NEW YORK _ Milo Yiannopoulos, the far-right conservative commentator whose shtick is purposefully anti-politically correct, has had his speaking date at New York University postponed.
The 34-year-old speaker had been invited to discuss the "identity politics of Halloween" on Wednesday, but the university postponed the talk after Mayor Bill de Blasio asked the university to reschedule out of concern for public safety with nearby holiday parades expected to take place.
The liberal studies instructor who offered the invite, professor Michael Rectenwald, claimed he invited Yiannopoulos "not as an endorsement of his views," but to challenge NYU censorship.
"The university first learned of professor Rectenwald's invitation to Mr. Yiannopoulos from news reports on Sunday," said NYU spokesman John Beckman. "Safety officials began working on safety planning with police officials Monday."
Yiannopoulos, who has previously referred to President Donald Trump as "Daddy," ended his gig as Breitbart News editor in 2017 after videos surfaced of him endorsing sexual relationships between teen boys and older men in 2017, calling it a "coming-of-age relationship."
Beckman, through an NYU statement, had defended the conservative's right to speak on campus. "(Yiannopoulos) has espoused many ideas that are odds with the NYU community and are offensive to its members, but as an invited speaker, he will be allowed to speak."
