Students Advocating for Themselves and Others

Stetson Students Protest Controversial Guest Speaker: Our Take, The Bigger Picture,and Why It Matters

Sparks fl ew at a controversial event hosted by a conservative club at Stetson University on November 15th, 2022, causing students to protest in droves.

After years of virtually no activity, Stetson’s chapter of YAF (YoungAmericans for Freedom) caused a stir within the student body for the contentious guest speakers that they’ve brought in this academic year. In November, they invited Zuby (real name Nzube Olisaebuka Udezue), a British rapper/public speaker, to give a talk about the im-portance of free speech. On the surface, it seemed harm-less enough, but students took issue with his history and reputation.

In 2019, he beat Britain’s women’s deadlifting record while claiming to be a woman, and has since made some bold claims at in-person events and online that have caused many to perceive him as transphobic.

Additionally, he’d done controversial interviews with Andrew Tate and Joe Rogan, two figures known for their various forms of harmful rhetoric and intolerance. That didn’t sit well with Stetson’s student body, as they felt that Zuby’s presence would incite more hate speech towards marginalized communities.

The room was charged with tension as protestors, whose numbers exceeded that of the event’s attendees, lined up outside. Trans flags, t-shirts, and pins were worn in mass, 28 the reporter and many held “trans lives matter” signs. Public Safety officers kept the protestors outside of the hall during the lecture, but that did little to quell the outrage. At the lecture’s end, a question-and-answer segment was offered, and the protesters were finally let in to voice their concerns. When asked about his deadlifting stunt, Zuby asserted, “When I lift weights, I identify as a woman.” He went on to add that he believed it was a humorous way to prove how absurd he felt it was that transgender individuals could compete under their preferred gender.

Concerned students lined up, one after the other, and boldly asked questions in front of an audience of heckling conservatives. Strangely, most of the attendees were unaffiliated community members, though the event was originally advertised as a Stetson-specific lecture. As the night went on, it divulged into an emotionally charged debate between the speaker and the protestors. For each question that they posed, only conflicting claims and deflection were offered in turn until, finally, the crowd became so incensed that they began shouting, chanting, and cursing. Stetson’s officials ultimately called the event short and sent everyone away.

Milo Ornovan (‘26), turned to the crowd of protestors at the event’s end and exclaimed in exasperation, “You have all been trolled!” He attended the event with his friend Connor Jensen (‘23), knowing that the lecture would turn out this way.

“He’s [Zuby] an Oxford graduate. No one was prepared. You see this stuff all the time, especially in politics. Ben Shapiro goads people into thinking emotionally and not rationally, no different than here,” Ornovan said.

Ornovan and Jensen both have extensive debate experience and spoke about possible careers in politics. Though they didn’t agree with what Zuby was saying, they tried to ask numerous questions that might lead to a healthy debate but found themselves frustrated that they were never offered a straight answer.

“He owns the libs, comes to talk about something that no one would disagree with, incites discourse, and then profits off of the incident, especially online,” Jensen said. He added, “This is making him a lot of money; that was the point.”

Zuby, for his part, made little effort to de-escalate the situation, though he seemed largely content with its outcome. Some students found it strange that YAF hired a professional photographer to document the protest; others believed it was an outright dangerous invasion of their privacy. Zuby himself, among select attendees, posted pictures of the assembled students onto their respective social media accounts alongside degrading captions. One such comment, posted on Twitter by Chrissie Mayr, said, “It's Where’s Waldo but with unhappy feminists.” Anonymous messaging boards like YikYak were flooded that night with hateful rhetoric towards student protestors and the trans community at large, ultimately proving the notion that events such as these foster hate rather than healthy discourse.

As any attendee can attest, there wasn’t anything healthy about what transpired that night, which leads this reporter to wonder why Stetson facilitated it in the first place. The event inadvertently posed some interesting questions. While everyone has the right to say what they wish within legal reason, does that mean that we shouldn’t care about consequences? Do we disregard the delivery of our beliefs to make a point at the expense of others, or do we maintain a certain level of empathy all the while? When does free speech become hate speech? A transgender student, who wished to remain anonymous due to safety concerns after this contentious event, had this to say about the ordeal: “Many LGBTQ students were uncomfortable and feared this event and what it would cause for our community. We were uncomfortable with this event because Zuby is an open anti-LGBT and anti-BLM activist. We knew bringing a speaker like Zuby onto campus would open a pathway to intolerance and hate towards already struggling minorities. Not only does it make our peers feel like they are allowed to treat us as lesser because we are gay, lesbian, bi, trans, etc, but it also makes us feel like we are unwelcomed and do not belong here at Stetson.”

While Zuby, and YAF by extension, clearly believed that the students that protested were against free speech itself, is that the whole truth? The rhetoric among conservatives is that Gen Z are politically correct “snowflakes,” but I disagree. Concern for how a sentiment will impact others isn’t censorship; it’s empathy. Moreover, many questioned

Zuby’s qualifications surrounding the points of his lecture in general. “It is my understanding that the speaker is a British musician. Being neither a politician nor a resident of the United States, I fail to see how he could have been considered qualified to speak on American politics,” Logan Warren (‘25), a trans student at Stetson, said.

Warren also noted his frustration at the way the university handled the situation at large, adding,

Venus Turnbull (‘24)

“I wanted this piece to emphasize what I felt was the most signi cant part of this event: the anger and fear felt by the students here at Stetson. I speci cally tried to pull in bright, harsh tones to emphasize these feelings.”

And on top of all of this, YAF was publicly going after a member of SGA. Stetson should have done everything in their power to protect this student. All around, it was a mess. The speaker was laughably underqualified at best, and the consequences were severely dangerous at worst. Stetson has to do better.” who believe in those words will take them to heart; Zuby's words can motivate hate and even violence. I chose this college because I thought it would be one of my safest options as a transgender and gay man. When I took my first tour I asked my tour guide if I would be safe on campus, and I've been told by many staff as well that this campus is LGBTQ friendly, yet they bring an anti-LGBTQ speaker on campus... Make it make sense,” said the aforementioned anonymous trans student.

Yes, Zuby has every right to his opinion, even if it is harmful to a community that gets a lot of unwarranted blows as it is. But that doesn’t mean that his decision to use his platform to incite hate, and potentially violence, towards trans people is a responsible one. For this reason, and given that he has a well-documented history of doing it, it was also irresponsible of Stetson to facilitate his lecture here.

At the event's end, Zuby felt good about how it went, but if you ask me, that’s because he felt like he won against the protestors.

“Given the time constraints and the format, overall, I think it went very well,” Zuby said.

The consensus among students was that he used his Oxford degree to debate a crowd of people twenty years his junior; he baited them and asked leading questions and intentionally worked them into an emotional response. That’s not proof of moral superiority; swinging down isn’t a good look on anyone.

While it may be tempting to jump right into a debate to prove the legitimacy of your own beliefs, that shouldn’t mean that we disregard the very existence of others for the sake of ego. Disagreement and discrimination are very different things; it’s imperative we don’t confuse the two.

Free speech shouldn’t be so outlandishly complex, and yet, it is. Providing a platform for all can sometimes enable an emphatic minority to cause harm to marginalized communities. As such, it may be high time that Stetson revisits their policies about guest lecturers.

For an extended version of this story, visit our website at hatternetwork.com