Milo Yiannopoulos, the controversial, libertarian, gay editor of Breitbart tech, has been dis-invited as a speaker at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) this week following comments on relationships between older and younger men.
The chairman of the American Conservative Union (ACU) which sponsors the CPAC conference, Matt Schlap, made the announcement yesterday.
The move follows pressure from conservative Christians who did not want Yiannopoulos to appear at the conference.
In the video which surfaced on social media on Sunday and was first aired last year, Yiannopoulos says relationships between older men and young gay boys can be beneficial and 'flippantly' discusses his own sexual assault, according to The Hill.
In a clip of the video posted by The Independent, Yiannopoulos can be heard saying: 'People are messy and complex...In the homosexual world particularly, some of those relationships between younger boys and older men – the sort of coming of age relationships – the relationships where those older men help those young boys to discover who they are, and give them security and safety and provide them with love...'
Schlapp said in a statement posted on Twitter on Monday: 'Due to the revelation of an offensive video...condoning paedophilia, the American Conservative Union has decided to rescind the invitation of Milo Yiannopoulos to speak at the Conservative Political Action Conference.'
'We realize that Mr. Yiannopoulos has responded on Facebook, but it is insufficient. It is up to him to answer the tough questions and we urge him to immediately further address these disturbing comments," the ACU chairman added.
Schlap was referring to a statement made on Facebook by Yiannopoulos in which he distanced from his earlier comments. 'I am a gay man, and a child abuse victim. I would like to restate my utter disgust at adults who sexually abuse minors,' he said. 'I am horrified by paedophilia and I have devoted large portions of my career as a journalist to exposing child abusers. I've outed three of them, in fact — three more than most of my critics. And I've repeatedly expressed disgust at paedophilia in my feature and opinion writing. My professional record is very clear. But I do understand that these videos, even though some of them are edited deceptively, paint a different picture.'
Yiannopoulos said he was 'partly' to blame and implied that his 'British' sense of sarcasm had been misinterpreted.
'I'm partly to blame. My own experiences as a victim led me to believe I could say anything I wanted to on this subject, no matter how outrageous,' he said. 'But I understand that my usual blend of British sarcasm, provocation and gallows humor might have come across as flippancy, a lack of care for other victims or, worse, "advocacy". I deeply regret that. People deal with things from their past in different ways.
'As to some of the specific claims being made, sometimes things tumble out of your mouth on these long, late-night live-streams, when everyone is spit-balling, that are incompletely expressed or not what you intended. Nonetheless, I've reviewed the tapes that appeared last night in their proper full context and I don't believe they say what is being reported. I do not advocate for illegal behavior...I do not believe sex with 13-year-olds is okay. When I mentioned the number 13, I was talking about the age I lost my own virginity. I shouldn't have used the word 'boy' — which gay men often do to describe young men of consenting age — instead of 'young man.' That was an error. I am certainly guilty of imprecise language, which I regret.
'Anyone who suggests I turn a blind eye to illegal activity or to the abuse of minors is unequivocally wrong. I am implacably opposed to the normalisation of paedophilia and I will continue to report and speak accordingly.'
Schlapp explained that the invitation was extended to Yiannopoulos to speak at the conference in the spirit of free speech.
'We initially extended the invitation knowing that the free speech issue on college campuses is a battlefield where we need to be brave, conservative standard bearers,' he said. 'We give great thought to who is invited to speak, but the CPAC platform is not an endorsement of everything a speaker says or does.'
The invitation's withdrawal came after outrage from a range of conservative Christian voices following Yiannopoulos' invite. 'In 2016 I said normalization of hebephilia [adult sexual interest in pubescents] was next. Just didn't think it'd come from a CPAC speaker,' tweeted Joe Carter, an editor and writer for Acton Institute, The Gospel Coalition, and the Southern Baptist Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission.
Daniel Darling, vice president of communications for the ERLC, said: 'This is sick and disgusting.'
Matthew Franck, director of the Simon Center on Religion and Constitution at Witherspoon Institute agreed. 'Milo needs our prayers, and real human sympathy if he has been a victim himself. This does not mean he needs to be heard from at CPAC,' he tweeted.
According to BuzzFeed, the publisher Simon & Schuster canceled a book planned by Yiannopoulos, entitled Dangerous, following the row.
More than 100 speakers are confirmed for the CPAC conference, which starts on Wednesday at the Gaylord National Resort and Convention Center outside of Washington, DC.
