University of Southern Maine pro-life group faced with harassment, including veiled threat referencing Kirk assassination
Chapter leaders of a recently launched pro-life student organization at the University of Southern Maine have been targeted by a barrage of online hate comments and protests.
An anonymous social media post also suggested that ‘these Charlie Kirk enthusiasts gotta be careful,’ referencing the recent assassination of the TPUSA leader.
A newly formed pro-life student organization at the University of Southern Maine has been repeatedly harassed by students on campus, including one who made a veiled threat referencing the late Turning Point USA leader Charlie Kirk.
Students for Life’s campus formation coordinator, Matthew Gozzi, helped interested students found Huskies for Life in the fall and said the group was immediately subjected to backlash.
“Two separate demonstrations were planned before the group had even hosted its first official meeting,” Gozzi wrote in an article on the organization’s website.
Pro-abortion students began to flood the group with a barrage of online hate comments, with a large number of them being posted to Yik Yak, an anonymous social media platform.
One student seemed to imply a threat referencing slain Turning Point USA leader Charlie Kirk, writing, “[T]hese Charlie Kirk enthusiasts gotta be careful don’t they know what happened to that guy[?]”
The hate comments were also plentiful on the group’s Instagram posts. One post alone featuring a graphic with a pro-life slogan drew comments such as “gross,” “foul s***,” and “f***ed up.”
Other users wrote, “[W]ishing rabies upon your family” and “Sending hateful prayers.”
Some of the other posts on the account featured vitriolic comments that read “[H]oping nothing but the worst for you blights of society” and “I hope your future husbands [sic] mistress uses the baby name you wanted for their love child.”
[RELATED: University of Minnesota Duluth TPUSA chapter reports multiple death threats]
Kristan Hawkins, Students for Life of America president, blasted the comments in an X post, writing, “Our Students for Life group at the University of Southern Maine was hit with an anonymous Yik Yak threat that even referenced Charlie Kirk’s assassination. As someone still grieving my friend, it’s heartbreaking, but it also shows exactly why we must keep going. Our students won’t back down, and neither will I.”
Gozzi expressed a similar sentiment, saying that the attempts to intimidate the group members “have been to no avail,” and that they “won’t stop fighting and speaking up for Life.”
The university told Fox News that if the anonymous posters’ identities are discovered, campus police will be involved, and those responsible will be investigated in accordance with the Student Code of Conduct review process.
Huskies for Life is not the only conservative student group that has been subjected to harassment on Yik Yak. Campus Reform previously reported that students who revived a chapter of Turning Point USA at the College of William and Mary were faced with similar persecution on the app.
The University of Southern Maine and Huskies for Life have been contacted for comment. This article will be updated accordingly.
