Following two days of controversy and a social media firestorm, the American Conservative Union (ACU) has rescinded its invitation to Breitbart editor Milo Yiannopoulos to speak at next week’s Conservative Political Activist Conference (CPAC).
Matt Schlapp, chairman of the ACU, said in an announcement released on Twitter Monday afternoon that the invitation was rescinded “due to the revelation of an offensive video in the past 24 hours condoning pedophilia.” The Blaze reported Monday morning that ACU board members were threatening to revolt if Schlapp, who apparently made the decision to invite Yiannopoulous unilaterally, did not rescind the invitation.
In the video, Yiannopoulos, who has defended the alt-right, makes the case that sex between adult men and “boys” as young as age 13 is acceptable.
[Warning: Explicit language and sexual content]
Here is the uncut 5 minute video of Milo Yiannopoulos advocating for Pederasty involving "13 Year old" and "older men." HIS WORDS.@Mschlapp pic.twitter.com/mAgmfpuyvu
— Reagan Battalion (@ReaganBattalion) February 20, 2017
“You know, people are messy and complex and in the homosexual world particularly some of those relationships between younger boys and older men, the sort of coming of age relationships, the relationships in which those older men help those young boys discover who they are and give them security and safety and provide them with love and a reliable rock where they can’t speak to their parents,” Yiannopoulos said in the video. He went on to explain that it’s not technically pedophilia as long as the boys had reached puberty. He brushed away concerns by other panelists about the emotional maturity of the boys and their inability to give informed consent for sexual encounters with much older men.
In response to the social media backlash the video stirred up, Yiannopoulos took to Facebook to defend his comments:
https://www.facebook.com/myiannopoulos/posts/851263248344905
It’s important to note that careful use of the word “pedophile” here. Strictly speaking, a pedophile is an adult who is sexually attracted to prepubescent children. In the video, Yiannopoulos makes it clear that he’s discussing sexual relations between adult men and boys—he uses the word “boys” repeatedly in the video—who have reached puberty. Parsing the categories and definitions of sex offenders and backtracking on the use of the word “boys” may soothe his conscience, but that doesn’t make what he’s advocating any more legal or any less abusive to the boys who are being violated. Ask any parents of a 13-year-old boy how they’d feel about their son having sex with a 30-year-old man. I guarantee you they’re not going to say, “Ah, well, it’s not technically pedophilia because my son has a bit of pubic hair, so…no worries!”
“We realize that Mr. Yiannopoulos has responded on Facebook but it is insufficient,” Schlapp wrote in his tweet. “It is up to him to answer the tough questions and we urge him to immediately further address these disturbing comments.”
"@ACUConservative has decided to rescind the invitation of Milo Yiannopoulos to speak at #CPAC2017." pic.twitter.com/sVWGnPCW7C
— Matt Schlapp (@mschlapp) February 20, 2017
This smells like a publicity stunt by Schlapp that went terribly wrong. He was hoping to bring attention to CPAC but now the conference is in the spotlight for all the wrong reasons. Inexplicably, Yiannopoulos has his vocal defenders. This is all a plot by the globalist Republican cuck progressive left to destroy the only true voice of freedom in the world, or something. Like everything else in our politics these days, we’re told this must be a binary choice. You are either on Milo’s side or you’re a progressive liberal globalist cuck. Look for his supporters to show up in force at CPAC next week defending this defender of child abusers and demanding that he be given a platform at the allegedly conservative convention. They’re already flooding social media with excuses for his inexcusable comments and trying to explain what he really meant and what he would have said had he thought it through a little better. These people have the same moral authority as those who would defend the Westboro cult.
Meanwhile, rumors are swirling that he may also be out at Breitbart:
#BreakingNews : @BreitbartNews weighing dismissal of Milo Yiannopoulos announcement could come soon no comment from Milo
— Charles Gasparino (@CGasparino) February 20, 2017
Stay tuned.
Updated at 3:57 p.m. EST to include additional video.
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