UT students stand against anti-abortion protesters on Ped Walkway. Matthew Young • The Daily Beacon
Roommates find way to hide pro-life display Chris Salvemini Staff Writer
Two UT roommates decided to protest the graphic pro-life display on Ped Walkway Tuesday, April 4, by exchanging traditional signs for PVC pipes and tarps. “We decided to make some signs, some tarps, just to cover up some of the hateful — and even inappropriate and obscene — signs that we’re seeing right here,” Indigo Jones, a senior in psychology, said. “So far it’s been pretty effective. We’ve gotten some people out here that just support the cause. They make their own signs on cardboard or they help us hold up these four signs. We can’t hold them all.” Jones and his roommate, Henry Gertsen, were protesting an organization called the Genocide Awareness Project (GAP), which compares abortion to genocides throughout history. The Center for Bio-Ethical Reform (CBR), a non-profit group known for its many pro-life advo-
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cacy efforts, presented the GAP display, which included images of aborted fetuses. According to the CBR’s website, the display is meant to educate students and the public about abortion in ways that traditional media and college faculty do not. The GAP presentation was also displayed the day before, on Monday, April 3. Since Jones and Gertsen were unaware of the display appearing, however, they did not protest it that first day, but instead gathered the materials and painted large hearts on the tarps in order to protest the display on Tuesday. “We do not protect things like random acts that have potential harm, like yelling fire in a crowded movie theater. This protest is causing some people harm, which is something that I take offense to. A couple of friends, who have had abortions, walked by this display and said that they’ve been rendered unable to work for a few hours or a day because of all the psychological trauma of getting these obscene images brought back to their mind,” Jones said. “Free speech is protected from govern-
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ment intervention, and we are not a government agency, or anything like that. We are not receiving any funding from the government though UT.” Other students joined Gertsen and Jones throughout the day. Some students traded GAP flyers for Sex Week schedules, and police officers stayed around the display in case either group became violent. Despite the friction, the roommates said they planned to stay on Ped Walkway for as long as possible without missing class and to protest until the GAP display is taken down at the end of the day. “We’re not even disagreeing with things like abortion. This is just about hiding these graphic, offensive images. Think about it like this, to see a rated-R movie you have to show your ID. I don’t even think a Quentin Tarantino movie would use these images,” Gertsen, a junior in mechanical engineering, said. “Right now, it is resist, resist, resist.” Tuesday is expected to be the last day the GAP presentation was displayed on campus
Wednesday, April 5, 2017