After the shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, which left 19 children and two teachers dead, March for Our Lives sprung into action to organize rallies for gun control throughout the country. Founder and board member David Hogg has also called for people from all over to join him and his organization in participating in marches. As it turns out, though, not all are welcome.
Hayden Laye, who goes by "Pro-Life LGBTQ+" on Twitter, revealed online and spoke to Townhall about being shut out from hosting a March for Our Lives event in Greenville, South Carolina, because of pro-life beliefs.
Laye has done pro-life work with Democrats for Life of America (DFLA), Students for Life of America (SFLA), and Progressive Anti-Abortion Uprising (PAAU).
.@AMarch4OurLives just told me I'm not allowed to organize a official MFOL event because of my pro-life views after they keep going on about us not caring.
— Pro-Life LGBTQ+ ?????????????? (@ProLifeLGBTQ) May 26, 2022
Refusing to work with people who hold different views on a separate issue is a great way to accomplish absolutely nothing.
And no surprise, after @AMarch4OurLives removed the info for the GVL Rally For Gun Safety event happening tomorrow from their website because I (the organizer) am pro-life people are thinking the rally has been canceled and another person started planning another event.
— Pro-Life LGBTQ+ ?????????????? (@ProLifeLGBTQ) May 27, 2022
As Laye revealed to Townhall, Trevor Wild, a Distributer Organizer was the one who revealed as much. Wild, who did not respond to comment from Townhall, appeared to double down on Twitter.
.@wildtrevor_, this is the guy who told me I'm not allowed to organize a MFOL affiliated event because I am pro-life and this is what he had to say after doing so: pic.twitter.com/u1EqOxZQ9k
— Pro-Life LGBTQ+ ?????????????? (@ProLifeLGBTQ) May 28, 2022
The "Our Policy Agenda" section of the MFOL website does make reference to other issues. "At MFOL, we know this is a deeply intersectional issue, inextricably bound with our long journey for racial justice, economic justice, immigrant rights, and the rights of our LGBTQIA+ comrades," the page reads. It makes no mention to the "reproductive justice" that Wild tweeted about, nor does speak to such exclusionary and discriminatory policies that Wild espoused.
Wild has since protected his tweets, and now goes by "no content for anti-choice dems" on Twitter. It wasn't merely Laye tweeting at Wild, but others, including Kristen Day, the executive director of DFLA, and DFLA itself.
It is a shame to conflate the two issues in this way. People can oppose abortion & advocate against gun violence. A Dems for Life Member was told he was not welcome to organize a March For Our Lives event. Why turn away people wanting to activate and organize? https://t.co/mXtTBq92T7
— Kristen Day (@ProLifeDem) May 28, 2022
We always hear, “Pro-life people don’t care.” But when they want to join you to protect human life from gun violence, you are going to shun and shut them out? It makes ZERO sense. And this is why we won’t make any progress. https://t.co/aUOP583JEz
— Democrats for Life (@demsforlife) May 28, 2022
The epitome of cowardice is people like @wildtrevor_ who is intentionally sabotaging pro-gun safety events to stop pro-lifers from organizing them.
— Kristin Turner (she/they) (@KristinForLife) May 28, 2022
He cares more about fake intellectual purity than children being slaughtered.#MarchForOurLivesJune11 #GunControl #prolife
This all comes as Hogg incessantly tweets out calls for all kinds of people, regardless of other differences, to join him. Here are just a few.
March with us. June 11th wherever you are and bring friends with you we all have the same enemy- gun violence. Let’s put our politics aside and save our kids. We must work together- these kids aren’t Democrats or Republicans they are our future.
— David Hogg ?? (@davidhogg111) May 30, 2022
We all have the same enemy- gun violence. We all have the same goal- peace.
— David Hogg ?? (@davidhogg111) May 29, 2022
If liberal and democratic, engineers, scientists, mathematicians, and politicians can land a man on the moon I’m pretty damn sure we can stop our kids from dying and their schools and communities.
Our nation faces division and challenges like few other times before in our unions history. The way we will come together and unite for a more perfect union is not by focusing on what we can’t agree on but by focusing on what we can in the shared goal of a more perfect union.
— David Hogg ?? (@davidhogg111) May 29, 2022
If you agree with this message join us in the movement that has one enemy- gun violence. We need Americans on the left and right gun owners and non-gun owners old and young everyone joining hand-in-hand to make our politicians work together as we do to protect our kids.
— David Hogg ?? (@davidhogg111) May 29, 2022
I know you all say that’s not possible but republicans and former gun industry executives are working with us even if they don’t agree completely with us like @MichaelSteele and @WalshFreedom @ryandbusse and others. We gotta find common ground to save our kids.
— David Hogg ?? (@davidhogg111) May 29, 2022
Laye explained in an Instagram post that "I sent the information for the event happening this weekend to @marchforourlives and said I was interested in doing a march on June 11th and was told they would reach out with more info. I got a call from them a few minutes ago, not with more info, but saying I am not allowed to organize an official MFOL affiliated event because of my pro-life views on abortion after they keep going on about us not caring." The post began by pointing out that "refusing to work with people who hold different views on a separate issue is a great way to accomplish absolutely nothing."
Laye has a point, and it's not merely MFOL that has gone after the pro-life movement. The same day that the shooting occurred, people rushed Twitter to condemn pro-lifers, berating those who would dare be pro-life while also supporting the Second Amendment, including with "#ProLifeMyAss."
Some even try to control how pro-lifers can label themselves, in that they can't use such a label if they don't subscribe to their position on gun control. Such exclusionary practices from MFOL are thus quite hypocritical, then, considering that pro-lifers are told they must be in favor of gun control.
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez tweeted such a claim.
There is no such thing as being “pro-life” while supporting laws that let children be shot in their schools, elders in grocery stores, worshippers in their houses of faith, survivors by abusers, or anyone in a crowded place.
— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) May 24, 2022
It is an idolatry of violence. And it must end.
A week later, such claims are still coming in through, such as from Robert Reich.
?????? https://t.co/1FL9iZayvt
— The List (@ListComesForAll) May 28, 2022
Laye doubled down on calling out those who won't work with others that they may disagree with on other issues.
"If you want to achieve something, you must work with others who might not always agree with you. The keynote speaker at my event, Lee Turner (2018 Democratic Congressional Nominee for South Carolina District 04), is very pro-choice. We stood on opposite sides of the street just a few weeks ago after the SCOTUS leak, but we came together to fight for a common goal," Laye, who held an event last Saturday and plans to hold more, said in a statement for Townhall.
Whole Hogg's statements and tweets call for supposed unity on the issue, it's a sense of unity that only goes so far. Based on other tweets as well as exclusionary practices, it appears that March for Our Lives may care more about sticking it to the pro-life movement than about its pet issue of gun control.
Join the conversation as a VIP Member