Ben Shapiro is scheduled to speak at Boston University on Nov. 13, BU Spokesperson Colin Riley confirmed Wednesday.
The talk will take place at BU’s Track and Tennis Center, according to BU Today.
YAF has been in negotiations with BU to bring Shapiro to campus since September.
The visit has generated controversy on campus, with students raising concerns about both hate speech and freedom of speech.
Student forums from the BU Free Speech Committee included talk about Shapiro’s visit. At a Sept. 26 forum, a student read out tweets from Shapiro, including, “I believe gender dysphoria is a mental disorder,” and “As a religious Jew, I think homosexual activity is a sin.”
Students held a rally Oct. 16 to protest the visit, saying Shapiro’s rhetoric is hate speech and should not be allowed on campus. The rally was organized by BU Students Against Hate Speech, a coalition that formed in response to the visit announcement, which includes members from BU College Democrats, BU Students Against Imperialism, BU Young Democratic Socialists, BU Feminist Collective, BU Students for Justice in Palestine and the Center for Gender, Sexuality, and Activism.
BU Students Against Hate Speech is holding a sit-in at Marsh Plaza Oct. 28 to protest Shapiro’s visit.
This article was updated on Oct. 28 to reflect developments in the story.
Allow this jerk his time at the lectern and quietly move on. The louder you protest the more legitimacy you give him.
Also, who actually finds Young Americans for Freedom? Is it Fox News? The Koch’s? Vladimir Putin? Are they a legitimate campus group or simply a proxy for the alt Right propaganda machine? I think that proving that all funds for this visit were raised locally, and not taken from anonymous sources from outside the community should be part of any negotiation.
Yeah, Vladimir Putin!! That conservative, capitalist, right wing, Pro-Jewish, dictator.. You people are so nonsensical it boggles the mind.. Vladamir Putin is an old school communist directly opposing capitalism, and freedom of speech who aligns much more with Bernie Sanders’ view of the world. Read a history book for God’s sake.
It’s mainly the DeVos family.
We’re allowing apparent zionists to gain platforms now?
Why are y’all so afraid of Ben being able to speak. The last time I checked we are still in America and have freedom of speech. If you don’t like what he has to say you have the right to not listen to him.
Once again: he has the right to speech, not the right to a platform at a respected research university.
He does have a right to speech, and the right to a platform at a respected research university. Freedom works BOTH ways.
No; those are two different things. I may have the right to speak, but I don’t have the right to television air time.
The same is true at universities.
Everyone has the right to speak. No one has the right to a platform.
He does not have a right to a platform anywhere.
I’m interested in what he has to say. Stop telling me who I can hear. I don’t need anyone to make my decisions for me. Thanks for trying to protect me, but no thanks.
You can listen to him. He is not a fringe YouTuber. Ben has his own, very successful, news site and YouTube channel. He would not be silenced if he was not allowed at BU. BU does not need to give a man known for hate speech another platform.
He is not known for hate speech… also “hate speech” is subjective so you would not be able to prove that even if you could. He has openly condemned white supremacists and their heinous acts. You read a title and immediately get offended. The southern economy was largely built on the enslavement of people, but the values that this country was founded on, written in the consitution, was not founded on slavery. That is his point.