About 50 students marched across Clemson University on Wednesday as a part of the annual Take Back Pride March, demanding that menstrual products be returned to the men’s bathrooms in Cooper Library.

The attendees of the Take Back Pride event, largely decked out in rainbows and other pride-promoting apparel, heard from student speakers about their experience as LGBTQ+ students at Clemson.

“I’m angry at the experiences, at the bigotry that I’ve experienced at Clemson,” Pan Tankersley, the main student organizer of the event, said. “We must rely on each other to create the world that we want to live in.”

The Take Back Pride march occurs every year on National Coming Out Day, and the latest one was centered on the recent controversy concerning Clemson’s decision to remove free menstrual products from the men’s bathroom in Copper Library.

“Today, we are marching for the reinstatement of the menstrual products in the men’s restrooms in Cooper Library and throughout campus,” Tankersley told The Tiger.

Atop the stairs of Sikes Hall, ahead of the march, one student speaker echoed the demand that the menstrual products be returned to the men’s bathrooms.

“We demand the reinstatement of the menstrual dispensers that were unjustly removed from the men’s bathrooms at Cooper Library,” one of the student speakers said during the rally at Sikes Hall ahead of the march.

As they marched, the students chanted, “We’re here, we’re queer, we won’t disappear,” and held aloft a sea of rainbow flags along with a variety of signs with LGBTQ and communism symbols. Another poster included an image of Clemson board of trustee member Nikki Haley that suggested she is the puppetmaster of Clemson leaders.

“Queer people on this campus are not just going to magically disappear. So instead of working against us, like taking away menstrual products from the men’s bathrooms, making people feel unwelcomed, there should be support for the community that is already fighting to feel safe here,” the same student added.

The dispensers were removed after Clemson College Republicans posted a picture of one of the period product dispensers to its X account on Sept. 13, writing, “If you weren’t aware already, Clemson University has tampon/pad dispensers in the MEN’S restrooms located in Cooper Library. We truly live in (clown) world,” using the clown emoji in place of the word.

The dispensers were removed from the men’s restrooms on Sept. 16, three days after Clemson College Republicans’ initial post.

The College Republicans tabled across the street from the Take Back Pride event in protest of the group’s demand to return menstrual products to men’s bathrooms.

“It’s unfair that they’re taking that (free menstrual products) away from females,” Bailey Nye, social chair of Clemson College Republicans, told The Tiger in response to the Take Back Pride protest. “Taking the tampons from the majority of people who actually use them is wrong.”

“We reject delusion if that’s what they mean. We are not for men becoming women and women becoming men. Men can not menstruate, as we all know,” Trevor Tiedeman, chairman of the Clemson College Republicans, told The Tiger. “All of this pro-LBGTQ stuff is anti-Christan, but people don’t talk about that. As Christians, we need to reject that because they are trying to play God.”

On Take Back Pride’s Instagram account, it presented a list of demands to the University, including calling on campus leaders to punish the Clemson College Republicans under the student code of conduct.

They allege the College Republicans are “contributing to a campus climate that encourages transphobic rhetoric and jeopardizes the safety of LGBTQIA+ students,” according to an Instagram post on its account.

The College Republicans also had demands for the University. Tiedeman said the employees responsible for installing the menstrual products should be fired.

Protest and a march outside of Sikes Hall just now. More to come on our site soon. pic.twitter.com/LBPq8zKOyw

— The Tiger (@thetigerCU) October 11, 2023

The University did not say whether it would comply with either organization’s requests but did celebrate the free speech Clemson facilitates for all sides of the discussion.

“It’s always good that our students have access to their campus,” Chris Miller, Clemson’s dean of students and president of student affairs, said after the pride protest. “The ability to assemble and speak freely unencumbered just goes to the heart of what a university is and what a university is for.”

There are currently no plans to reinstall the product dispensers in the men’s bathrooms, but Clemson University spokesperson Joe Galbraith told The Tiger earlier this month that the products are still available in women’s and family restrooms.

The Take Back Pride march first occurred on April 14, 2022, in response to two Instagram posts made by Clemson College Republicans earlier that month that demonstrators claimed “perpetuated acts of hate, discrimination and violence against the LGBTQIA+ community.”

One post was in response to TigerLives’s ninth annual drag show. The College Republicans claimed the event was “chock-full of sexual degeneracy that spits in the face of the Christian population that currently attends Clemson University.”

The second post was a defense of their initial statement after the club received immense backlash from the community about their views.

Senior Reporter Kaylin Kelly also contributed to this story.