‘Free Speech Will Be Protected in My District’: PA State Senator Cris Dush Faces Off with Trans Activists at Penn State, Threatens to Cut Funding

Leftist activists bent on disrupting Riley Gaines’ Real Women’s Day at Penn State University last month got pushback from Pennsylvania State Sen. Cris Dush (R), who not only stood up to them on campus but threatened to pull funding from the school if their attempts to shut down Gaines’ right to speak continued.

As Breitbart’s Warner Todd Huston reported at the time, “[Gaines] had planned an event to urge support for real women that was set for Tuesday at Penn State University (PSU).”

“But on the day the event was to take place, Gaines jumped to her X account to tell supporters that the school refused to allow the event and claimed she ‘missed a deadline’ to file a request to reserve the room.”

Gaines instead opted for an outdoor event.

No way President of Penn State makes a whole video explaining why public institutions are legally obligated to let "bigots" apparently like me on campus to speak then proceeds to CANCEL my speech tomorrow for real women's day (X/X)😭😂

Have it your way. See ya tomorrow with a… pic.twitter.com/vHTPbK6hBZ

— Riley Gaines (@Riley_Gaines_) October 9, 2023

In an exclusive interview with Breitbart Sports, Dush revealed the details of his encounter with radical gender ideology activists on the PSU campus who, after the university had already canceled Gaines’ indoor pro-women event, sought to ruin her outdoor event as well using fear and intimidation.

Dush described to Breitbart Sports the actions of one of the radical gender ideology activists.

“The ‘male’ was constantly dropping the F-bomb on people and getting within inches of people’s faces trying to get people to push him off or something like that, to lay hands on him, or in any way that they could,” Dush said of one of the activists. “There were three other people there that I saw that if somebody had actually done that, we probably would have had a physical altercation there. Fortunately, everybody on our side wasn’t responding to it the way he was trying to instigate.”

Watch the video here:

Logan Dubil

When he tried to do the same with me, I just told him, I said, “Look, if we end up…basically what I was telling him, if they shut this down it is going to lead to more calls for us to not actually fund Penn State with the extra funding that we normally give.”

Dush made it clear to the trans activists that free speech was a two-way street, and their refusal to allow Gaines her right to speak could lead to PSU losing its $150 million grant. A threat that the senator believes could be duplicated by other conservative politicians as they seek to stem the tide of intolerance that threatens those who speak against radical gender ideology.
“It’s interesting,” Dush explained. “As I’ve talked to the Board of Governors for Penn State, they’re admitting that their donations are down, and it’s largely because of this kind of stuff.”

Dush continued describing his interaction with the irate activist:

We are going down the hill and he starts getting into my face, and wanting to know if I’m there to support gay rights, and I said, ‘I’m here to support Riley Gaines,’ and that’s all the further I got before he got (motions with his hand close to his face) right there again with the F-you, and it just went from there, and the thing that caught everyone’s attention is when I said, ‘look, this is my district, and I’m going to make sure there is free speech on this campus.

The state senator further revealed that “leftist professors” joined the students in their attempt to shut down the Gaines event.

“Some of the leftist professors that were instigators behind this kind of this stuff, they were standing up on the hill, overlooking. And as soon as I told the campus police, because the gay flag was actually blocking their view at the time, I identified myself to the campus police, told them what had just happened. Kudos to them, they responded straight down there. We got them separated, and those two were in handcuffs, and the other three people that I was looking at, and keeping an eye on, was like, all of a sudden the air went out of the balloon,” Dush said.

RELATED VIDEO — “We F*cking Hate You!” Transgender Activists Melt Down over Riley Gaines’ Appearance in Wisconsin:

Sarah Clark / POLITICALLY+ /TMX

While Dush has shown that he is not shy about invoking the power of the purse when it comes to denying public funds to universities that refuse to back free speech, he also holds out hope that the recent threats of mega-donors at the University of Pennsylvania to withhold funds if the school doesn’t crack down on antisemitism will also force leftist administrators to reverse course.

“Maybe we have emboldened some of the billionaires to take a step up, and I’m hoping that legislators as well,” he said. “It’s long past time that we start holding them accountable. I mean, we’re taking the money out of everyday citizen’s pockets, and we’re giving it to these universities. If these universities can’t be what they were created to be, that is, places to have civil discourse between opposing views as well as reasonable discussions about the benefits and problems with each of these various ideas, then they’re no longer the universities and they no longer need to be receiving money out of the pockets of everyday citizens.”

Dush commented on the parents and politicians around the country that have taken up the battle against the transgender agenda, and how important it is to support their fight.

“Down in Virginia with Gov. Youngkin’s election and that kind of thing and the Mama Bears that have been out there about the obscene materials that are showing up. You know, if a judge were to show some of these materials to a kid he’d be locked up. If a police officer or if a priest took a kid in the back room and showed them these materials they’d been locked up. But for librarians to be given exemption to, you know, they’ve got children and I know the study halls and stuff; the kids that went to the library instead of the study hall to avoid bullying, those are the kinds of people that predators are looking for, and you get that kid behind closed doors and you start showing these books that have stuff.”

RELATED VIDEO — Riley Gaines on Left’s Refusal to Define Women: “I’m Not a Vet, but I Know What a Dog Is”:

Matt Perdie / Breitbart News

“A couple days ago I challenged the media,” Dush explained. “We had to block things off with security to make sure the kids couldn’t get in, but I challenged the media. I said, ‘you guys in the television, post that on your station see how fast the FCC shuts you down, put it above the fold on the newsstands and it’s print and find out how fast you get shut down.’ People are starting to be vocal, about the everyday citizen has had it, and they are starting to speak up. They are being bold, and it’s emboldened some people who haven’t been speaking out in the past but when they’re constituents are finally reaching out to them and saying, ‘Hey I just saw this stuff and you’ve gotta be kidding me you’re sitting here on a sideline and doing nothing.’ I think the boldness is gonna start coming because I think the everyday citizen is taking notice.”
Dush explained how important donors are to the fight against the influence of transgender activism on students.

“Certainly my hope, I think, as the university’s largest donors start taking action, you’re gonna see it coming from some of the others that there are more of them and they may not have the big bucks donations but it does impact the university to a great extent. Also it’s going to impact because these legacies, these people who have been in before, it’s gonna impact whether or not they send their children to those universities. So the enrollments are gonna suffer as well,” he said.

RELATED VIDEO — Riley Gaines: Women Should Stop Being “Agreeable,” Must Fight Trans Agenda:

Matt Perdie / Breitbart News

“And going back to the U Penn president, she gave a statement, President [Liz] Magill, that ‘alumni are important members of the Penn community I hear their anger pain and frustration and I’m taking action to clear to make it clear that I stand, and Penn stands, emphatically against terrorist attacks by Hamas in Israel and against antisemitism.’ But she only came out with that after she started getting the public pressure. And even Palestine Rights, which I hate to quote them, but they did call her statement cowardly but for completely different reasons than I would call it a very cowardly statement and she really, I don’t think, believed what she was saying and I’m very frustrated when the university administrations are not very bold. Have the boldness that I had out there on the campus,” he said.

While the reception from activists at the Gaines event was predictably hostile, Dush tells of a group of female athletes who thanked him for his involvement in fighting for women’s rights. Dush, a former collegiate swimmer in his own right, offered an anecdote on what would have happened to him had he pulled a Lia Thomas and attempted to swim against women.

“I did have 3 young women that I actually think were involved in interscholastic, NCAA sports; they came up to me after we’d shut that thing down and I’m on my way and they thank me for being there and I asked him if they were involved and immediately the fear shot into all of their eyes and they said, ‘we kind of help out.’ I honestly believe they are athletes, but they didn’t want to be outed and I’m not about to do that, but you know that’s fear that these women have that are competing in these sports. That’s what I’m there to fight against,” Dush concluded.

The effort to take women out of women’s sports has been ongoing at major colleges and universities dating back to before a swimmer formerly known as Will Thomas became Lia Thomas and went from being the 472nd-ranked male swimmer to becoming the #1 swimmer in NCAA women’s swimming history.

While Gaines continues her fight by holding pro-women events at universities and speaking out against radical gender ideology, it seems Pennsylvania has a leader willing to fight.

“The people who were here yelling and trying to shout things down had no interest in [civil discourse],” Dush said, according to the College Fix. “It’s all about feelings and emotions and not about having a real intellectual discourse about the issues.

“We hold the purse strings for an awful lot of universities in Pennsylvania,” he added. “We can make them sit up and take notice that you guys have a responsibility [to uphold free speech on campus].”

We’ll see if they listen.