Milo Yiannopoulos is coming to UCI
His posters are already causing a backlash
Aside from the random Lost Fursuit flyer, the posters on Ring Road are fairly innocuous. However, two campus organization are creating quite a stir with their event advertisements.
College Republicans of UCI and UC Irvine Young Americans for Liberty are hosting the advertised event. Milo Yiannopoulos, self-described “Dangerous Faggot,” will be the speaker at the event, interestingly titled “Social Justice is Cancer.”
Social media was quick to criticize. Some students called the posters “misogynistic,” while others argued the statements were protected under freedom of speech.
The Tab reached out to both organizations regarding the criticism and the event.
“The posters we created to promote the event, I have been told, invaded some ‘safe spaces’,” said Ariana Rowlands, President of the CRUCI. “Despite their controversial nature, the posters generated a reaction… The posters did their job: they created a thought within the minds of students that they would not have otherwise had.”
Young Americans for Liberty released a full statement, which can be viewed in its entirety below.
YAL Statement:
“As part of our efforts to advertise for our upcoming event in which Milo Yiannopoulos will speak at UCI, some members of Young Americans for Liberty made posters that were rather inflammatory. First, most of these posters contained mostly basic information on the event: date, time, location, etc. Second, the statements made on these posters are strictly direct quotes from Milo Yiannopoulos.
Anyone who takes issue with use of homophobic slurs ought to note that Milo has titled his speaking tour as “The Dangerous Faggot Tour” and this is simply a statement of fact, not at all an attempt to be derogatory. Finally, I wish to make it very clear that the opinions and views in these posters are not endorsed by YAL or its members, most of whom did not even participate in the making of these posters. The content was not condoned by myself or other board members.
The posters seem to imply that we said or endorse such things and we are ensuring that any future poster advertisements for the event make it clear that the views expressed are Mr. Yiannopoulos’ and not our own. Our love of free speech is tempered with the recognition that inflammatory speech for the sake of being inflammatory is largely meritless.
Our goal in hosting him is to bring an alternate perspective the largely liberal and politically correct culture on our campus. Those in disagreement with Mr. Yiannopoulos’ statements are welcome to hear his talk and then further engage in discussion. It is our hope that Mr. Yiannopoulos’ talk on May 24th in the Crystal Cove Auditorium at 6pm will not widen a rift in opinions at UCI but open up a line of debate on this crucial issue of free speech on our campus. We absolutely welcome disagreement with the contents of those posters – after all, we love free speech. Reactions of agreement or disagreement with the posters are less important to us than whether people choose to discuss or censor the posters. We are disappointed to see that many have chosen the latter.”
A campus wide email was sent out by the Office of Inclusive Excellence regarding the posters.
Milo has spoken at numerous other colleges around the world including Rutgers, where protestors demonstrated outside his event and covered themselves in fake blood.
Due to scheduling conflicts, the event that was originally planned for 24th of May, will now be held on June 2 in SSPA1100.