Students reject bid to make gay internet troll Milo Yiannopoulos their university rector
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 Glasgow University have defeated a bid to make far-right internet troll Milo Yiannopoulos their university’s rector.
Yiannopoulos, a popular Donald Trump supporter, has previously claimed he would ‘cure’ himself of being gay if he could, and describes trans people as “mentally ill gay men dressing up for attention”.
The far-right figurehead was banned from Twitter last year after allegedly encouraging a wave of racist abuse directed at Ghostbusters star Leslie Jones, while he also took advantage of a university speech on his ‘Dangerous Faggot’ lecture tour to single out and bully a transgender student on-stage.
The former Breitbart journalist, who lost three jobs in a week last month after damaging tapes emerged in which he discussed men who have sex with underage boys, had been controversially nominated in the ballot to choose Glasgow University’s next Rector.
However, he was defeated in the vote, confirmed today.
Of the four candidates, Yiannopoulos placed fourth, behind former Lib Dem minister Vince Cable, Scottish judge Lady Hazel Cosgrove, and left-wing human rights campaigner and lawyer Aamer Anwar.
Mr Anwar topped the ballot with 4458 votes, well ahead of Yiannopoulos on just 533.
Responding to the result, Mr Anwar said: “University of Glasgow students do care…. they’ve sent a message of unity against hatred and bigotry.
“They want their voices to be heard and they’ve felt for far too long that they’ve been ignored.
“They’ve entrusted me to be an active, working rector. I plan to keep to all the pledges in my manifesto: to fight for all students, the issue of mental health, the issue of rocketing rents, Brexit; and to ensure that no student should suffer in silence in this university and they get the backing, funding and support of everyone at this campus.”
Writing for HuffPo previously, Mr Answer said: “Milo Yiannopoulos is a vicious troll, who has built a lucrative career by playing the victim under the guise of being a free speech advocate… I am proud that my university has never welcomed such views and am confident this will always remain an institution that is diverse and inclusive and safe for people from all walks of life once Milo has crawled back to his Alt-Reich gutter if they will still have him.”
As part of his campaign platform, Yiannopoulos said he would ban Muslim student groups to “protect” LGBT students, despite his own anti-trans views.
He claimed: “I mean, if the LGBTQ+GIMKULTRAUUIPU*(*(#$%* [sic] community wants to feel ‘safe’, surely their first priority would be the representatives of a homophobic, theocratic system currently on campus, right?”
