Beth Bourne and the Intersections of Hate: Where Transphobia Meets White Supremacy

Inside the campaign of a woman weaponizing whiteness and bigotry under the guise of “freedom”

Beth Bourne is not a household name, but in the small college town of Davis, she has become a symbol of rising right-wing resistance to gender inclusion, academic freedom, and civil rights. As a program director at the UC Davis Institute of Transportation Studies and chair of the Yolo County chapter of Moms for Liberty, Bourne has used her institutional affiliation and growing online platform to attack trans folk, both in her private life and public “activism,” with disturbing fervor.

For critics, Bourne’s campaign is not just about free speech. It’s about the misuse of power, personal and institutional, to harass students, intimidate colleagues, and create an unsafe environment for queer and trans communities, particularly at a university known for its progressive values.

In June 2024, Bourne took that hostility to new ground, literally. While vacationing in Hawaii, she was filmed accosting a group of drag performers in the lobby of the ‘Alohilani Resort in Waikiki. In the viral video, she accused the artists of misogyny and claimed they were “degrading women” in front of her children. But for many, the image was striking: a white woman, uninvited, weaponizing her discomfort against a sacred and long-standing tradition in a place that has always honored gender diversity.

In Native Hawaiian culture, māhū, trans people who embody both masculine and feminine spirit, have been respected as teachers, healers, and carriers of cultural knowledge. Bourne’s aggressive confrontation wasn’t just a moment of anti-drag rhetoric; it was an affront to generations of Indigenous tradition and a textbook example of colonial entitlement. This wasn’t cultural misunderstanding; it was targeted disrespect cloaked in moral panic.

Back home in Davis, Bourne’s behavior has had deep personal consequences. Her own nonbinary child publicly severed ties, saying they left the family home because they no longer felt safe. “She threatened me in our home,” the child shared. “I left because I no longer felt loved.”

The harm doesn’t stop there. On the UC Davis campus, students and faculty allege that Bourne has engaged in harassment, doxxing, and targeted online campaigns against trans advocates. One staff member, speaking on condition of anonymity, described a climate of fear. “It feels like the university protects her more than it protects the rest of us,” they said.

Despite public outcry and a petition with over 7,000 signatures demanding her termination, the university has declined to act, citing First Amendment protections. Critics argue that this response ignores the line between protected speech and targeted abuse, especially when institutional affiliation is being used as a weapon.

Most recently, on April 3, 2025, Bourne attended a Turning Point USA event on the UC Davis campus. Tensions erupted when protestors clashed with attendees, and Bourne was struck on the back of the head. The incident was chaotic and unfortunate, but for many, it symbolized the kind of division and unrest she has actively helped foment.

Beth Bourne is not controversial; she’s dangerous. What she’s doing isn’t about parental rights or freedom of speech. It’s about bigotry. Full stop. And we’ve seen this before. We’ve seen this exact playbook used to uphold segregation, criminalize interracial marriage, ban books about Black liberation, and label civil rights leaders as “radical.” Now it’s being dusted off and repackaged to target trans people.

The truth is transphobia and racism are two limbs of the same rotten tree. They grow from the same soil: fear, ignorance, and the need to control bodies that don’t conform to a narrow definition of humanity. Bourne’s rhetoric and behavior follow the same patterns as the white mothers who once rallied against school integration in the Jim Crow South. They said they were “protecting children,” too.

But we know what this really is: an assault on human rights. And UC Davis, by hiding behind the First Amendment instead of upholding its own standards of safety and inclusion, is enabling it. Academic freedom doesn’t mean giving someone a platform to harm students, harass colleagues, and publicly degrade a historically marginalized population.

This isn’t just a question of policy. It’s a moral one. Beth Bourne is using her privilege, her position, and her institution to perpetuate harm against trans people. And when you do that, you’re not just part of the problem; you are the problem.

History won’t look back kindly on this moment. And neither will we.