Turning Point USA Winona Chapter invites speaker Dani Lindsay in their first large scale event.
The TPUSA Winona Chapter invites a guest speaker to talk about protecting women’s sports in a controversial on campus event.
The murmur of the crowd slowly dissolves as a woman in pink walks to the front of the auditorium. Dani Lindsay, a member of the American Conservation Coalition came to Winona State University to give a talk titled “Title IX and Protecting Women’s Sports.”
This event, taking place on Nov. 12, was open to the public and drew a large crowd of both Winona State and the larger Winona community. Hosted by the Turning Point USA (TPUSA) Winona Chapter, the event had over 130 people in attendance, a large turnout for the chapter’s first large scale event.
Teva Feit, a first-year business administration major who founded the TPUSA Winona Chapter and is the current President wanted to give people a place to express their opinions without judgement.
“People from both sides need to be exposed to thoughts and beliefs that don’t necessarily align with their own. It sparks conversation and communication, which is a necessity in today’s society,” Feit said.
Lindsay opened the conversation with a prayer and then followed it by detailing her experience with being injured by another woman while playing women’s lacrosse and how it affected her future. This was interwoven with statistic surrounding the differences in power between men and women when playing sports.
“Womanhood is not weakness it is a unique kind of strength,” Lindsay said in her opening speech.
The focus of this event was discussing protecting women’s sports and Lindsay was brought in due to her firsthand experience playing sports and her ability to start conversations on the topic around campus.
“Dani is knowledgeable in the statistics around transgenders in sports, so it not only helped educate our own members, but also people in the community on the facts surrounding transgenders in sports. There is a large interest and support across the campus and community populations for the protection of women’s rights which is why we wanted an educated speaker on this topic to come and have a conversation about it,” Feit said.
Throughout this event religion was frequently brough into the conversation, both by Lindsay and by the attendees who wanted to ask questions. This was a highlight for many people as it seems that many speakers don’t bring that perspective into their conversations.
“Turning Point actually has a whole movement specifically around religion called TPUSA Faith, and as a Turning Point Chapter, we also represent that movement. Within TPUSA, all of our conservative beliefs also align with a religious aspect; our views can all be backed up biblically/religiously,” Feit said.
The combination of faith and politics was a melding that many appreciated. During the Q&A portion of this event there were questions about faith in general, women in the military, and living life with more conservative view points in a very divisive time.
Due to these polarized times and the recent assassination of Charlie Kirk, Lindsay honed in on the need for safety even when trying to speak on personal beliefs.
“Be cautious but don’t be afraid to speak Truth,” Lindsay said in response to an audience question about when to speak on beliefs even when among less conservative friends. “Be safe, please, I think that’s more important than ever.”
