Turning Point USA is slated to charter a club at College of the Desert in the coming year, creating a great deal of concern for students on campus.
TPUSA is a 501 (c)3 nonprofit organization that promotes “educating young people about the importance of limited government, free markets and freedom.” It was founded by Charlie Kirk in 2012. Critics have termed it everything from a low-effort grift and glorified merchandising venture masquerading as political action to a cynical grab for power by those who could never achieve their wildly unpopular goals democratically. In my view, those critiques fail to capture the full scope of the organization’s impact.
TPUSA has a documented history of targeting students and faculty, particularly those who are LGBTQIA+. Members of the organization have repeatedly accused queer people of “grooming” and the age old “gay recruitment” myth while that same organization will single out and elevate high-school and college students to the national stage provided that they openly advocate for supposed “traditional values” that is to say the systematic erasure of transgender people specifically but queer people more broadly from all aspects of private and public life. To me, the practice of elevating vulnerable youth in such a way that they become financially dependent upon your organization for speaking engagements is far more indicative of and perhaps definitionally grooming.
Several high-profile examples illustrate this pattern. In the case of Riley Gaines, she would not be nearly as successful without throwing a tantrum after tying for fifth place in a swimming competition with a trans swimmer. This garnered her a spot as a household name in certain circles, and she continues to capitalize on that fame as an influencer. Similarly, Taylor Silverman, a competitive skateboarder whose most successful competition was attained through “very, low-risk, low-difficulty tricks.” as one competitor recounted to Vice through Instagram, went viral on social media blaming her loss on a trans individual. This caught the eye of TPUSA who elevated her story further. Her newfound renown in right-wing circles led to her being offered a job working for noted right-wing influencer Tim Pool’s skateboarding brand. Recently, Samantha Fulnecky a college student whose academic dispute was thrust into a national spotlight by TPUSA resulting in the unjust suspension of a trans graduate student instructor over a 3% grade difference. This phenomena of otherwise unsuccessful individuals being offered lucrative positions as media darlings after they publicly espouse right-wing is not just how Turning Point USA operates but arguably its sole raison d’etre.
The purpose of TPUSA, whether the individuals who comprise its increasing number of chapters believe this to be the case or not, is the dismantling of the civil rights movement and any gains made thereof. The group has advocated for the dismantling of “Diversity, Equity and Inclusion” initiatives by claiming so-called “racial discrimination” against white people. Being a Christian cisgendered heterosexual white man is not, and has never been, a class that is under attack in the United States of America, no matter how loudly they cry foul.
Make no mistake, TPUSA’s goal is to prevent the playing field from being leveled by pretending that the divots, pits and valleys never existed in the first place, or have been filled in with the wave of a hand in less time than it took to dig them out. I think the civil rights leader Malcolm X put it best when he was asked if he felt we were making progress on the issue of racial inequity in America and said, “… they haven’t even begun to pull the knife out, much less try and heal the wound. They won’t even admit the knife is there.” Kirk in contrast once said, “We made a huge mistake when we passed the Civil Rights Act,” a remark that reflects a broader effort to delegitimize civil rights advancements, a legacy which TPUSA continues.
Legacy is perhaps the most accurate way to describe TPUSA, as it is now headed by Erika Kirk, the wife of Charlie Kirk. Erika Kirk was appointed to the position of CEO a little over a week after Charlie was pronounced dead, and under her leadership focus on the Christian Nationalist arm of TPUSA, TPUSA Faith, has been renewed. As demonstrated in her speech following Charlie’s death, and in a recent “interview” with Bari Weiss, which was as obsequious as it was ill-received, Erika’s main goal is evangelism through “civic initiatives.”
Although TPUSA Faith discourages its members from advocating for specific political candidates, arguably to ensure that any power brokered through its influence is beholden to TPUSA, it is REQUIRED for a TPUSA Faith group to perform at least one “civic initiative.” This typically takes the form of political protest, or advocating against “cultural marxism,” antisemitic conspiracy theory which has its roots in one of the conspiracy theories at the heart of Nazi propaganda.
Turning Point USA is, without mincing words and in this reporter’s humble opinion, the modern equivalent of the Hitler Youth, and should not be welcome on campus. Much like the fascist movements in our past, TPUSA has notably created a “watchlist” of professors it deems dangerous, even singling out professors who advocate for LGBTQIA+ rights or are queer themselves. These kinds of groups are paving the way for future atrocities, a real danger in a country with a staggeringly high rate of mass shootings. I encourage students to make their voices heard at the Governing District of College of the Desert and Inter-Club Council (ICC) meetings in the coming weeks.
