Turning Point USA postponed an anti-transgender event at the University of Washington amid backlash over the recent murder of a transgender student near campus.
Originally planned for May 13, the “Pick Up the Mic” session was to feature Chloe Cole, an online anti-trans activist who underwent gender-affirming care as a teen but de-transitioned after converting to Christianity at age 16.
Juniper Blessing
Opposition to the previously scheduled event increased after the May 10 murder of Juniper Blessing, a 19-year-old transgender UW student stabbed multiple times in their apartment laundry room.
“The national TPUSA organization made the decision to cancel the event that was scheduled for today, a university spokesperson said in an email to the Vanguard News Group. “UW Student Activities Office leadership was in contact with the UW chapter of TPUSA about the appropriateness of the timing of such an event given the recent killing of a member of our LGBTQ community.”
Widespread opposition to the event included The Daily, the student-run newspaper at the university. It said going forward with the TPUSA event would have been “abhorrent” in light of Blessing’s death.
“The last thing we need this year is a speaker being welcomed onto campus to regurgitate bigoted anti-trans rhetoric. The cancellation of Cole’s speaking event is undeniably positive, but it’s deeply concerning that UW and TPUSA have continued to allow Cole to come and speak at an unspecified date,” editorial writer Jaya Parsons said.
“The last thing we need this year is a speaker being welcomed onto campus to regurgitate bigoted anti-trans rhetoric.”
Parsons was equally critical of Cole and her public condemnations of transgender people and gender-affirming care.
“Cole is, in many ways, the archetypal TPUSA speaker: Someone who goes to colleges and debates students without actually listening to them. At the bare minimum, it’s self-absorbed to exclusively base an argument on your own experiences, then use those experiences to extrapolate that therefore no child should receive basic medical care — but that hasn’t stopped Cole.”
Chloe Cole
Cole has gained national attention for reversing her female-to-male medical transition and claiming to be the victim of a “gender ideology” and online culture that convinced her she was a boy. Such cases of de-transitioning are rare but are frequently cited by evangelicals.
“I believed them,” she wrote for Fox News. “I went to doctors who gave me puberty blockers, blocking my normal development. Soon after, they started me on cross-sex hormones, so that I’d start to look more like a boy.”
At 16 she decided she was wrong. “I know the truth now: I’m a girl. I always have been. I always will be. I can’t change that — because it’s scientifically and biologically impossible.”
Now Cole travels the country testifying against transgender rights bills, speaking at conservative political rallies, being interviewed on right-wing podcasts and flooding social media with anti-trans messages.
In Washington, meanwhile, Cole and TPUSA framed the UW postponement as a response to threats made by liberal activists intent on shutting down her freedom of speech.
“In light of this tragedy and by an overwhelming surge of violent threats that appear deliberately designed to falsely associate our peaceful event with the murder, we have made the difficult decision to postpone our upcoming event with Chloe Cole,” TPUSA said.
TPUSA President Erika Kirk has failed to appear at several recent events, citing security threats — even though at one the Secret Service said there were no threats.
Cole took to social media ahead of the announcement to shift attention away from the homicide and onto her status as a victim of liberals.
“A transgender individual was murdered at @UW and yet radical leftists are more interested in getting my event with @tpusastudents tomorrow cancelled than identifying the actual murderer,” Cole posted. “If you’re more angry at me than the suspect, you don’t truly care about justice.”
Cole also claimed “antifa” radicals formed a “local militia” to disrupt the event.
Cole also claimed “antifa” radicals formed a “local militia” to disrupt the event, according to Them, an online platform dedicated to LGBTQ news and culture.
“Before Charlie Kirk’s assassination, I think I would have been less careful. But times have changed and speaking on a university campus in 2026 can come with deadly consequences,” she said.
Mass demonstrations also were being planned if the event had gone on, Cole claimed in an interview with Fox News. “There were local antifa groups that were actually scheduling these large-scale protests, and there were so many people who I saw online, just out in the open, who were saying things like, ‘I hope you get Kirked.’”
In another post, Cole claimed it was her decision to delay her visit to UW: “I am postponing this event because antifa has assembled a local ‘militia.’” She has also vowed to reschedule.
There is no formal group known as antifa, although MAGA conservatives routinely blame antifa for opposing their agenda. Neither Cole nor TPUSA appear to have provided evidence of violent threats connected with the UW event.
“The Seattle Police Department referred questions regarding the reported threats to university police officials, while university representatives did not immediately provide additional details regarding the alleged threats,” Vanguard reported. “The Seattle Times also reported that requests for additional information from Turning Point USA representatives and Cole were not immediately answered.”