The editors of the University of Virginia student newspaper have demanded that former Vice President Mike Pence’s invitation to speak on campus next month be withdrawn, alleging that the conservative politician attacked the LGBTQ community and showed disdain for “black lives.”
Earlier this month, the Young America Foundation, a conservative youth organization, announced Pence’s participation in his lecture series.
Former Vice President Donald Trump is due to give a speech at UVA’s Old Cabell Hall on April 12.
“The political climate at the University of Virginia has become almost inhospitable to conservatives,” said UVA YAF Chairman Nick Cabrera. “Inviting 48th Vice President Mike Pence will revive a sense of intellectual diversity on the Jefferson campus.”
Former Vice President Mike Pence is scheduled to give a speech on freedom and traditional values at the University of Virginia in April, but liberal students want the event to be cancelled.
Pence’s speech is part of a lecture series sponsored by the Young America Foundation, a conservative youth organization.
Pence’s upcoming appearance on campus sparked outrage among UVA progressives and prompted the board of The Cavalier Daily, the university’s student newspaper, to publish a strongly worded editorial titled “Dangerous Rhetoric Has No Right to the Platform.”
The gist of the March 17 editorial’s argument is that Pence is a “homophobic, racist and transphobic politician” whose “hate rhetoric” should have no platform.
The controversy brewing at California State University over Pence’s presence comes just days after a free-speech debate between conservative and progressive speakers at Yale Law School sparked an outcry from a group of angry liberal students.
Meanwhile, UVA leadership came out in support of Pence’s speech.
‘[The event] “This is a non-sponsored event, but fits well with the university’s academic mission to offer our community the opportunity to hear from and connect with leaders and experts from a wide variety of fields and perspectives,” said UVA spokesman Brian Coy. Cavalier daily.
In February, the former vice president gave a speech at the Stanford College Republican (SCR) forum at Stanford University titled “How to Save America from the Awakening Left.”
Pence’s visit to Stanford was greeted by dozens of protesters who staged a peaceful demonstration outside the venue where he spoke, chanting “You can’t teach hate here.”
The conservative politician’s planned speech at UVA will focus on “freedom, free markets and traditional values.”
Rejecting Pence’s UVA invitation, The Cavalier Daily presented the 48th vice president as a homophobe who hates minorities and immigrants.
“For Pence, same-sex couples mean ‘social collapse’, black lives don’t matter, transgender people and immigrants don’t deserve protection, and the pandemic shouldn’t be taken seriously,” the editorial said. “However, the university saw Pence’s visit as ‘an opportunity to hear from and connect with leaders and experts from a wide variety of fields and perspectives.’
“So-called ‘viewpoints’ should not be welcomed when they spread rhetoric that directly threatens the presence and lives of members of our community.
Pence clashed with protesters while speaking at Stanford University in February (pictured)
Earlier this month, a free-speech debate between Yale’s conservative and progressive speakers sparked an outcry from a group of angry liberal students (pictured).
“The LGBTQ+ people that Pence has attacked, the black lives he refuses to appreciate, and the successful immigration stories he and the former president hope to prevent—these same people are our peers, our neighbors, and members of our community. We refuse to put up with Pence’s platforming.”
The Young America Foundation’s “New Guard” newsletter on Monday lashed out at The Cavalier Daily and defended Pence, a devout Christian, for earlier saying he considered marriage a union between a man and a woman.
“The news flash, just stating your view on marriage, is in no way slandering the gay community — just because it doesn’t align with your opinion,” the author wrote in the newsletter.
She then continued, “Just because someone doesn’t agree with someone else’s opinion doesn’t give them the right to shut down the vice president’s freedom of speech and ruin the event for students who want to hear what Pence has to say.”