Officials at the University of
California, Berkeley, on Wednesday canceled an appearance by Milo
Yiannopoulos after demonstrators staged a violent protest.
According to The New York Times,
university officials announced the cancellation of Yiannopoulos' last
stop on his so-called “The Dangerous Faggot Tour” at 6 PM on
Twitter, roughly an hour after the protest turned violent. The Times
reported that demonstrators set fires and threw objects at buildings
to protest Yiannopoulos' appearance.
Yiannopoulos is an editor at Breitbart
News, the right-wing website with close ties to President Donald
Trump.
On Thursday morning, Trump threatened
to cut off federal funds to the school for canceling the event. “If
U.C. Berkeley does not allow free speech and practices violence on
innocent people with a different point of view – NO FEDERAL FUNDS?”
Trump messaged.
“The Left is absolutely terrified of
free speech and will do literally anything to shut it down,”
Yiannopoulos said in a Facebook post.
The cancellation comes roughly a week
after out feminist Roxane Gay pulled a book deal with Simon &
Schuster in response to the publisher's decision to work with
Yiannopoulos. She said in a statement that she could not in good
conscience work with Simon & Schuster because it had given
Yiannopoulos a platform to spread his “inelegant hate.” Simon &
Schuster will release Yiannopoulos' autobiography Dangerous in
March.
Yiannopoulos, 23, has been called a
spokesperson for the alt-right, which he denies. While gay, he has
called gay rights detrimental to humanity and is opposed to marriage
equality. Last year, Twitter permanently banned Yiannopoulos for
“inciting or engaging in the targeted abuse or harassment of
others.”