It’s a they-tifada.
At least 9 of the 81 people, or 11 percent, arrested in connection with storming a Columbia University library Wednesday use “they/them” pronouns, a review of public records by the Washington Free Beacon shows. That share is well above the 1.6 percent of Americans who identify as transgender or nonbinary, according to the Pew Research Center, and more than double the 5 percent of people who identify as transgender or nonbinary under 30.
The brood of agitators run the gamut from longtime professional protesters, to otherwise carefree writers and poets. Most have long histories steeped in transgender activism. The group was part of a mob that raided and vandalized Butler Library, handed out pro-Hamas pamphlets, and injured two security officials. They were offered a chance to leave peacefully if they showed their identification, but the radicals refused and were arrested after a standoff.
The disproportionate numbers come amid growing awareness of transgender-inspired violence which has in recent years included shootings in Covenant School in Tennessee, STEM School Highlands Ranch shooting in Colorado, and a 2018 mass shooting in Aberdeen, Maryland, which left four dead. Ted Kaczynski, the Unabomber, also famously suffered from gender dysphoria, and once attempted a sex change.
“They just go and get released in 24 hours. It’s not brave at all,” said Michael Lucas, an LGBT adult performer who has faced industry criticism for his outspoken support of Israel. “They go through a lot of bullying and mistreatment and unfortunately a lot of them become very damaged people. So they have no common sense and end up taking the side of Hamas, even knowing that these people would kill them in the most barbaric way.”
One arrestee who identifies as they/she, Khanh Doan, may be in particular trouble as a Vietnam native. Secretary of State Marco Rubio warned Wednesday that the State Department was “reviewing the visa status of the trespassers and vandals who took over Columbia University’s library.”
Doan’s senior thesis focuses on the Gaza Solidarity Encampment and has interests such as “liberatory movements, and transnational solidarities,” according to a bio that was deleted Friday.
Also among the arrested is Rose Bottorf, who uses the pronouns “they/she/he.” Bottorf is a serial campus agitator who was among the 100 people arrested during pro-Hamas rioting on campus in April 2024. As an undergraduate philosophy student, Bottorf taught “critical race theory and activism to children ages 14-17.” Before that, Bottorf worked as an intern at City Mission Boston, a defunct nonprofit which “expose[d] systemic barriers” and “use[d] storytelling as a healing tool for social change.” Bottorf has also worked at the European Institute of Policy Research and Human Rights, in Dublin according to her LinkedIn.
Another student arrested was Leigh Oldershaw, an undergraduate at Columbia University majoring in creative writing and minoring in educational studies. Oldershaw is gender-nonconforming and uses they/them/their pronouns, according to a 2022 profile in the Portland Press Herald. While at Windham High School in Portland, Maine, Oldershaw wrote “Bach in the Barn,” a young adult novel.
“Set in Maine in 1995, the book’s central character, 13-year-old Macy Griffin, is an example of transgender identity that Oldershaw once longed to find,” the Press Herald noted.
Another bio, which didn’t use Oldershaw’s preferred pronouns, read, “He is passionate about sharing the trans stories he wished he encountered when he was young and hopes to go into teaching to be a positive trans role model for students.”
Haven Capone, a “she/they” junior at Barnard College, Columbia’s sister school, who writes poetry and is fond of posting cat videos on YouTube, was also detained Wednesday.
“How many days in a row have I eaten Reese’s Pieces for breakfast? I can’t do my girlfriend instead of my homework because I got an A on one essay,” read one poetry sample. “How am I already aging enough to notice that I have started to forget What people have seen of my body? telling my sister in a Starbucks that when I overheat I shutdown.”
Before Bryanna Paz (she/they) was arrested, the Columbia graduate student served as a production fellow at Maximum Fun, a Los Angeles-based “worker-owned cooperative” podcast production company.
As an undergraduate at the University of California, Berkeley, Paz worked at the college radio station KALX as a news director. A 2022 Daily Californian report noted her complaints about being a person of color at the station and alleged discrimination by her white colleagues. An old X account reveals Paz engaged in campus activism while an undergraduate as well, specifically participating in protests against the confirmation of Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh.
Zoe Foshee (they/she), a Barnard sophomore, traveled to the school all the way from Fairbanks, Alaska, so she could find herself under arrest on Wednesday. A Barnard Zine Library profile notes that Foshee’s passions include “music, human rights, and religious studies.” While a senior at West Valley High School, Foshee served as president of the “West Valley Gender and Sexuality Alliance.” While in the Last Frontier state, the Barnard supported a bevy of progressive causes. As a self-described flag football player, Foshee has advocated for allowing biological males to play in women’s sports and currently works as a Voter Engagement Specialists at Planned Parenthood, according to her LinkedIn.
Then there’s Lucas Pasquina, a senior “they” studying political science and religion at Columbia College who has plans to attend law school “to focus on creating models for restorative justice.” Pasquina has worked in the past as an editorial cartoonist and contributor to the Columbia Spectator. In one 2022 piece arguing that Columbia was not queer-friendly enough, Pasquina offered a woke-laden jeremiad. “Queer liberation is intersectional—it is liberation from oppressive structures for LGBTQ people of all races, ethnicities, genders, classes, and geographical locations,” Pasquina wrote. “We can start by focusing on the hyper-local impact Columbia continues to have on its queer students of color, low-income queer students, and others who have been historically excluded from wealthy, white-centered activism and administrative reform.”
In 2023, Pasquina won a position in Columbia College’s student government as a “pre-professional representative.” Pasquina also did a stint in state government, working as a legislative analyst for New York state senator Cordell Cleare, a progressive lawmaker who advocates for reparations, education equity and “restorative and racial justice,” according to her official biography.
Sean Dunnsue (he/they), meanwhile, found time to storm the library while pursuing a masters of social work at the Columbia University School of Social Work, according to his LinkedIn, which also notes work as a tutor at Compass Education Group. During the pandemic while identifying as he/him, Dunnsue did a stint working as an undergraduate research assistant at the Rutgers University “Diversity Science Lab.” The program studies “how to reduce subtle or hidden discrimination.”
While an undergraduate at Washington University in St. Louis, Dunnsue founded the “Men’s Project,” which aimed to dismantle “toxic masculinity” in campus fraternities.
“I felt complicit,” Dunnsue said of his manhood. “I think there are a lot of parallels between masculinity and interpersonal violence, and unfortunately men are more often than not the perpetrators of violence, so I think it is important for us as men to be more aware of the role we play in that,” he added to a student newspaper.
Joie Lew (they/them), is pursuing a master of arts in human rights studies with a concentration in settler colonialism and indigenous resilience at Columbia, according to Lew’s now-deleted LinkedIn page. “As a queer Asian American from the South, I was made to believe that I didn’t deserve to take up space,” Lew wrote in an October blog post, “Message to the Gaysians of America.” In December, Lew blasted Texas legislators for attempting to roll back far-left education initiatives in the Lone Star State.
“By restricting the teaching of critical race theory and the 1619 Project, which examines the historical legacy of slavery and systemic racism in the United States, the law effectively whitewashes our nation’s history and perpetuates a sanitized version of the past,” Lew wrote in a grad student essay, earning the liberal activist $400.
While at Southern Methodist University, Lew created the “Queer Qollective”— “a collection of projects aimed at increasing the well-being of LGBTQIA+ students, including housing, record-keeping, and infrastructure policy.”
Neither Columbia nor any of the arrestees returned requests for comment.
Read the full article here
