Charlie Kirk, founder of Turning Point USA, made a stop on his “You’re Being Brainwashed Tour” at Kansas State on Sept. 13, debating students at Bosco Student Plaza on political issues including transgender legislation, foreign policy and illegal immigration. 

The conservative speaker’s debate was interrupted when K-State turned off his microphone speakers.

“Kansas State says we have to turn off the mics, guys,” Kirk said. “They’re going to be hearing from the governor on that. … I guess they have to go off, the speakers do, because Kansas State University is not for free speech and the world will know all about that.” 

BREAKING — After the huge crowd turn out at Kansas State, the university shut down our tabling, so I went directly in the crowd to talk to students 1 on 1.

If they’re coming after you, you’re doing something right.@TPUSA @tpusastudents pic.twitter.com/p0us0g0OUV

— Charlie Kirk (@charliekirk11) September 13, 2024

According to K-State university policy, “Amplification is permitted on Bosco Student Plaza generally only between 12:00 noon and 1:00 p.m.”

The university did not respond to requests for comment. 

Kirk was slated to begin his event at noon. He arrived on campus at 12:29 p.m. His microphone speakers were turned off around 1:20 p.m. Kirk then left his table and joined the center of the crowd so students could hear him. 

Kirk said the university’s decision to cut his audio was disappointing and made the event less safe.

“Technically we had a permit from 12 to one,” he said. “Let us go over, I mean, that’s the point, right? We were having great energy, great spirit. [K-State] is the only campus where we’ve had a problem with that. And actually, it made it more dangerous to come out here [into the crowd] than if we just had a very orderly thing, so they actually made the campus more dangerous. Thankfully nothing happened.”

After Kirk’s audio was cut, a large portion of the crowd lingered to hear him speak and ask him questions. The temperature was 86 degrees when the crowd shifted from under the shade to Kirk’s new position, and by the end of the event many attendees were sweating profusely. 

Lexi Toothaker, junior in business administration with an emphasis in marketing, caught the end of the event and said “everyone was all pretty close together, and everyone was sweating and talking about how hot and humid it was outside.”

“Everyone was kind of stuck,” Toothaker said. “Only certain people could even reach him with how packed it was, and so no one could really even move their arms or anything. And when you were in a spot, you were stuck there. You couldn’t move forward or backwards.”

Kirk continued speaking with supporters and challengers until leaving shortly after 2 p.m. 

Throughout the event Kirk invited students to present viewpoints that challenged his own, and began the debate discussing his view that college is a scam.

“The whole contention I make is that unless you’re studying something like engineering, something like being a doctor, it absolutely can be a scam, and half the people in this audience will not even use your degree if you graduate when you actually find a job,” Kirk said. “So I think we can all agree too many people are going to college and that we need more plumbers, electricians, welders, police officers, entrepreneurs, and I bet there’s some people in college here that say ‘I wish I would have started a business instead of just getting a four year degree.’”

Kelm Lear, president of K-State Young Democrats, said after the event that there are other benefits of attending college aside from getting a degree.

“College teaches you a lot of soft skills beyond just the technical things that you need for very specific occupations like being a medical doctor or being an engineer,” Lear said. “… It’s not necessarily the knowledge that we learn in those degree programs. It’s about the skillset, the ability to like, figure things out, find the right answer, even if it’s not something you’re trained in.”

A student who did not state their name asked Kirk for his thoughts on transgender legislation.

“Transgenderism is a mental disorder,” Kirk said. “… I want people who are suffering from transgenderism to get health and care because I have compassion for people.” 

The American Psychological Association classifies gender dysphoria, or “psychological distress that results from an incongruence between one’s sex assigned at birth and one’s gender identity,” as a psychological condition. 

“I’m a trans man,” the unidentified student said to Kirk. “I am taking hormones and I plan to get surgery in the future, and I’m wondering what is your, I guess, care plan for people who do identify as transgender?”

“It’s what it [treatment] used to be, and it worked great, which is to get you in alignment with the body that God gave you,” Kirk said in his answer. “… Taking hormones or doing surgery is trying to address a symptom, not the cause … and what we’ve seen over the last 20 years is what works is through therapy, through psych counseling, that there might be an underlying traumatic event that makes you think that you are a man in a female body. … You’re chasing something that you’re never going to find.”

According to a study from The Journal of Analytical Psychology, “trans-identification and its associated medical treatment can constitute an attempt to evade experiences of psychological distress,” meaning transitioning could unnecessarily create permanent bodily changes while “underlying psychological issues remain unaddressed.”

Lear said he believes Kirk isn’t educated enough on transgender issues to speak on them accurately.

“We actually have data that tells us that often trans men’s brains behave more similarly to cisgender men, and trans women’s brains behave more similarly to cisgender women,” Lear said. “And so we do actually have scientific evidence that it’s not a choice to be trans, they are being who they are.”

According to the National Library of Medicine, there is a “suitable classification performance and a reliable distinction between the sexes based on brain anatomy,” meaning the brain anatomy of a transgender woman is more similar to that of a cisgender woman than to a biological and cisgender man, even before hormone therapy. 

Kirk also discussed foreign policy with students, saying the government’s main priority should be to clamp down on the southern border and end illegal immigration.

“Can we agree that we should secure the southern border before we send money to foreign countries?” Kirk said. “I think it’s insane that our leaders prioritize a foreign war over American problems.”

Lear said deporting every undocumented immigrant is unrealistic and would ultimately harm American society.

“The reason we don’t see mass deportations in that particular way — even under a Trump presidency, when he had a Republican Senate and a Republican House to potentially do that — [is] because I think they realize how much we [Americans] rely on the labor of undocumented people,” Lear said. “And I don’t want to sound like it’s a good thing that we’re exploiting them for their labor, but the economy in different sectors … like agriculture would totally collapse.”

Kirk said employing undocumented immigrants isn’t fair to those who legally undergo the immigration process.

The type of immigration that we support is when you follow our rules and you come on our terms, and that you do not break into a country uninvited,” Kirk said. “… It is an insult to other immigrants from Vietnam and Laos and Pakistan, that have to wait decades in line, to morally equivalate people that just come in and break in.”

Regardless of political ideology, Lear said hosting speakers like Kirk helps promote civil discourse between parties. 

“Something that could come of this is more K-State students would be inspired to start up the K-State College Republicans group again,” Lear said. “… Even though I disagree with a lot of what they believe, simply because it’s good to have that bipartisan representation from progressive students and conservative students to have their spaces.”