UVA Students Protest Event Featuring Abigail Shrier, Author of Book Exploring ‘Trans Epidemic’ of Young Girls

People holding transgender flags - stock photo
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Katherine Hamilton

University of Virginia (UVA) students, faculty, and locals protested an event at the school featuring journalist Abigail Shrier, author of the groundbreaking 2020 book Irreversible Damage: The Transgender Craze Seducing Our Daughters.

Shrier, who was invited to campus by conservative student groups, spoke last Wednesday night at Minor Hall about transgender identification among youth as a “peer contagion” and answered questions from audience members, the College Fix reported Tuesday.

Over one hundred protesters outside of the event, who appeared to deny biological reality in favor of gender ideology, reportedly chanted, “Say it loud, say it clear, transphobes are not welcome here.”

The protesters “chant[ed] loudly enough to be heard from inside,” according to a Cavalier Daily article by a reporter who attended the event.

Shrier’s book explores what she refers to as the “trans epidemic” among teenage girls. Her work focuses on the struggles of mothers — many of them liberal, feminist, or even lesbian — who were suddenly faced with teenage daughters who no longer wished to identify as female. Some of the girls underwent irreversible surgery — such as “top” surgery to remove their breasts — before they could change their minds. 

Through extensive interviews and research, Shrier documented the spike in the number of girls who wish to identify as transgender. She suggested that some of the interest may be driven by popular culture, peer pressure, and the intervention of health professionals.

Shrier has repeatedly faced intimidation from those who seemingly wish to silence her for acknowledging the existence of biological reality and questioning the dogma being pushed by transgender activists around the world and in various institutions. 

In May of this year, a large group of left-wing protesters in a suburb of Tel Aviv, Israel, attempted to intimidate the American Jewish author during a book event. During the discussion, a protester rushed the stage, disrupting the book event and threatening Shrier’s physical safety before being removed from the venue.

The incident occurred after major Israeli book chains refused to stock the book, and left-wing groups pressured the original Tel Aviv venue to back out. A secondary venue was also pressured to cancel.

In December of 2021, Shrier spoke to Princeton students at an off-campus venue, “the location of which was revealed solely to RSVP’s guests just a few hours before the event due to ‘threats and harassment,'” according to the report. 

Amazon.com had also blocked advertisements for her book before it was released, and several employees reportedly resigned in protest of the company’s later decision to continue to sell the book. Workers also signed a petition to censor books like Shrier’s. 

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