George Mason University has announced that Virginia Republican Governor Glenn Youngkin will be the first speaker at the institution’s graduation ceremony in May 2023, and some students are pushing for his speech to be cancelled.
Students at the university started a petition Thursday, the same day Youngkin was announced as speaker, demanding that Younkgin not speak or even attend the commencement ceremony on May 18.
“As a patriot and future alumna of George Mason University, I and my colleagues do not want the memories of our graduation day to be tarnished by an individual who has harmed and continues to harm the people he serves,” senior Alaina Ruffin wrote on the petition. . “On behalf of the GMU Class of 2023, we are urging you to sign this petition and demand that the administration of George Mason University take appropriate action to ensure that Governor Youngkin does not attend or speak at the Spring Commencement Ceremony of 2023.”
Ruffin seemed particularly troubled by the governor’s track record in passing legislation on transgender issues and controversial school curricula. His administration’s proposals include banning transgender students from using bathrooms or participating in sports teams that do not match their biological sex and banning critical race theories and sexually explicit books in schools.
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George Mason University has announced that Virginia Republican Governor Glenn Youngkin will be the first speaker at the institution’s graduation ceremony in May 2023. (Al Drago/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
“Selecting a speaker who has passed anti-trans legislation, promoted the abolition of racial equality curricula, and limited the availability of literature in public schools is a deliberate target for historically marginalized communities, including Mason,” Ruffin wrote. . “It is detrimental and disrespectful to the many students who continue to shape GMU’s community to bring in an individual who has also neglected the needs of Virginians.”
“George Mason University prides itself on being one of ‘the most diverse institutions in the Commonwealth’.” But by having Governor Youngkin as this year’s Commencement Speaker, we believe the university is compromising its supposed values of putting student experience and overall well-being at the center of its efforts,” she continued. “In satisfying her own desire to appease the powerful few, the university has once again abandoned these principles.”
More than 5,100 people signed the petition early Sunday morning.
The university’s student government also said it was “deeply saddened and concerned” at the decision to host Youngkin as the first speaker.
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Students at George Mason University started a petition demanding that Younkgin not speak or attend the commencement ceremony on May 18. (Getty)
“The Youngkin administration has supported and developed policies to attack transgender youth, racial and ethnic minorities, and LGBTQ+ individuals,” the student government leadership wrote in a press release. George Mason University’s current motto is ‘promoting diversity, equality and inclusion’; however, the actions of the Youngkin administration demonstrate their commitment to the opposite. Not only is it a betrayal of every minority group on campus to welcome Glenn Youngkin to our spring launch, but it also reinforces their hypocrisy and dishonesty on the part of the Mason administration itself.”
BLACC Mason, the university’s black, African and Caribbean coalition, also released a statement opposing Youngkin as the first speaker.
“It is our responsibility as members of this community to stand up against bigotry and intolerance,” the group wrote on Instagram. “We must demand that our administration act and remove Youngkin as the first speaker. We cannot allow our university to provide a platform to someone who actively promotes discrimination and hatred.”
Some students at George Mason University are pushing for his opening speech to be canceled because of his record on transgender issues and race in education. (Al Drago/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
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Youngkin will address the University’s class of 2023 at EagleBank Arena on May 18, becoming the last sitting governor of Virginia to address Mason graduates, along with former governors Jim Gilmore, Mark Warner, Tim Kaine and Terry McAuliffe.
“Governor Youngkin’s commitment to lifelong learning and his entrepreneurial spirit is what we cultivate in all of our college graduates,” Gregory Washington, president of Mason University, said in a statement.
