Jennifer Braly, a transgender UAFS student, was scheduled to give a guest lecture for Dr. Laura King’s General Psychology class on Friday, April 20th at 9AM. The lecture coincided with the class unit on gender and sexuality. Thursday afternoon, Ms. Braly received an email from Dr. Rita Barrett, Associate Professor of Psychology and Department Chair, which, according to Ms. Braly said,

“All of my faculty are now diligently preparing for the closure of the semester. They must be in compliance with their syllabi, grading, final exams, graduation exercises, etc. and it is impossible to afford more class time to accommodate an additional speaker at one week before finals.Therefore, your scheduled speaking engagements in any course in my department (PSYC, CJ, SOCI, ANTH) have been cancelled. This includes the two scheduled for tomorrow Friday April 20th in Dr. Laura King’s classes.”

Lets step up!!!

Help send a message to U of A Fort Smith that the world is watching, and won’t stand silent while people are silenced solely because of their gender presentation/identity. Demand that the U of A let Jennifer Braly speak freely about gender and sexuality.

Find more info from the links below.

Fox 24 Local covarage and video.
http://www.nwahomepage.com/fulltextfox?nxd_id=329112

KARK Local News 4 coverage.
http://www.arkansasmatters.com/fulltext?nxd_id=537212

Student newspaper:
http://www.lionschronicle.uafs.edu/news/breaking-news-transgender-student-lecture-sparks-debate

The Guerrilla Angel Report.
http://www.lexiecannes.wordpress.com/2012/05/04/u-of-arkansas-officials-stops-transgender-student-from-giving-lecture-to-class/