The organization Young Conservatives of Texas at the University of North Texas has shown a pattern of racism, transphobia, and homophobia throughout the 2019 through 2020 school year. These actions have hurt numerous organizations, minority groups, and the well being of harassed students — YCT needs to be held accountable for said transgressions and this open letter will discuss the following:

UNT’s Division of Institutional Equity & Diversity defines equity as “the guarantee of fair treatment, access, opportunity, and advancement for all students, faculty, and staff, while simultaneously working to identify and eliminate barriers that have prevented the full participation of some (usually historically underrepresented and marginalized) groups.”

Here is a list of YCT’s homophobic, transphobic, and racist statements and actions that directly conflict with UNT’s Division of Institutional Equity & Diversity definition of equity:

• Posted transphobic remark “pronouns in your twitter bio isn’t a personality trait” and sent the homophobic reply, “Neither is having HIV but you guys based your club off of that” to UNT GLAD, which is UNT’s umbrella queer organization.
• YCT’s homophobic language surrounding HIV emboldened Will Crawford who messaged a member of GLAD “Excuse me… I’m a little hesitant about joining because of the rumors I’ve heard. Does being the president mean you have super HIV or something along those lines and do I need to have HIV to join the organization?”
• Trivialized National Coming Out Day tweeting “It’s #NationalComingOutDay so come to the fountain mall today at 12pm to come out as conservative and get snacks.” By doing so YCT dismissed the countless LGBTQI+ individuals who bravely come out and publicly express their gender identity and sexual orientation against the fear of being outright hated for who they are.   
• YCT's presence on campus has created a particularly unwelcoming environment for students of color. For example, YCT held a bake sale where the price of baked goods were dependent on the ethnicity and gender of the customer in an effort to negatively exemplify the role of affirmative action in the college admissions process. YCT valued white men and women at $100,000 and African American male’s at ¢.50, African American female’s at ¢.25, Hispanic males at ¢.50, and Hispanic females at ¢.25, and Native Americans as “free”.

This is not the first time students have petitioned for the removal of YCT from campus for hateful actions. “In 2005, the Young Conservatives of the University of North Texas awarded candy bars to students who ‘captured’ people posing as undocumented immigrants.” The organization was dissolved at UNT in 2005 but later reinstated during the fall 2019 semester.

UNT made a huge mistake reinstating YCT in 2019, even after the last chapter’s actions. In order for a safe campus climate to be strengthened, YCT must be removed from UNT as an officially registered organization.

Furthermore, to prevent organizations whose actions negatively impact the student body from remaining on campus, we are calling for an institutionalized “3-Strike” policy. Adoption of this policy would require any and all student led organizations to be allowed to be formally reprimanded by the University of North Texas for their actions by way of charter suspension. The fourth opportunity for reprimandation onward would result in the organization being permanently disbanded and barred from future reinstatement on UNT’s campus.

Organizations falling under the purview of this rule include, but are not limited to UNT’s Greek Life system, club sports teams, student unions or governments and any organization registered with UNT’s OrgSync platform.

We, the following organizations, 

UNT GLAD

MUEVE

UNT College Democrats

Condemn Young Conservatives of North Texas actions, call for them to be de-chartered effective immediately. We also ask that YCT is never reinstated in the future.