The College Fix

The point was ‘to show the flourishing and the presence of our queerness,’ one organizer said

A handful of students at the University of Victoria in Vancouver, British Columbia, converged Friday evening in protest of public intellectual Jordan Peterson’s nearby sold-out show.

Organizers were stocked with lemonade, iced tea and lots of chalk to “cover the plaza in messages of queer joy” before Peterson’s evening event, according to the Vancouver Island Free Daily.

Photos indicate that attendance was sparse.

“Jordan Peterson has used his massive platform to try to silence queer voices and intimidate queer voices,” organizer Prym Goodacre reportedly said. “So we’re here to show him what the community looks like and that we are a group that won’t be silenced and won’t be intimidated.”

Cleo Philp, another rally organizer, said, “Peterson presents himself as a free-speech advocate while calling for the oppression and silencing of trans and queer voices,” according to North Shore News.

“The point isn’t necessarily to become adversarial with Petersonians, so much as it to show the flourishing and the presence of our queerness,” Philp said.

The rally ended approximately 45 minutes before the show started, according to the Vancouver Island Free Daily. No altercations were reported.

While Peterson’s discussion took place inside the arena, University of Victoria political science Professor Simon Glezos and others hosted an alternative event to foster “healthy dialogue about how to desensitise masculine empowerment from the misogyny and trans-phobia Peterson is selling,” according to the Daily.

In response to a report on the protest, Peterson tweeted: “In 400 shows, there have been, maybe, five protests (most with 3-6 bedraggled attendees) at the sold-out lectures, with thousands in the audience. I’m not ‘dogged’ by objectors. But it’s easier to lie than to do your homework.”

In 400 shows, there have been, maybe, five protests (most with 3-6 bedraggled attendees) at the sold-out lectures, with thousands in the audience. I'm not "dogged" by objectors. But it's easier to lie than to do your homework @timescolonist: https://t.co/g64STfA8qm

— Dr Jordan B Peterson (@jordanbpeterson) May 17, 2023

Peterson, who became a public figure for rejecting mandatory preferred pronouns as a professor at the University of Toronto, refused to comply with a letter he received in January of this year from the Ontario College of Psychologists requiring him to submit to “retraining,” The Fix reported.

Peterson had criticized Canadian politicians, gender ideology and some aspects of climate science.

The bestselling author of “Twelve Rules for Life” and others cited the “appalling ideology” dominant in the universities in explaining his January 2022 resignation from the University of Toronto in an op-ed for National Post, The College Fix reported that month.

“We are now at the point,” he said, “where race, ethnicity, ‘gender’ or sexual preference is first, accepted as the fundamental characteristic defining each person … and second, is now treated as the most important qualification for study, research and employment.”

MORE: ‘Birthgap’ producer touted by Jordan Peterson canceled at Cambridge; film shut down

IMAGES: YouTube/JordanBPeterson; Instagram/clio_philp;

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