Thread by @TessaVikander

Here at the rally in support of trans rights, in response to @ubc allowing Jenn Smith to host an anti-SOGI talk on campus. Reporting for @starvancouver. Hosted by @BcFamilies4.

Folks are preparing now to go attend and disrupt Jenn Smith’s talk

At the front doors

Now I’m inside..Jenn Smith is pacing lobby..

RCMP is here too. And that’s Smith in blonde.

Now I'm set up with a laptop and going to live tweet some of what Jenn Smith says, while I also get working on my story. Apparently we're not allowed to record in here? Not sure if that legally applies to me as a journalist here tho, tbh.

About 70 people inside the lecture hall. Introducer says that it's because of you that we're here today, shows a picture of a woman punching a man with a boxing glove and says "we don't want to see any of that tonight."

Now a small group of students from the protest outside have come in and are sitting at the floor at the front of the room. And they're being asked to go sit in the seats. Jenn Smith is concerned that they're sitting up at front. Security is being called.

Security is on its way. "we're going to keep moving on" we have to be out by 10 and we can't have too many disruptions, the introducer says. He is from Canadian Christian Lobby.

Security is caucusing now in the doorways, maybe they're trying to decide how to deal with the people at the front?

Here's my story from before the event. thestar.com/vancouver/2019…

Jenn Smith: "I don't approve of SOGI 123..I think it's more important to teach basic manners and respect..nothing against transgender people." At one of Smith's recent talks, members of Soliders of Odin (classified as a hate group by a watchdog network) acted his bodyguards.

People at front now chanting "Trans Rights Are Human Rights" non-stop.

Jenn Smith says these people are "enemies of free speech." Smith says "I do not lie..against the law to legally disrupt"....fire alarm has been pulled.....

protesters being led out....of building by cops

room has to clear because of fire alarm..

A woman wearing a PPC pin is here, she is part of the crowd filing out. Some people are angry and yelling "there's no fire, we know there's no fire, you don't have to leave, it's just a noise..."

People are gathered in lobby..

Cops outside of building have detained the 3 people who disrupted at front of room. Seem to be questioning them and taking notes.

Fire department has cleared and people are being allowed back in..

Fire department was here, this is pic of hallway. Now I’m back in lecture room: Lights from fire alarm are still flashing inside lecture room but blaring alarm has stopped.

Jenn Smith is calling the protesters fascists..

Now they're calling security on me because they don't want me live tweeting...showing photos of Morgane Oger on the front screens. I'm being told that my typing is disturbing someone's ability to focus on the lecture.

Lecture has resumed. Smith is talking says "woman" is a word that is being highly debated. "My position is that a man cannot be a woman," essentially saying that trans women are not women. #LGBTQ #trans

Jenn Smith says he is not a woman, "sex is biologically determined, it is coded in every cell of your body." Truth is that sex can change, I know lots of people who have changed their sex so...

Well it seems that they're not kicking me out, because I am still here.

There is a group of quite buff tall men, mostly caucasian, sitting in the very back row. I recognize them from other far-right rallies. I suspect they are part of Soldiers of Odin, but I'm not sure.

Smith is saying that he was discouraged from being trans as a kid and that is why he never got a sex change, suggesting he was saved from what he deems as "dangerous" gender-affirming surgeries and medication.

I'm going to take a break from tweeting now and write some copy (my deadline is loooooming large). Basically the Jenn Smith anti-SOGI talk has gone on...despite an initial disruption from protesters. #SOGI @UBC

Jenn Smith is now going on about how many trans women have "male genitalia" saying public deserves to know that these trans women have not had gender-affirming surgeries. | Fact check: according to our laws in Canada, you can be a woman without having gender-affirming surgeries.

More photos of @MorganeOgerBC up on the screen now. Jenn Smith is saying that Morgane, who is a trans woman, is actually a man. Fact check: Morgane Oger is a woman. Laws say that trans women are women, and human rights laws protect them against this kind of discrimination.

Here's the lead up article to today's talk. New story coming soon. thestar.com/vancouver/2019…

So story is coming tomorrow morning because reporting on all of this took longer than expected, and editors aren’t available this late. Meanwhile @CSeucharan and I are filing from a park bench, eating smarties, and I’m dancing to stay warm. Goodnight!

@CSeucharan Here’s the story! @BcFamilies4 @ubcprez #lgbt #sogi thestar.com/vancouver/2019…