Why I Hosted a YAF Lecture on My Campus

By Bailey Parks-Moore, Chairwoman, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign YAF

About YAF’s What is a Woman? Tour

The What is a Woman? campus tour is a partnership between Daily Wire Host Matt Walsh Young America’s Foundation and the Daily Wire that brings Matt Walsh—one of today’s most in-demand conservative speakers on social and cultural issues—to student audiences nationwide.

For more than 60 years, YAF has led the Conservative Movement in directly addressing the key issues of the day for young people. As gender ideology is being forced upon America’s students, YAF has joined with Walsh to challenge this climate of groupthink and bring a dose of reality to campus audiences.

Walsh is a popular writer, speaker, host of The Matt Walsh Show, and author of the bestselling children’s book, Johnny the Walrus. His new documentary—What is a Woman?—has become a cultural phenomenon and is one of the most viewed documentaries of 2022.

Walsh remarked when announcing his YAF tour, “I literally traveled the world to find a leftist who could coherently answer the question, ‘What is a Woman?’…. I can’t think of a better way to continue my journey than to go into the belly of the beast—American college campuses—and expose radical gender ideology.”

In addition to standing-room-only audiences on campuses from coast to coast, hundreds of thousands have viewed Walsh’s tour appearances on YAF’s YouTube channel, YAFTV (YouTube.com/YAFTV).

Since its founding in November 2021, our Young Americans for Freedom chapter has made waves at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (UIUC). Through tabling, hosting weekly meetings, and standing firmly for traditional American values, our YAF chapter has become the premier conservative outreach organization on campus. We have grown even more by hosting Matt Walsh’s What is a Woman? tour (see page 13) at UIUC in October 2022.

During the first week of classes this fall semester, I entered a women’s restroom in a campus building and saw a sign that read, “Per Illinois state law, Illinoisans have the right to use the bathroom that is consistent with your gender identity.” Surprised and uncomfortable with such a law, I brought it to the attention of our chapter members and Young America’s Foundation, our national organization.

Shortly after recognizing that gender identity and “Despite empty threats, failed protests, transgenderism were growing defaced posters, and angry leftists, our issues on campus, our chapter determined that there was

UIUC YAF chapter hosted the largest no better person to address conservative student event of the year.” these topics than Daily Wire commentator Matt Walsh, — BAILEY PARKS-MOORE whose recent documentary— What is a Woman?—has drawn a great deal of attention. With the support of Young America’s Foundation, we announced a campus event featuring Walsh, generating excitement among our YAF chapter members and anger from many other students at UIUC. To advertise the event, members of our chapter spent weeknights posting flyers in buildings on nearly every part of campus, including the engineering, business, and agricultural colleges. We especially targeted the buildings that house majors such as gender and women’s studies and political science. Our very first encounter with the campus Left was on the (Continued on page 12)

A packed audience of students and community members turn out to hear Matt Walsh’s message during his YAF-sponsored visit to the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.

(Continued from page 10) first night of flyering, when 15 of our flyers were ripped down just minutes after we hung them. This was a teaching moment for the new members of our chapter, as we recorded the incident and confronted the two students who vandalized our flyers. When asked why he tore down our ads, one student told us that Matt Walsh was “super far-right.” Because of this, the student believed he had a right to destroy our materials.

That incident was only the beginning of the Left’s attempts to stop our event. Campus ideologues attempted to organize a protest, but it fell apart before they could get it planned. One night, we chalked on sidewalks to advertise the date and details of our event, but the next morning, we discovered that our writing had been vandalized in some areas and completely scrubbed and washed away in other spots. However, with the help of Young America’s Foundation and local supporters, we were able to distribute nearly a thousand flyers and use three buckets of chalk to advertise our event. We thoroughly conveyed the message that UIUC YAF would not back down in response to protests and opposition from the campus Left. Despite empty threats, failed protests, defaced posters, and angry leftists, our UIUC YAF chapter organized the largest conservative student event of the year. On the day of Matt Walsh’s visit, more than 1,000 students and community members turned out to hear his message—with 150 viewing a screening of his documentary, 350 participating in his live lecture and question-and-answer session, and 250 watching the event in an overflow room. Due to the university’s restrictions, more than 500 additional students waited to gain entry to hear from Walsh!

During the question-and-answer

period, we heard from a student who detransitioned Fall 2022 What is a Woman? Campus Tour and was subsequently criticized by the Left. She lost friends and was attacked because she chose to • October 4: The Catholic University of America stop taking testosterone and living as a male. She • October 6: University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign asked Walsh about the dangers and health risks of • October 11: University of Central Florida transitioning, and the audience applauded in support • October 13: University of Houston of her decision to live her life authentically. • October 24: University of Wisconsin-Madison Hundreds of protesters gathered outside the • October 27: University of Alabama • November 17: University of California, Berkeley venue during Walsh’s remarks. Though these students violated the university’s protest and safety policies, officials unsurprisingly did not remove them from the building. After the conclusion of the event, many of these agitators dispersed, but a few lingered to heckle students and staff who worked the event. I was happy to face protesters and even attempted to have conversations with those who were interested in talking. After hosting this event, facing protesters, and participating in multiple media appearances, our YAF chapter has successfully pushed its way into campus discourse at the University of Illinois. I came into my role as chairwoman of UIUC YAF knowing that it was critical to grow our chapter this year. Through campus activism and giving conservative students a platform at our university, our chapter has grown nearly three-fold since its founding. Young America’s Foundation has been instrumental in providing support to young conservatives at UIUC, and we are incredibly excited to use the momentum from our YAF chapter’s What is a Woman? event to advance the Conservative Movement on campus! By tabling consistently, Bailey Parks-Moore (far right) and her fellow students turn their YAF chapter into a prominent conservative presence at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.