FIX EXCLUSIVES
Event will be held at a venue off campus. Texas AG says he is investigating the situation.
Reports of Texas Christian University allegedly canceling a Turning Point USA event with detransitioner Chloe Cole caught the attention of Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton this week.
However, the university told The College Fix the event was scheduled on “short notice” and the requested room was “already booked.”
“TCU never cancelled this event as it was never booked,” a university spokesperson stated Wednesday in an email.
Cole’s speaking event, slated for Oct. 7, will be held off campus instead. The TPUSA chapter at the private university is the student group hosting the event.
“An outside party, not affiliated with TCU, invited an external speaker to appear on our campus on Oct. 7,” the university told The Fix in an emailed statement. “The student chapter of TPUSA then requested that TCU host the Oct. 7 event for 700 to 1,000 people.”
However, that “space was already booked with another student event,” the university stated. “We explored options and notified the group on Sept. 25 that a secure space was not available given the short notice, but we offered to find another date or space for the event.”
On Tuesday, Cole raised concerns on social media about the university “cancelling” the event, The Daily Signal reports:
Cole, who detransitioned at 16 and now speaks out against “gender-affirming care” for minors, said on X Tuesday that the university had been making its Turning Point chapter jump through “arbitrary hoops” for a “while” before ultimately denying its request for an available room.
She described the university as “cancelling” her, writing on X Tuesday, “Christian colleges (and otherwise) need to step up to keep democracy and free speech alive in the wake of Charlie Kirk’s assassination.”
The event, scheduled for Oct. 7, will now be held at Birchman Baptist Church. “The show goes on, but not on campus,” Cole wrote.
The post caught the attention of Texas attorney general.
“This doesn’t look like free speech to me. I’m going to look into this,” Paxton wrote Wednesday on X.
U.S. Rep Chip Roy, R-Texas, also questioned the university in a post on X, describing Cole as a friend.
“Expect an inquiry as to why she’s not welcomed by you,” Roy wrote.
The TPUSA chapter at Texas Christian University announced its plans to host Cole as a guest speaker in an Instagram post early last week. The announcement included the date — but noted that the location had yet to be determined.
Despite the university’s statement regarding the short notice, Cole on Wednesday continued to question the Christian university’s actions.
The Fort Worth university also faced criticism in 2013 for refusing to allow a conservative student group to distribute fliers promoting its pro-Second Amendment event, The College Fix reported at the time. The institution’s reason was the flier included an image of an antique shotgun.
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