Reports that TCU canceled a Turning Point USA event has drawn criticism from the likes of Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, but TCU says it was never booked.
FORT WORTH, Texas — Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton says he will “look into” reports that TCU canceled an event hosted by the school’s Turning Point USA chapter that TCU says was never officially booked for the space on campus.
Chloe Cole, a self-described detransition activist, called out TCU in social media posts for its handling of an event hosted by Turning Point USA that Cole said she was set to speak at on Oct. 7.
Cole began to transition to male at the age of 12, but later reversed her transition at 17, and has since advocated for bans on gender-affirming care for minors, our content partners at the Fort Worth Star-Telegram report.
“They denied our 10/7 event despite many rooms being available according to students and faculty, when pressed, they said ‘this is not open for discussion,'” Cole wrote in a post on social media.
Organizers say they moved the event to Birchman Baptist Church in Fort Worth.
In an earlier post on social media on Sept. 30, Cole thanked Hillsdale College in Michigan for hosting one of her events and called that school “the first college to actually thank me for speaking on their campus instead of canceling me like TCU just did.”
Following Cole’s posts, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton wrote on social media that he would “look into” reports of the event being canceled on campus, and Congressman Chip Roy also called for answers in a post on social media.
TCU refuted the claims of the event’s cancellation in a statement, though, saying that the space for the event was never officially booked for it.
“On September 18, TCU successfully hosted a TPUSA event to honor the life of Charlie Kirk, who had previously spoken on TCU’s campus to students and the community. Separate from this event, an outside party, not affiliated with TCU, invited an external speaker to appear on our campus on Oct. 7. The student chapter of TPUSA then requested that TCU host the Oct. 7 event for 700 to 1,000 people. The requested space was already booked with another student event. We explored options and notified the group on Sept. 25 that a secure space was not available, given the short notice, but we offered to find another date or space for the event. TCU never cancelled this event as it was never booked,” TCU said.
TCU previously hosted Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk, who was shot and killed at an event at Utah Valley University last month, back in 2023. TCU’s Turning Point USA chapter also hosted a vigil for Kirk on campus after Kirk was killed.