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Rutgers University professor and Harvard Medical School artist-in-residence Roxane Gay called for the release of Luigi Mangione, who pleaded guilty in August to federal stalking charges resulting in death in connection with the killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, during a Harvard panel Wednesday examining fatness and healthcare.
When the discussion turned to the health insurance industry, Gay responded, “Free Luigi, for one,” and then Gay went on to call the health insurance industry “equal opportunity evil,” The College Fix reported.
In a Wednesday post on X from Stu Smith, an investigative analyst at the Manhattan Institute, Smith wrote, “At tonight’s Harvard Medical School event, artist-in-residence Roxane Gay responded to a question about the health insurance industry with ‘Free Luigi.’”
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Smith continued, “Minutes earlier, Gay admitted she uses concierge medicine after deciding to ‘throw money at this problem’ and ‘buy my way out’ of ordinary healthcare. Gay, incidentally, is former Harvard president Claudine Gay’s first cousin. We all know Harvard is morally bankrupt at this point, but this was a great reminder.”
Gay made the remarks during the Harvard Medical School’s “Against the Pathology of Unruly Bodies” event, which focused on what organizers described as the “intersection of fatness and healthcare” and how medical professionals treat overweight patients.
The event also examined, according to a listing advertising the event, “the way fat bodies are pathologized by medical professionals with grave consequences, and how medical professionals can more ethically treat fat patients as people rather than as problems to be solved.”
Gay holds the Gloria Steinem Endowed Chair in Media, Culture and Feminist Studies at Rutgers and is listed as an artist-in-residence at Harvard Medical School.
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Mangione, who faces a second-degree murder charge, several weapons charges and a forged-instrument charge in New York state court, pleaded guilty Aug. 14 to two federal stalking charges resulting in death. He is scheduled to be sentenced in federal court Dec. 18 and faces a maximum potential sentence of life in prison. His state case remains pending.
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In a statement to Fox News Digital, Gay said, “I said Free Luigi out of utter frustration, and this is a frustration most Americans have about the health insurance industry. That industry is far more focused on profit than actually providing people with the healthcare they need, healthcare that should be covered by the health insurance we pay quite a lot of money for.”
Gay continued, “Luigi Mangione was clearly dealing with mental health issues when he committed murder. Murder is wrong, in all cases, including the death penalty. I don’t think his mental health issues will be addressed in a carceral setting. He should be in a setting where he can get actual help, not in a place that might exacerbate the mental illness that drove him to commit murder. Unfortunately, our justice system doesn’t really care about rehabilitation, so I doubt he will get the help he needs. Whatever his sentence ends up being, I hope he is able to get the help he needs while pays his debt to society and I hope Brian Thompson’s family feels justice is served even though nothing will bring back their loved one.”
“I condemn the killing of Brian Thompson,” Gay said further. “I condemn all killing. Murder doesn’t solve anything. Thompson’s murder didn’t improve the health insurance system. It only created a cavern of grief for his loved ones. You know that. The health insurance industry is absolutely equal opportunity evil. Millions and millions of Americans feel this way. It is not a unique sentiment. I would love for the American health insurance system to evolve into a single payer system so we have universal healthcare like a significant percentage of the rest of the world. At the very, very least, it would be great if health insurance companies didn’t make healthcare decisions for patients that should be made by their physicians.”
Gay added that “these types of articles result in my receiving death threats and harassment, because they are decontextualized.”
A Harvard University spokesperson told Fox News Digital in a statement, “For the 2026-2027 academic year, Roxane Gay is an artist-in-residence for the Master of Science in Media, Medicine and Health and the Media and Medicine Certificate Program at Harvard Medical School. The views expressed by speakers at events are their own and do not represent Harvard Medical School or Harvard University.”
Fox News Digital reached out to Rutgers University for comment.
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