University protesters shut down a Yiannopoulos and Shkreli talk before it even started
SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA – NOVEMBER 29: Milo Yiannopoulos reacts during a press conference on arrival at the Sydney International Airport on November 29, 2017 in Sydney, Australia. Yiannopoulos is in Australia for his Troll Academy Tour. (Photo by Lisa Maree Williams/Getty Images)
Students at the University of California, Davis, managed to cancel a talk by Milo Yiannopoulos and Martin Shkreli before it even began through protests.
The two notorious Republican spokesman were scheduled to talk at the campus on Friday evening, but protestors stormed the auditorium and demanded that the talk should be cancelled.
A human chain was then formed around the auditorium.
Yiannopoulos, the tech editor for the far right publication Breitbart, claimed the event was cancelled “after violence from left-wing protestors”.
However, a university spokesperson debunked that claim. In a statement they said: “Despite some reports, there were no broken windows or other property damage during the protest.
“Earlier in the evening, one person was arrested inside the venue. No further arrests were made.”
Yiannopoulos, who was banned from Twitter earlier this year after allegedly encouraging a wave of racist abuse directed at Ghostbusters star Leslie Jones, is capitalising on his cult-like following with a ‘Dangerous Faggot Tour’ at universities and colleges across the US.
The protest at UC Davis came after the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee allowed Yiannopoulos to speak at their university and bully a trans student on stage.
When Yiannopoulos was confirmed to be speaking at the University, students attempted to make officials aware of his views and abusive history.
But despite repeated protests, university administrators decided that Yiannopoulos – who says he would ‘cure’ himself of being gay if he could and describes trans people as “mentally ill… gay men dressing up for attention” – should still be allowed to speak at the event that happened in December.
Yiannopoulos proceeded to use the event to single out and humiliate a transgender student who attends the university, exactly as protesters had warned he would.
In his speech – which was streamed on the internet by far-right news outlet Breitbart – Yiannopoulos singled out Milwaukee engineering student Adelaide Kramer, showing pictures of her on a PowerPoint presentation and mocking her as a “man in a dress” who “I’d almost still bang”.
The session continued for nearly two hours after the incident which saw Yiannopoulos attack the student over trans bathroom laws and her appearance.
