Janet Mock, trans activist, cancels lecture at Brown RISD Hillel

Brown Moral Voices announced today that speaker Janet Mock has decided not to speak at Brown next Monday, March 21, 2016. The student-led initiative "focuses on a different issue of universal moral importance each year" and is run through Brown RISD Hillel; Mock was invited as the keynote speaker of their event series this year, which centered on violence against LGBTQ+ individuals and communities.Janet Mock is a Native Hawaiian and black trans woman, known for her New York Times bestselling book Redefining Realness: My Path to Womanhood, Identity, Love & So Much More. She is the founder of the social media project #GirlsLikeUs, and a Contributing Editor for Marie Claire, a host for MSNBC, and correspondent for Entertainment Tonight.Mock's decision comes as a response to a change.org petition made by Brown students, which asks that "students sign this petition to remove Hillel’s sponsorship from the event." The petition takes issue with Hillel International as an organization supporting Israel's policies of "occupation and apartheid," and suggests Moral Voice's topic of LGBTQ+ rights was an example of "pink-washing," meaning the rebranding of Israel "as a liberal, modern, and ‘hip’ country" through the association with queer rights.In addition to creating the petition, students also reached out directly to Mock to voice their concerns regarding an affiliation with Brown RISD Hillel."We are not asking for students to boycott the event, but simply do not want Janet Mock’s invitation to Brown to be part of Hillel’s (and Israel’s) pinkwashing campaign," the petition reads. Mock's representatives' statement to Moral Voices expressed concern that the purpose of her visit was lost in the controversy, and did not have the intended effect of creating "dialogue and discussion about the issues closest to Janet's work in movements for trans liberation, racial justice and intersectional feminism."Moral Voices referred to the petition as "factually inaccurate" and using "gross mischaracterizations of Brown RISD Hillel," though they were not specific as to which statements they were referring to.In the petition, students take issue with Hillel International's "guidelines set in place to ensure that no speaker hosted by Hillel is allowed to rigorously critique Israel." Brown RISD Hillel's website states that "Hillel unequivocally supports the continued existence of the state of Israel: for us, however, this support can include critique as well."

Marshall Einhorn, Executive Director of Brown RISD Hillel noted that while Brown RISD Hillel is recognized by Hillel International, they do not receive any funding from International unless they are cosponsoring events. Mock's talk was sponsored by Moral Voices, a group run through Brown RISD Hillel but funded by a private donor. In fact, most of Hillel's funding is from donors.

“We don’t get an allocation or a grant from Hillel International – that model shifted about five years ago. In terms of our funding model, the vast majority of our funding comes from donations from parents, alumni, and friends (people who aren’t parents or alumni),” he said.

This is not the first protest of a Hillel sponsored lecture this semester. In January, Students for Justice in Palestine gathered in Salomon to protest the "Jewish Journeys" conversation between actor Michael Douglas and politician and activist Natan Sharansky, which was cosponsored by Hillel International. In an Opinions piece for the Brown Daily Herald, members of SJP explained that Sharansky has a "record of anti-Palestinian, anti-African racism” and that Douglas works with the Brand Israel campaign, which they believe is “designed to put the spotlight upon Israel’s cultural capital, rather than on its violent, repressive policies.”Image via. 1:18 E.S.T.: This article has been amended to further elucidate the funding stream for the Janet Mock event. A previous version indicated that the funding came solely from Brown RISD Hillel, as opposed to from a private donation for a Brown RISD Hillel-affiliated program.