Triskelion members organized a silent protest Wednesday evening against a campus visit by Brian Camenker, an anti-same-sex-marriage activist brought to speak by the Brandeis Republicans and the Republican-Jewish Coalition. When the group's original speaker withdrew, the two sponsoring groups had to scramble to find a replacement, Republicans President Robbie Schwartz '08 said. Schwartz said he was surprised by how many protesters showed up.

"We didn't actually really know who Mr. Camenker was," he said. The Republican-Jewish Coalition chose to invite Camenker, who is the president of Mass Resistance, a statewide organization pushing legislation to remove the four Justices on the Supreme Judicial Court who ruled in favor of same-sex marriage.

"We didn't really get to look into him too much until just recently, until concerns were brought up to us," Schwartz said.

The greatest concern, raised by Trisk, was that the Republicans were endorsing "hate speech" by hosting Camenker. Trisk only learned of Camenker's visit the day before he came.

"We want to let them know we won't stand for hate talk on our campus," said Samantha Andler '09, who held a sign that read "Proud to be Poisonous" outside the event.

Camenker, whose topic was "Universities and American Jews: Destructive Ideas," began by saying that he would not address gay marriage, the hot-button issue that drew many of the protestors. He urged students to stick around and hear his perspective, which he described as unique.

"I hope you won't do that," he said of the planned walk-out. "I would bet that a lot of you go to Brandeis and don't hear the other side. You're supposed to hear ideas that challenge you."

Protestors filed into the Multi-purpose Room in the Shapiro Campus Center and filled almost every seat before Camenker began talking, making up the vast majority of the audience.

Emily Tone '09, a protester, said the group had planned to fill the room and then silently walk out as soon as Camenker started speaking, leaving on their chairs slips of paper that read, "This empty seat represents a Brandeis student who believes hate speech has no place on our campus or in the greater community."

Although some left as Camenker spoke, many ended up staying.

He told the audience that universities can be incubators for dangerous ideas, such as homosexuality, affirmative action, abortion and Marxism.

One by one, as Camenker addressed these issues, students stood up and left.

Most college students, he said, are too absorbed in their supposed "rational" thinking on these issues to step back and see the big picture.

"There are times when the world is so mad and ridiculous you have to say things that are completely obvious," Camenker said.

For example, most college students think it's logical that a woman should be able to make her own choices regarding pregnancy, Camenker said. But he said that women don't actually have a choice in the matter.

"A person cannot choose who gets born and who doesn't," he said. "Only God can choose."

Camenker described affirmative action as racist.

"We need to hold everybody to the same high standard," he said. "Jews seem to think that black people aren't capable of that."

One female student asked Camenker about institutional equalities, which play a role in the affirmative action debate.

"If Jews can do it under worse conditions, then [blacks] can do it," he responded.

Jews have coped with horrible circumstances by reading the Bible, he said. "If you start doing that, you'll find that's really neat."

Further, Camenker said Jews have a particular "susceptibility to listening to bad ideas and believing them."

The Jewish commandment to repair the world has turned into something detrimental, he said. "There's a problem with tikkun olam [repairing the world] and social justice." Many students walked out at this statement.

"Political movements hijack the term 'social justice' and make you think what you're doing is a great thing [but] it is actually destructive," he said.

He said American Jews especially "fall into terrible belief systems," such as Marxism, because they are under a false impression that these ideas are good for the world. "But you get caught up in things," especially in college, he said, noting that while he was in college, even he "believed Marx was right."

Camenker said he cannot believe that people accept the concept of "transgenderism," saying "there's not a shred of medical evidence for transgenderism."

Calling the term a "silly, ridiculous political idea," he said college students buy into it blindly. "Nobody questions it," he said. "It's the easiest thing in the world to just follow along and respect transgenderism."

One female student, with tears in her eyes, stood up and said she had planned to walk out, but had instead stayed to listen to what he had to say.

The student asked Camenker why he couldn't accept differences among people.

Camenker said she was listening to gay propaganda too much. "It is a psychological addiction," he said. "Somebody has to stand up and say this really is nonsense."

Luukas Ilves, a visiting student from Stanford University, told Camenker he was confusing terminology and misinterpreting transgenderism.

"What is LGBTQ?" Camenker responded, referring to the term Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender Questioning. "It's like 10 different things and then you get into [sadomasochism] and all sorts of things, sex toys."

Another student responded that sex toys and sadomasochism have nothing to do with being gay.

Camenker answered that when he worked at MIT, he got to know several homosexuals. "It was tragic to hear their lives, how they were raped as children," he said. "They weren't like everyone else."

The final comment came from a male student who called Camenker "poison."

If you're a human being, you feel, the student said. "You don't feel."

Camenker responded by closing the evening. "I hope I've opened your eyes on a few things," he said.

Myka Helz '09 said the Feminist Majority Leadership Alliance, Trisk and the Radical Student Alliance circulated e-mails Tuesday and Wednesday urging students to protest.

"I think it's really important for him to know that people at Brandeis don't support hate," Helz said, adding that she and Tone were excited to participate in their first protest at Brandeis.

Schwartz said he met with Trisk officials on Tuesday to discuss the speaker. "We don't want to create tension," he said.

"They pretty much told us that they would really like for us not to have him speak," Schwartz said. "The bottom line is that some of our members do support some of his views, which are against gay marriage and I believe that that is a personally justified view." While Schwartz said he supports same-sex marriage, he said his group has the right to bring speakers to campus.

"I don't believe that just being against [gay] marriage makes someone preach hate speech," he said. "They'll get their right to protest and we'll get our right to host a speaker."

Schwartz said the protest seemed ridiculous because Camenker did not speak about gay marriage.

Camenker said he was pleased that many students stayed and said Brandeis should bring more people like him to offer alternative perspectives. "A little bit of an affirmative action of ideas would be good," he said.

"The gay activists, they have a certain anger inside of them, and they ask angry hurtful questions . you have to accept that kind of reaction from certain people," he said of students' questions.

Director of Public Safety Ed Callahan and Director of Student Activities Stephanie Grimes attended the event to ensure the event was peaceful and that all community members were heard.

"I was asked to kind of just be present," Callahan said, adding that students had expressed safety concerns about the event.

Several police officers were also present, but Callahan said he could not comment on whether they were campus officers and why they were there.