Kentish Gazette Canterbury & District
Provocateur, anti-feminist, Trump backer
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Mr Yiannopoulos touts himself as an openly gay conservative commentator and regularly speaks at universities, especially in the USA where he supported Donald Trump for president.
Despite being repeatedly linked to the Alt-right movement, he denies he is a member of it but has written about it.
His talk to the Langton was to have been on Trump and the AltRight.
Upon hearing the speech was cancelled, Mr Yiannopoulos said: “Perhaps if I’d called my talk Muslims Are Awesome, the National Union of Teachers and Department for Education would have been cool with me speaking.
“Who even knew the DFE had a counter-extremism unit? And that it wasn’t set up to combat terrorism but rather to punish gays with the wrong opinions?
“So everybody’s worst fears that Theresa May is a total fascist have been confirmed by her sinister counter-extremist goons.
“Perhaps they should spend a little more time stopping jihadis brainwashing British school kids and less time persecuting gays they disagree with.”
In the past Mr Yiannopoulos has equated feminism with cancer, told women who felt threatened by online activity to simply log off and urged America not to be overwhelmed by immigrants from Islamic countries.
During a Channel 4 News interview with Cathy Newman this month, he insisted that much of what he said was intended to be taken humourously or as satire.
But the Kent and Christ Church academics who opposed his speech branded him a “far-right agitator” and unofficial spokesman for the Alt-right movement.
Their letter said: “His position as a senior editor for the ultraconservative Breitbart news website enables him to openly articulate his hardline misogynist, white supremacist and xenophobic ideas to an online audience that is expanding at an alarming rate.”
The Department for Education denied it had forced the school to cancel the talk.
A spokesman said: “When concerns are raised by members of the public following media coverage in advance of an event, the department would contact the school as a matter of routine to check they had considered any potential issues.
“The decision to cancel the event was a matter for the school.”