Turning Point USA cancels rally at UW after murder of transgender student

Memorial grows for UW student stabbed to death in laundry room

A memorial is growing outside the apartment complex where a transgender student was fatally stabbed Sunday night as police continue to search for her killer.

SEATTLE - Turning Point USA has canceled their upcoming event at the University of Washington, scheduled to feature detransitioner speaker Chloe Cole, after a transgender student was murdered last week.

The organization previously held an event at UW, where a counterprotester was arrested for playing the drums after warnings from campus security to stop.

This upcoming event was slated to feature Chloe Cole, a conservative activist who "detransitioned"—that is, transitioning to another gender, before later reversing her decision and transitioning back—who was expected to speak out against transgender care and perceived "transgender ideology."

Those plans have been postponed after a transgender student was stabbed to death in her off-campus apartment on Sunday.

Murder of transgender student changes TPUSA plans

Turning Point USA says the murder of a transgender student, as well as threats associating their organization to the murder, have led them to canceling the event.

Their organization issued the following statement:

"As many in the Seattle area have heard, a transgender University of Washington student was tragically murdered on Sunday night. The University of Washington chapter of Turning Point USA condemns this horrific act of violence in the strongest possible terms. No one should ever be subjected to such senseless brutality. Our thoughts and condolences are with the victim's family and friends.

"In light of this tragedy and by an overwhelming surge of violent threats directed at our chapter, threats that appear deliberately designed to falsely associate our peaceful event with the murder, we have made the difficult decision to postpone our upcoming event with Chloe Cole.

"TPUSA at UW is not leaving campus. We remain fully committed to promoting free speech, open dialogue, and intellectual diversity at the University of Washington. We look forward to rescheduling this important conversation at the earliest appropriate time."

Cole shared a video on X, formerly known as Twitter, claiming that the event was canceled due to threats from Antifa.

"Antifa has assembled a local militia, in their own words, to shut down this event," Cole said in the video. "Their actions, their explicit threats on my life, have raised this event to national attention, a level of attention our security team and our PD are frankly unprepared for."

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