Laughter and music rang out over North Main Street on the overcast evening of Thursday, April 10, as a crowd of over 100 Allegheny students and faculty members gathered on the lawn outside the Newton Observatory for a “Trans Joy Jamboree.” The event was a celebration of “trans joy, success, and athleticism,” according to its flyer, and was hosted by Students Against Genocide, All Gender Equity Society, WARC Radio, Allegheny Ghost Club and Grounds for Change.
The event was billed as alternative programming to conservative speaker Olivia Krolczyk’s visit to campus, hosted by the recently organized Allegheny chapter of Turning Point USA. Krolczyk delivered a talk about the fight to prevent transgender women from participating in women’s sports in the Schultz Banquet Hall, just 100 yards away from the jamboree.
AGES Vice President Rion McCluskey, ’26, said that despite the two events’ proximity and related subject matter, the “Trans Joy Jamboree” was not a protest.
“We are not really interested in the idea of a protest for something like this because that’s what she (Krolczyk) wants,” McCluskey said in an interview with The Campus. “We’re not about being negative, we’re not about putting down anyone else’s ideas. We’re about lifting up our trans friends on this campus. This is an event for joy and fun, and it’s something just for trans people that’s happening at the same time and same place. It’s not about them, it’s about us.”

Vice President of SAG, Mya Furbish, ’25, an organizer of the event, elaborated.
“We listed it as alternative programming because we really wanted it to be a fun space to celebrate transness,” Furbish said. “We thought if we listed it as a protest, that would invite people to come and try and attack us or something like that. So it was just about safety and to make it a fun and happy event.”
Speaking up to be heard over songs like Chappell Roan’s “Pink Pony Club” and Whitney Houston’s “I Wanna Dance with Somebody (Who Loves Me),” SAG President Syd Hammerman, ’25, who also helped organize the jamboree, explained its purpose was very simple.
“To state very publicly that we love our trans friends and that we will not tolerate bigotry on this campus,” Hammerman said. “Love is going to win. Love is going to win every single time.”
For over two hours, students played cornhole and other yard games, sketched chalk art on the sidewalk and talked on the Ford Chapel lawn. A faculty member’s young child teetered around on the grass with onlookers trailing close behind. Pride flags hung from the branches of a nearby tree, and homemade signs were propped on benches bearing phrases like “Trans Women Belong In Sports! In Science! In Government! In College!” and “I Am Who I Am.”
An orange ribbon set up by Public Safety cordoned off the area, and a large yellow sign created by the organizers laid down the event’s ground rules, instructing attendees not to engage in any capacity with those attending the Turning Point USA event and informing them on what to do if they felt unsafe. The final lines read, “If ground rules are broken, you will be asked to leave. We keep us safe.” Several Public Safety officers and college administrators, including Dean for Student Life Trae Yeckley and Dean for the Student Experience Ian Binnington, supervised from across the lawn.
AGC Secretary and Public Relations Chair Maggie Dineen, ’27, was thrilled with the turnout of the event.
“I think that it went so much better than we anticipated,” Dineen said. “I thought we were going to get rained out, but seeing everybody come here, from students to friends to you guys even and faculty from Carnegie, it’s very grounding. It shows that the campus is here for us and we’re not looked over.”
In the days leading up to the jamboree and Krolczyk’s visit, students debated whether the Turning Point USA event violated the college’s Statement of Community. Many took to the anonymous social media platform YikYak to voice their concerns, express support for transgender peers and organize displays to show their disapproval. Several alumni also entered the fray, posting on various social media platforms that they intended to make clear to the college administration how disappointed they were that their alma mater would allow Krolczyk to speak.
Hammerman felt similarly disappointed with the college and was confident Krolczyk’s visit violated Allegheny’s Statement of Community.
“Knowing that she is here is, like, to the core of me makes me disgusted,” Hammerman said. “She’s not welcome here. I don’t want her here and I don’t want anybody like her here again.”
If the Turning Point USA students had started a Republicans Club instead, the situation would be different, Hammerman explained.
“If they wanted to have a Republicans Club, nobody would have really been up in arms about it,” Hammerman said. “It’s the fact that you’re bringing a club like Turning Point. That is where everything shifts. You cross the line.”
AGC President Daphne Womack, ’27, who helped organize the jamboree, agreed that healthy political debate is important, but acknowledged it has limits.
“We, as representatives of Ghost Club and as people, I think, very much so believe that all political parties should have a place on this campus,” Womack said. “If we as (the) LGBTQ community, as Democrats, as liberals have a space here on campus, then conservatives and Republicans should also have a space here on campus. I don’t think that that’s a controversial view. I think that the issue comes up when they bring hateful people onto this campus.”
Maley Gleason, ’25, who serves as the public relations chair for GFC, said this year at Allegheny feels different than the past three.
“This year has been so odd with Turning Point coming to campus, with the election, with campaign cycles, this is the first time that I’m even seeing any of this happen,” Gleason said. “But overall as — I am a queer woman, and as that, I have always felt very safe and very welcomed here. It’s really, really alarming to see how that is changing.”
Hammerman, who is genderqueer, reported a similar shift in the culture of campus. They used to be on the executive board of AGES and remember a time when they felt that AGES was not a particularly vital gathering space. Now, they said, that has changed.
Creating more safe spaces for LGBTQ+ students to gather is part of what prompted Dineen and Womack to make AGC a co-host of the jamboree.
“I see Ghost Club as one of the more queer clubs on campus,” Dineen said. “Having our name tacked onto this shows our club members that they are welcome here, that we’re not just going to look over them, that they can come to us if they need anything.”
Dineen believed more clubs would have co-hosted had they been less worried about potential altercations with the people attending the Turning Point USA event. Womack also pointed to students’ fear of being attacked online for attending as a reason some may have been afraid to attend or attach their names to the event.
McCluskey said that though the Turning Point USA speaker created undue stress for some students, he was hopeful it would serve as a learning opportunity for the college administration.
“I know that a lot of times in legality you need something bad to happen before you can fix it,” McCluskey said. “I’m hoping that maybe this will show the college what loopholes exist that they need to close to protect students.”
Several organizers told The Campus they hoped the jamboree would not be the last public display of support for transgender students.
McCluskey added that in addition to future jamboree-type events, AGES is taking proactive steps to further connect Allegheny’s LGBTQ+ community with the Meadville community. One example McCluskey pointed to is AGES’ new goal to send a group of its members to volunteer during Service Saturdays, a monthly program organized by the Office of Community Engagement for students to complete community service projects in Meadville.
“We have started sending people on Service Saturday trips to get out in the community and show people that queer people lift the community up,” McCluskey said. “And people in Meadville see that queer kids from the college are out to help them, not hurt them.”