Trans students felt threatened by this symbol of the far right. Why didn’t Northwestern intervene?

On a visit to Northwestern University’s campus in January, S. Yarberry saw something that stopped him in his tracks.

For decades, students have painted and repainted the large boulder known as “The Rock” near the Evanston campus entrance with slogans, symbols and announcements. On this particular day Yarberry saw a jagged, bright red cross had been painted over the blue, white and pink stripes of a trans flag memorializing a trans student who died last year.

“I thought, ‘This looks wrong. It feels wrong. I don't understand what it is,’” said Yarberry, who is a Ph.D. student at Northwestern and a trans poet.

He reached out to other students and faculty members to research the symbol, known as the Cross of Burgundy.

Together they found it originated in the Middle Ages as a battle flag, but in the 1900s it was adopted by a fascist group in Spain known to oppose equal rights for women and minorities. In recent years, supporters of Spain’s nationalist right-wing political party and alt-right demonstrators in Latin America have waved similar flags.

Yarberry and other students who felt threatened by the appearance of the Cross of Burgundy over the trans flag reported the situation to campus leaders.

But university officials decided not to paint over it, saying they do not police the Rock or paint over its content unless it is threatening or obscene. The decision has some students and faculty questioning what administrators view as threatening and whom they see as worthy of protection.

A spokesperson for Northwestern University denied WBEZ’s request for an interview. But an official who declined to be named said campus leaders spoke with the student who painted the Cross of Burgundy onto the Rock.

According to university officials, the student said he is solely interested in the history of the Cross and the Duke of Burgundy — and that he is appalled that his painting was interpreted as a message of anti-trans hate.

But experts who study this iconography say it’s not hard to see why students interpreted the cross as a threat.

Matthew Gabriele, a professor at Virginia Tech University, studies the medieval era and how it is remembered. He said the Middle Ages and especially imagery from the Crusades have become popular sources of inspiration for far-right groups.

The Cross of Burgundy is not a symbol he’s seen a lot in America, he said, but it appears to be a conservative and reactionary symbol that is anti-trans rights.

“The fact that it occurred where it did, when it did, how it did, gives credence [to the idea] that the person was trying to send a message,” Gabriele said.

Experts like Jessie Daniels, a professor at City University of New York who researches white supremacist movements, say context matters.

“It's just part of the white supremacist playbook to go back into either recent history or much older history, and pull out obscure symbols to signal to each other their ideological bent,” Daniels said.

In an email to students who reported the cross, which WBEZ reviewed, Northwestern’s dean of students, Mona Dugo, acknowledged that this a “painful and challenging moment in our national and institutional climate for transgender students and community members” and said the university takes these concerns seriously “regardless of the painter’s intention.”

But she said the Rock is a “student-moderated space” and that the university does not intervene or paint over its content unless there is an “immediate threat, explicit harassment or prohibited vulgarity.” Dugo also noted the cross was painted over a theater announcement and not just the trans flag.

In other situations, Northwestern leaders have taken action in response to content on the Rock.

In October 2020, Northwestern staff used a pressure washer to remove an account of sexual assault that accused the university of complicity in the attack, according to reporting from the Daily Northwestern. At the time, a university spokesperson said leaders believed the painting would be triggering to sexual assault survivors. The Daily Northwestern also reported that earlier that year the Rock was painted over twice after students wrote messages advocating for racial and social justice.

“It's been interesting to see what is and is not allowed here,” Yarberry said, adding that the university seems to protect free speech for some groups but not others. “I don't think that the university is interested in the trans community and doesn't actually want to get involved in these conversations.”

He points to the agreement Northwestern leaders negotiated late last year with President Donald Trump in order to unfreeze $790 million in federal research funding. As part of that agreement, Northwestern leaders signed off on Trump’s declaration that gender is immutable and does not exist outside of the categories of “men” and “women.”

While university officials have said the deal was necessary for the institution’s financial health and that it doesn’t change the school’s core values, the agreement has left trans students and their allies feeling like they can’t trust the university.

“The University says at the top that they're accepting a definition by which trans people do not exist,” said Sarah Schulman, faculty advisor to the trans studies roundtable at Northwestern. “How can you protect your students if you say they don't exist?”

Yarberry and other trans students and their allies decided to paint over the Cross of Burgundy themselves, and they are working to spread awareness of what the symbol means. They are calling on Northwestern leaders to publicly announce how they plan to protect transgender students and employees even as they abide by their deal with Trump.