutes later, some protesters in the back managed to hold open the doors to the building. A few people rushed inside before cops could intervene. According to a witness, it turned into a quick game of cat and mouse. Protesters got out without being arrested, but shortly after, PPB repositioned their officers directly at Smith’s front entrance. The first arrest followed minutes later just outside the building.

“Some of us saw the police grab and arrest a student for literally zero reason,” Gabe said. “They were in the Park Blocks playing sports the entire time. And you see people in the news get disappeared by law enforcement, it’s concerning.”

“Why are they doing this? Why is PSU administration allowing this to happen? The answer is they don’t care about the well-being of students. They care about their bottom line, just like they did during last spring’s protests when riot cops violently dispersed students under direct orders from the president and board of trustees.”

“The board is stacked with corporate and real estate interests. They handpicked Ann Cudd, an anti-people, union-busting administrator, to run this university. And again, I know multiple folks who saw that student get nabbed by police for no reason. They all feel scared. One friend told me, ‘I knew cops didn’t give a shit about the law, but it’s so different to see it.’”

“This is the university and police showing their claws and grinning their teeth. They’re showing what side they’re on, and that side is not the students.”

A student who wishes to remain anonymous shared frustrations about the administration’s decision to allow Gaines on campus and about the dynamics of the protest itself.

“First of all, she shouldn’t have been on PSU’s campus to begin with,” they said. “The students should’ve had some say, especially given the large trans population at PSU. She shouldn’t have fucking been there because it makes it dangerous for the students that are there, and the type of crowd that Riley Gaines attracts makes it even worse.”

They went on to express disappointment in the lack of collective readiness that evening:

“We got the doors open, and only maybe six of us went inside when there were 30 or 40 people watching. The people who went inside didn’t even get arrested. So I really think more people should have gone in. If that happened, there wouldn’t have even been arrests made, and the event would’ve been stopped, you know, the whole point of the protest. If more people had gone in, we would have had a better chance of making it to the third floor and stopping the event.”

“They were all chanting ‘Stonewall was a riot,’ but were so unwilling to help out a fellow comrade in doing actual direct action,” they continued. “People have things to say about the ‘right’ and ‘wrong’ ways to protest, when my charges are for some Sharpie on a window that comes off in five minutes. It’s interesting when people say they’re down for the cause and revolution, but aren’t willing to accept that things are going to happen.”

The student directly critiqued liberalism, expressing that liberal protest norms and their organizations always fall short of their stated goals: “There was too much sentiment placed on chanting and yelling... but when it came to seeing the goal of the protest through, entering and disrupting her speech, no one did anything. I wish there was more value put on direct action rather than unnecessary escalation and chanting.”

The rest of the evening remained tense but spirited. Protesters danced, chanted, played music, and held their ground against transphobia and fascist presence on campus.

In total, five people were arrested and released later that night or early the next morning.

One of the defendants who wishes to remain anonymous shared the following statement with We Will Free Us:

“It is unsurprising that in a city like Portland, one filled with ‘peaceful’ liberals who value ‘law and order’ above all, hat we, as trans people, find ourselves in the crosshairs where fascism and state violence intersect. A fascist comes to town, a fascist leaves town. And District Attorney Nathan Vasquez has decided that justice looks like adding insult to injury by enacting further violence against one of the most targeted minority groups in the present political context. Eat shit, Vasquez. We will not be deterred, we will not be bullied, and we will not be frightened into quiet submission by frivolous charges. We will not apologize or back down.”

They went on to add that resistance will continue, not just in response to this one event, but against the broader systems that enabled it:

“We will continue to frustrate and oppose fascist organizing in our community, whether they speak on stage at our universities or wear badges in our streets. We will continue to disrupt, agitate, and meet bigotry with open and unwavering hostility until every trans, nonbinary, and queer person is free.”

After the protest, KATU aired a segment showing a blurry livestream shot, zooming in on the glass doors at the Smith building. They described the image as showing “shattered glass,” but the image clearly shows an orange splatter, not broken or cracked glass. Despite this, in probable cause affidavits for some of those arrested, police claimed the windows were “scratched and damaged,” citing a $1,000 repair estimate allegedly given by staff. On the ground, there were no signs of shattered glass or actual property damage beyond what looked like some Sharpie and an orange splattered on the glass door.

What happened at PSU on May 5 wasn’t just about one speaker or one protest; it was a clear example of how far-right groups like TPUSA are being platformed and given institutional space to grow. It was another example of liberal and institutional complicity. Another example of transphobia being normalized under the guise of "debate." Another example of police escalating against queer and antifascist resistance. It is yet again another example of media outlets sanitizing repression while demonizing resistance. But people showed up anyway. They danced. They took risks. And they made it clear: queer and trans communities in Portland aren’t interested in playing nice with fascism.

Gabe emphasized that the work doesn’t stop here.

“This organizing cannot and will not stop at PSU. There have always been members of our community who are not okay with this, and that’s not going to change,” they said.

“TPUSA and their Andy Ngo type trolls will spin it, they’ll always spin it. But the reason they have to spin it is because they didn’t feel welcome. And that’s good. Fascists should not feel welcome. Their whole purpose is to make others feel unwelcome, to make sure we don’t exist. That can’t happen, and it won’t happen.”