This post was updated Feb. 14 at 11:07 p.m.
Conservative commentator Milo Yiannopoulos will no longer be speaking at UCLA, the Bruin Republicans announced in a Facebook post Wednesday night.
Yiannopoulos was originally scheduled to speak at the Bruin Republicans’ “Ten Things I Hate About Mexico” event on Feb. 26 at the Ackerman Grand Ballroom. However, a day after announcing the event, Bruin Republicans said in a post it decided to cancel the event because the organization’s leadership was divided on whether to move forward with it.
The club canceled an event with Yiannopoulos last year because the group could not accommodate his requirements for the event.
Bruin Republicans added in the statement it did not cancel this year’s event because of public backlash or potential protests.
A Facebook page calling for protests against Yiannopoulos’ event showed 162 people signed up to go as of Wednesday night.
Chancellor Gene Block said in an email to the campus community Wednesday night he was grateful Bruin Republicans decided to cancel the event because he did not think the event would engage in reasoned discussion. He added he thinks the event would have been contrary to UCLA’s values because he thinks it would have been an opportunity for Yiannopoulos to gain notoriety.
“I hope we will all continue to resist such provocations and nurture our campus culture, which values ideas over hatred,” Block said.
Gabriel Rossman, a professor of sociology who is an informal mentor for Bruin Republicans, wrote an open letter Wednesday asking the club to rescind its invitation to Yiannopoulos. Rossman said he thinks the club made the right decision to cancel the event.
Rossman, who is a conservative, said although he supported the club’s right to hold the event, he thinks Yiannopoulos’ views are toxic.
“It was their decision to make,” he said. “I like that UCLA is the kind place where they could make the decision to hold the event or to not hold it.”
Rossman said he wrote the letter after a Bruin Republicans’ member who was uncomfortable with the event asked him Tuesday morning to help lobby the club to cancel Yiannopoulos’ invitation. However, he said he made the letter public in The Weekly Standard, a conservative magazine, because Bruin Republicans announced the Yiannopoulos event Tuesday night.
“I really would have liked it to be handled internally, instead of having a thousand people read the letter,” he said.
Bruin Republicans will refund tickets to individuals who had purchased them, the group added in it’s statement.
Back down to the leftists. They will just be like sharks with blood in the water and make you back down next time, and the next. TRUMP doesn’t back down. Ever.
Stop listening to fake news. Trump backs down all the time. He’s a coward, can’t make up his tiny mind, & changes his tune every five minutes. Tweets & talks big, but never confronts anyone in person, & is scared to fire his incompetent people if it isn’t a bogus reality show.
Matter of fact, you’re all cowards; that’s why you’re such posing phony tough guys.
We are winning. Now resume trying to spread AIDS to all your leftist buddies.
Dude, seriously?
If you call yourself a true conservative you would be wanting this blowhard out of office too. Trump is a lier and a coward. While the world falls apart he plays golf while people like you still believe people like Milo Yiannopoulos are relevant. Milo is no different than Anne Coulter …. except Coulter has a larger penis. Milo’s snake oil sale tactics only work for one reason … he knows there’s a lot of money to be made off of people like you. I can give you the names of some real, honest conservatives if you would like? You can have an adult read the books if you have problems with the big words.
Dude, I don’t care if he is a liar and a blowhard. Obama and Hillary are liars. He’s effective. He is governing more conservatively and effectively than Reagan did. Yer too busy with your panties twisted because he didn’t act all presidential. Yer like most ignoramuses out there, who want all form and no substance from their Presidents.
Oh my GOD you deserve a medal for that comment!
Marty is right but he still looks like a goon with a twerpy kid.
Winning? Or in the DOJ’s crosshairs?
Prof Rossman is such a liberal.
Seriously, notice how the guy who wrote this is a foreigner? And the woman who complained is a MEXICAN.
They seem nice. Wonder what they’d think of a “10 Things I Hate About Republicans” event?
Great! Looks like the Bruin Republicans will have go back to the drawing board now and figure out some other way to gain relevancy on campus.
No wonder these guys back down, notice how they all have foreign or Mexican names?
With idiots like Gene Block(head) in charge, freedom of speech and expression on campus will be limited to whatever the prevailing political orthodoxy deems “reasonable”. And non-offensive to liberals of course.