Jeff Younger, the Texas man who has been in a long, drawn-out battle with his ex-wide regarding their transgender child and who is now running for a seat in the Texas House, was shouted down by angry University of North Texas students during an appearance on the campus last Wednesday, March 2, sponsored by Young Conservatives of Texas.

Video posted on Twitter shows a room full of young people pounding on desks and shouting “Fuck these fascists” as Younger tried to talk about his anti-trans agenda.

Younger, who has lost custody of both of his children with his ex-wife, has tried to block the trans child from receiving gender-affirming care, and insists on misgendering and dead-naming the child. Following the March 1 GOP Primary, he is in a runoff with Ben Bumgarner for the District 23 seat in the House. Younger has accused his ex-wife of child abuse for supporting their child in identifying as female.

According to Younger’s campaign website, he is running for office because last year, “Despite overwhelming support from the people of Texas, the Legislature blocked all attempts to outlaw sex change surgeries on children. The Texas Legislature ran out the clock on my son’s life.”

As the WFAA Channel 8 website notes, polls show that Americans in general “do not support legislation that would block gender transition-related medical care for minors.”

Younger’s appearance at UNT came a week after Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton issued a non-binding — and widely-discredited — opinion declaring gender-affirming medical care to be child abuse, and Gov. Greg Abbott, using that opinion as his rationale, issued a directive to the Department of Family and Protective Services to begin investigating trans children and their families and to possibly remove trans children from their families. Plaintiffs represented by The ACLU of Texas and Lambda Legal and supported by Equality Texas have filed suit challenging Abbott’s directive.

According to the parent of one trans student who was protesting outside the room where Younger was speaking, the speech was cut short and “police in riot gear” showed up to escort Younger out of the room. He was driven from the location in a police car allegedly for his protection.

According to WFAA, “Denton police took a report of a person being struck by a University of North Texas police vehicle during a protest on campus for transgender rights Wednesday night,” and that “the victim was reportedly struck by the police vehicle that was driving [Younger] from a speaking engagement on the topic of criminalizing transgender-affirming care.”

UNT President Neal Smatresk has posted a statement on social media explaining that, based on the “contentious” debate over the issue of trans youth, UNT’s campus police had asked the Denton police and Texas DPS in advance to provide extra security at the event, and that a “small group of protestors not affiliated with the university” had escalated the situation, “swarming police, who were working to safely escort both the guest speaker [Younger] and student organizers off campus.”

Smatresk said those protesters had surrounded the police vehicles carrying Younger and the organizers and “attempted to block their exit from the scene by banging on the vehicles and impeding their movement. The officers engaged emergency lights and sounded warning sirens repeatedly while inching forward as other officers assisted in clearing a path for the vehicles to exit safely.

“We have heard accounts of a protestor who was reportedly injured during that time. However, we do not have confirmed details of that report.”

The mother of another trans student at UNT has contacted Dallas Voice, saying that Young Conservatives of Texas is “targeting transgender students on campus but trying to shield it behind other agendas,” and that her child “has been cursed at and followed.” The mother said she fears for her child’s safety on the campus.

The mother included an image of one of the flyers one of the Young Conservatives students is placing around campus that declares, “Transgenderism is a mental illness.”

Smatresk last week posted a statement on social media describing UNT as a “deeply diverse community of people from a variety of cultural, political, ethnic, racial and religious backgrounds,” adding, “Our campus community is inclusive and has long embraced, and been proud of, that very diversity.

“I know the last several days may have felt particularly difficult for the transgender members of our community, due to the intolerant views of a handful of campus members,” the statements continued. “We have a variety of resources through our Division of Inclusion, Diversity, Equality and Access to support you during your time at UNT, and we hope to offer you a safe place to heal and grow your support system.”
Smatresk then goes on to say UNT “values diversity of thought because it helps shape us all, whether it’s exposing us to new ideas or reaffirming who we want to be in the world. … All individuals have the right to peacefully assemble, to speak and to engage in expressive activity, including that which you may find offensive. Each of you has the freedom to express yourself and the freedom to walk away, disempowering those with intolerant views.”

The  mother concerned for her child’s safety, however, told Dallas Voice the school is doing nothing to protect her child or other LGBTQ students from harassment. She wrote, “I am sincerely worried about the hate speech and escalation that is not being addressed by the administration on campus. My child does not feel safe to even go to class freely.”

Dallas Voice has contacted UNT’s president for comment.

Watch for the March 11 issue of Dallas Voice for more coverage.