Several attendees at Milo Yiannopoulos’ American University speech on Thursday were threatened by a group of protesting social justice warriors, while one man was assaulted after attempting to film the scene.
A large group of Black Lives Matter and LGBT activists had congregated outside of the venue, repeatedly shouting, “F**k that guy!” in response to Yiannopoulos’ Dangerous Faggot Tour appearance at American University.
The assaulted spectator, later seen in the front row of the event, attempted to quietly film the demonstration while a protester repeatedly harassed him. Shortly after, another student walked up behind the spectator and shoved him before retreating quickly back into the mob. Other demonstrators then closed in on the victim, shouting, “Kick him out,” before he left the scene.
“I was trying to take photos of protester signs while a large woman obstructed my camera’s view,” the spectator told Breitbart Tech on condition of anonymity. “Protesters then chanted ‘f**k that guy.’ One protester pushed me from behind and I turned to him and said ‘Bro, are you serious?’
“He must have thought others would join in, and when they didn’t, he backed off sheepishly. I thought it was funny and went back to taking pictures. Once I got the ones I wanted, I left while the protesters yelled after me.”
The ringleader of the demonstration, a male student dressed in a skirt with pink hair and a sign reading “Milo Wants Me Dead,” riled up protesters using a megaphone as his peers waved transgender flags. Campus security watched on without intervention through the demonstration while student activists taunted them for refusing to remove peaceful spectating fans of Yiannopoulos from the area.
“Hi, my names Lane. I use they/them pronouns,” one student activist told the crowd during a speech. “I would be finishing my sophomore year at AU if I weren’t dropping out because this university is not a place that supports me in any way.” The student went on to lecture the crowd about gender pronouns and told an anecdote about the difference between bisexual and non-binary people.
Moments into her speech, a Milo fan and attendee at the event emerged from the building behind them, only to retreat once the crowd started running towards him in a threatening manner, shouting, “F**k off you f**king coward.”
“Since I’ve been here I’ve been almost jumped, harassed multiple times by other black people, just for being here supporting [Yiannopoulos],” the black student told Campus Reform.
“It’s like they are trying to throw it in reverse and say well if you’re black you have to be on our side; if you’re white you have to be on their side; if you’re white then you have to accept that you’re racist and sexist. I personally can’t stand for or believe in that nonsense.”
The reaction raises further questions about university students’ attitudes towards free speech and allowing conservative voices on campus. Yiannopoulos’s Dangerous Faggot Tour has caused huge controversy at colleges including Rutgers, the University of Pittsburgh, and Bucknell, where significant social justice backlash and protests took place.
At Rutgers, feminists and Black Lives Matter activists disrupted Yiannopoulos’ speech with chants of, “Black lives matter!” and the smearing of fake blood over their faces before raising their hands in a black power salute and leaving the venue. Pittsburgh students had a different response to the “Dangerous Faggot” and were reportedly “in tears” and feeling “unsafe” after Yiannopoulos visited their University in March.
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