At the 2015 International Students For Liberty Conference, after months of courtship with YAL (I think calling it that is pretty fitting), one of my friends started up the Western Washington University YAL chapter. The club became officially recognized by the school during spring quarter, with me as the treasurer. During spring break (before we became recognized), I attended the YAL Utah State Convention in...Utah. More specifically, Salt Lake City. I had a good time, despite the Leadership Institute having a strong presence there - it being no secret that I have a huge grudge against them.
Despite the more conservative bent of YAL compared to organizations like SFL (which describes itself as being big-tent), I considered rising up the ranks in YAL in order to become a State Chair. I spend a lot of, if not too much, time on libertarianism and my political activism, and of what I have done, I have never actually been paid for my work...reimbursements and the meager ad revenue don't count. I would have liked to see some of my work compensated. However, despite my beliefs that libertarians should work within conservative groups (as well as with liberals and other libertarians), YAL lent itself to conservatives a little too much for my liking. There is also the misunderstanding from the public that libertarianism and conservatism are the same, which may also explain my contempt for fusionist organizations. (I found this neato article that explains a little bit how libertarianism and conservatism differ, from a conservative's perspective.) After attending the 2015 YALcon, I knew I would have to even further my limit my interactions with the organization.
It was my first morning at YALcon and by the time we had reached the second speaker, I seriously asked myself, "What have I gotten myself into?" This man was introduced by a YAL State Chair and Leadership Institute Regional Field Coordinator who said something along the lines of, "If he doesn't offend you, then he didn't do his job." During his first few minutes of speaking, he resorted to ageism, sexism, and other tenants of bigotry to attempt to make coherent points. Supposedly, according to himself and the introducer, listening to him provides valuable insights about life that you will never learn anywhere else. He provided a story about last year when a "young slim, blonde thing" got offended at something he said, and that it doesn't matter because she wasn't worth anything and had no importance.
I knew I had to get out of there. Being in the first row and center and within shot of the camera filming it, I wondered how to go about it. Finally, as if not giving a shit anymore, I gathered the things I would need and left. When I was walking out, I heard him say something about "offended twenty-somethings." Once I got out of the room, I realized I had forgotten my room key. I had planned to go to my room and charge my phone, which was dying, and I was delighting in using my phone because of how offended he gets when people are on their phones while he is speaking. I decided to try to see if my dorm room happened to be open by any chance. By some fluke, it was, so I charged my phone and did something a hundred more times more productive than being in his presence - I took a nap.
Now, I am not usually one who goes about trying to cause drama, creating gossip, and pitting people/organizations against each other (that's actually The Libertarian Republic's job), but sometimes I become so infuriated with an organization's dealings that I feel obligated to inform the public. I was at least glad that I wasn't the only attendee who was dismayed at YAL's decision to have him as a speaker, as I saw some social media outrage and noticed quite some more people than usual using his time to look at sponsoring organizations' tables, mingle, etc. If libertarians are wondering why it is difficult to appeal to more diverse demographics, this is it: by having bigoted conservative speakers appeal to fellow bigots and dismiss people's concerns under the guise that being offended is beneficial to furthering a cause, it undermines people's experiences and ensures that a movement will only eventually run out of steam. Get with the times, YAL - conservatism is dying out, thanks in part to its desperate tactics. I don't have any problems with conservatives in themselves as I was raised a conservative girl myself, but having to rely on shock factor and manipulation to try to capture the public's attention is pathetic at best. If this was the only incident to have happened with 2015 YALcon, I wouldn't have written about it. By venting about my frustrations, I got a heads-up from a couple of reliable sources concerning a juicy tidbit...
While Reason tabled there, they were also supposed to have a panel. It was approved, but a week before YALcon, it became unapproved. Why would that happen? It turns out the subject matter was too triggering for the organization. What was so risky a topic that YAL had to censor it? Feminism.
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| YAL be all like... |
Libertarian Feminism in 2015: Carrying on the individualist feminist tradition
Join us for a discussion of libertarian feminism in the 21st century. We'll touch on the individualist feminist tradition and then explore issues of particular importance to libertarian feminists today; how libertarian feminism differs from modern, progressive feminism; and what the philosophy has to offer the larger libertarian movement.
According to YAL, they deemed this to be too "divisive" and controversial. They offered the panel the timeslot again only if they altered the description and event so that the word "feminism" was avoided, but Reason turned down that feeble attempt at compromise. If I was Reason, I would have said "sure" but then F-bombed the panel to create bad relations with YAL - it's not like YAL's professionalism created any stronger bonds.
Before you can say, "But feminism and libertarianism don't go together," do some reading:
1972 Libertarian Party Vice Presidential candidate and the Association of Libertarian Feminists founder Tonie Nathan was the first woman in the US to receive an electoral vote.
America's First Feminist Was a Radical Libertarian
What Does Libertarian Feminism Look Like?
Anyways, it doesn't matter if you don't believe the two go together or you don't identify as a feminist (you don't have to!), the fact that YAL couldn't even bear to have a libertarian feminist panel, claiming that it would be too divisive while having (at least) one atrocious conservative speaker is not only hypocritical, but espouses the mindset that certain educational information is harmful and needs to be erased.
At this point, the national organization seems to be of little difference from the oft-confused conservative, "illegal immigrant catching" Young Americans for Freedom. There's only a tad more cherry-picked political correctness differentiating YAL from YAF. Now we know what the "con" in YALcon stands for.
