The cost of controversy: Yiannopoulos
SPECIAL TO THE ORACLE
Bringing controversial speaker Milo Yiannopoulos — whose past speeches touched on his feel that trigger warnings and safe spaces are ridiculous and the number of sexual assaults on college campuses is exaggerated — to campus today will cost his host organization over $600.
Yiannopoulos is set to speak at the Marshall Student Center (MSC) Oval Theater as part of his “Dangerous Faggot” Tour at 7 p.m. The event was coordinated by the Young Americans for Liberty (YAL).
The event cost YAL $662 of its allocated budget, according to the club’s reservation with the MSC.
“Why would we need something like this to come?” Ryan Hoskins, YAL president and the event’s organizer, said. “I feel like there are people here and they have their ideas, and that’s awesome.
“But that’s not great and that’s not awesome when those ideas … silence other people’s ideas simply because they’re not your own.”
The majority of the $662 will be going toward security. Though Yiannopoulos has a private detail, University Police will be providing the bulk of the coverage. At past events, protestors have rushed the stage, shouted and blown whistles in the crowd, and picketed outside which required security responses, according several online videos. The rest of the money will go toward staff, microphones and a projector.
In response to Yiannopoulos’ event, student organizations including Students for a Democratic Society plan to protest outside of the MSC.
According to the reservation, no signs will be allowed inside the Oval Theatre.
Tickets are still available through Eventbrite.
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