First on Fox: Chloe Cole vows to return to UW after canceling appearance over alleged Antifa threats
FIRST ON FOX: Chloe Cole is speaking out after canceling a University of Washington speech over alleged Antifa threats, while vowing to reschedule the event as campus tensions grow increasingly dangerous.
"We started having these threats from different groups like Antifa," Cole told Fox News Digital in an interview Wednesday, adding tensions peaked in the days before the event.
On Sunday, a 19-year-old University of Washington student who was identified as a transgender woman was stabbed to death in an off-campus housing facility, local outlet KING 5 reported.
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"I don't want anybody to die," Cole said. "I don't want the violence to continue. And I can't believe that, in the wake of such a horrific crime, people can even think about continuing that violence. There's no justification for it."
Cole, a detransitioner who went through the process of transitioning from female to male between the ages of 12 and 16, was scheduled to speak Wednesday at the University of Washington as part of TPUSA’s "Pick Up the Mic" initiative.
"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,'" Cole said.
A student group, UW Divest News, urged protests, calling Cole a "transphobic right-wing grifter" and encouraging students to pressure the university to cancel the event.
"This event was going to be another one of those events where I talk about my experience about how to tackle these issues," she said.
Cole continued, "I do worry about my personal safety and I do regularly receive threats of all sorts, but after this event, I've had so many people just messaging me from, emailing me all over, telling me that whatever violence would have happened at the event, I would deserve to be subjected to it."
For Cole, the reality that some people were using the murder of the University of Washington student that she had nothing to do with as a justification for further violence is "egregious."
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"I've had a lot of students say, ‘Out of respect, you should shut down this event. You shouldn't be speaking here at all because somebody died. And it's your rhetoric that continues the deaths of transgender people,’" Cole said. "I've seen more people connect me to this murder that I did not do than people calling for an investigation, to find the perpetrator, to find the monster who did this."
Cole said that people seem to care more about ideology and politics than treating people well and that she thinks more should be done to protect people like herself who face death threats for speaking their mind.
"I'm not afraid of these people," she added.
The women’s rights advocate said that she is not allowing herself to be discouraged despite the situation.
"I have a heart for these people," Cole said. "I want them to know that there is another way out for them. And I used to be that radical myself. But it's not something that's discouraging me, because I know there's always going to be another opportunity. It's something I'm going to keep praying on. And I — for as long as I feel called to do this — I will continue speaking on campus."
In a statement to Fox News Digital, a spokesperson for the University of Washington said that, "The national TPUSA organization made the decision to cancel the event that was scheduled for today," adding that the "UW Student Activities Office leadership was also 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 LGBTQIA+ community. But, again, the decision was made by the national TPUSA organization."
The spokesperson also said that "no suspect has been identified and no motive for this crime has been established," and that the Seattle Police Department is leading the homicide investigation.
Katelyn Seratt, Turning Point USA chapter president at the University of Washington, told Fox News Digital in a statement, "As many in the Seattle area have heard, a transgender University of Washington student was tragically murdered on Sunday night. The University of Washington chapter of Turning Point USA condemns this horrific act of violence in the strongest possible terms. No one should ever be subjected to such senseless brutality. Our thoughts and condolences are with the victim’s family and friends."
Seratt continued, "In light of this tragedy and by an overwhelming surge of violent threats directed at our chapter, 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 at UW is not leaving campus," she added. "We remain fully committed to promoting free speech, open dialogue, and intellectual diversity at the University of Washington. We look forward to rescheduling this important conversation at the earliest appropriate time."