Anti-trans incident at UW inspires student protest, one-year ban
The University of Wyoming has suspended anti-LGBTQ “Bible Guy” from tabling in the union for specifically targeting an individual trans student last week.
The University of Wyoming has banned Laramie Faith Community Church Elder Todd Schmidt from tabling in the student union breezeway for one year.
While tabling in the breezeway last week, Schmidt specifically and publicly targeted an individual trans student with a large table banner bearing her name. The incident was just one of several recent anti-gay and anti-trans activities on campus, where queer students describe a rising tide of hateful comments, threats, disruptions and confrontations.
Schmidt’s one-year suspension was announced Wednesday afternoon as UW students and some employees silently protested outside the student union.
“Following a review of the Dec. 2 incident in the Wyoming Union involving the harassment of a UW student by an individual external to the university, we have determined that these actions violated the university policy prohibiting discrimination and harassment,” UW President Ed Seidel writes in an email to campus. “Given this, the individual’s privileges to reserve a table in the Union have been suspended for one year.”
Schmidt, colloquially known to students as “Creationist Guy” of “Bible Guy,” has regularly tabled in the union for years, promoting biblical literalism and occasionally COVID-19 misinformation with books and a table banner.
On Friday — when he used the banner to harass one trans student by name — other students, including members of the trans student’s sorority, verbally clashed with the anti-LGBTQ activist and surrounded the table to block the name from view.
The Dean of Students and the UW Police Department ultimately responded to the scene and asked Schmidt to remove the student’s name. He eventually complied. He was allowed to remain in the union for the remainder of the day.
Community members on- and off-campus have criticized university leadership since the incident occurred, arguing that Schmidt should have been kicked off campus for targeting and harassing a student — even if he did reluctantly agree to remove the student’s name.
UW had initially stood by its decision to let Schmidt stay on campus, even in the face of growing criticism. The decision Wednesday reversed course, banning Schmidt from tabling in the union until at least December 2023.
“While freedom of expression is cherished on this campus and across this nation, a line was crossed when a student was harassed by name,” Seidel writes in the email. “This is something we will not tolerate on this campus, and this action speaks to that key principle to which we adhere at UW. Even though this sentiment was evident to all of us on Friday, we want to clearly state it now. We do not tolerate harassment of any student or any university community member.”
On the day of the incident, Schmidt was allowed to keep displaying the rest of his banner — which said “God created male and female” — after he removed the student’s name. And Schmidt’s one-year ban from tabling is specifically related to the harassment targeted at the individual student.
The ban does not punish Schmidt’s general message, which takes aim at all transgender people.
“The rest of his message was not something we could restrict,” UW Spokesman Chad Baldwin told the Laramie Reporter this week.
The local LGBTQ community have weathered multiple attacks and incidents of harassment recently; agitators disrupted at least two separate queer-centric events at UW in the last week alone. And the specter of violence hangs over all queer people living in the Mountain West. Last month, a gunman killed five people at a Colorado Springs gay bar, likely emboldened by rising anti-LGBTQ rhetoric nationally.
LGBTQ students and community members say they’re worried about the medical, educational and bureaucratic hurdles for gay and trans youth being instituted by state legislatures across the country and being considered by Wyoming’s own lawmakers.
Multiple surveys show trans youth are less likely to attempt suicide if they live in communities where their identities are respected. That means living in states where they can change the gender on their driver’s licenses, and living with families who respect their pronouns.
Seidel’s campus email states UW will continue to investigate “this and other acts of harassment that have taken place at UW” and notes further action might be taken.
“Our message is clear: UW will not permit targeted harassment of our students and will do what we feel is necessary, within the bounds of policy, law and constitutional rights, to ensure the safety and well-being of all members of the university community,” Seidel writes.
The president attended an off-campus vigil for the victims of the attack in Colorado Springs earlier this week, his email states.
I would like to think that my thesis advisor Provost Shalinsky would not have put up with this shit as long as the current administration has done.
Too bad about my dear old Equality State, these days. Makes it tough on those of us who still hold the place in our hearts.