Penn State To Host Proud Boys Founder For “Comedy” Show Despite Campus Protests

Penn State University will host Proud Boys founder Gavin McInnes for a “comedy” event despite campus concerns for safety and a public petition against the performance.

While McInnes has disassociated himself from the Proud Boys in recent years, he remains a political provocateur with various media endeavors. The Proud Boys has been identified by the Southern Poverty Law Center as an “authoritarian, ultranationalist group” that promotes and engages in political violence. Its leaders are on trial for seditious conspiracy following the January 6, 2021 attack on the U.S Capitol building.

The October 24 event at Penn State, titled “Stand Back & Stand By,” will feature McInnes and far-right media personality Alex Stein for what is described as “a politically provocative comedy night” by campus organization Uncensored America. According to a pitch to sponsor the event by the organization, the pair will “push the boundaries of comedy … to get people to think differently about the world.”

A budget of thousands of dollars has been earmarked for the event, including “honoraria” to McInnes.

Penn State released a statement regarding “two controversial figures whose rhetoric in the past has been hateful and discriminatory” and that “the presence of any speaker on our campuses should not be taken as an endorsement by Penn State.” However, the university said, “our student organizations operate independent of the University and are free to sponsor programs or speakers of their choosing without censorship” and that it “fully supports the fundamental right of free speech.”

In a comment to HuffPost, Student Affairs Vice President Damon Sims said administrators were weighing student safety against constitutionally protected speech. He said the school would “respond appropriately as circumstances require.”

“We take every reasonable precaution to protect the safety of those associated with activities on our campuses,” Sims said to HuffPost. “Our commitment to both freedom of expression and the welfare of our community are equally strong, despite the obvious challenges that brings.”

A petition to university administrators protesting the campus organization’s invitation to McInnes “to come get paid and platformed with student fee dollars” has garnered 1,341 signatures, as of Thursday.

In 2018, McInnes publicly claimed to have left the Proud Boys, the same year that the FBI categorized the group as “an extremist group with ties to white nationalism” in a briefing to Washington state law enforcement.

College campuses continue to be cultural hotbeds with free speech issues clashing with political viewpoints. In September this year, a speech by conservative commentator Tomi Lahren at the University of New Mexico was disrupted by protestors, according to news reports. An official university statement said that UNM is committed to free speech and the campus’ role “as a public square for debate.”