No-Show Free Speech Bus Sparks Protest – New Haven Independent

Operators of an anti-transgender-rights free speech bus succeeded in sparking a counter-demosntration in New Haven without even showing up.

The Free Speech Bus, funded by the conservative advocacy groups Citizen Go, National Organization for Marriage and International Organization for the Family, was scheduled to stop in town this weekend as part of a tour through the East Coast.

Painted bright orange, the bus is emblazoned with the statements Its Biology: Boys are boys and always will be. Girls are girls and always will be. The bus has prompted LGBTQ advocates to speak out against its message.

This was the message that two people vandalized in New York last Thursday, spray painting slogans like Trans Liberation across the sides. Protesters also keyed the bus and cracked windows with a hammer. That delayed the tour schedule, but also prompted the bus organizers and conservative allies to use the incident as a new exhibit in a campaign to portray the left as anti-free speech. The organizers also used the New York attack to raise money to get the bus back on the road.

New Haven protestors showed up on the Green to greet the bus Sunday afternoon with their own plan for obscuring the message.

Occupying the Greens Chapel and Church corner, they unfurled three tall blue tarps backed with wooden supports. EVERY BREATH A TRANS PERSON TAKES IS AN ACT OF REVOLUTION, read the largest one. BLACK TRANS LIVES MATTER and TRANS LIBERATION accompanied it on two smaller banners. The tarps towered over the people.

He said the tarps were pushback against the normalization of that kind of transphobic hate demonstrated by the bus. He added that by naming the bus Free Speech, its organizers were inviting attacks on it that would appear to be attacks on free speech. Which, he says, isnt the case.

Well, free speech prevents you from being censored by the government, Miller said. It doesnt prevent you from consequences from people on the ground.

By blocking the bus, we can cover up their message, he said. Were protecting the people of New Haven from its hateful message while putting forth a positive, empowering message.

The free speech bus campaign did not respond to messages seeking comment. It has not updates its websites since announcing the New York incident and delay.

Sunday afternoons New Haven protest was personal for Miller Before leading the protestors many of whom had gathered after hearing about the event on social media in a series of chants, he announced that he had transitioned a decade ago.

When the bus failed to show, the counterdemonstrators rallied around the tarps and the absence of the bus as a cause for celebration.

Its just a provocation, right? observed Andrew Dowe, who works at Yales Office of LGBTQ Resources, arguing that the entire bus campaign was designed to pervert the notion of the freedom of speech. Dowe said it was nice to see a message of positivity n the Green instead.

Then Rochelle invited the crowd back downtown on Tuesday, where organizers are planning an extended rally for trans lives.

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No-Show Free Speech Bus Sparks Protest - New Haven Independent