The rightwing provocateur stepped down after a livestream resurfaced in which he appeared to endorse sex between ‘younger boys’ and older men

This article is more than 3 years old

This article is more than 3 years old

Rightwing provocateur Milo Yiannopoulos has resigned from Breitbart News, a day after he was dropped by his publisher and lost a speaking engagement at a conservative conference, over comments he made that appeared to endorse sex between “younger boys” and older men.

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“I would be wrong to allow my poor choice of words to detract from my colleagues’ important reporting, so today I am resigning from Breitbart, effective immediately,” he said in a statement.

Yiannopoulos had been employed by Breitbart as a senior editor and said that his decision to resign was entirely his own. He thanked the far-right news site for allowing him “to carry conservative and libertarian ideas to communities that would otherwise never have heard them”.

The rightwing commentator’s latest trouble stems from his appearance on an internet livestream last year, during which he said that relationships between adult men and teenage boys can be beneficial.

In the clip, Yiannopoulos said the age of consent was “not this black-and-white thing” and that relationships “between younger boys and older men … can be hugely positive experiences”.



He went on to suggest that sex between “younger boys” and older men could be a “coming-of-age relationship … in which those older men help those younger boys discover who they are”.

The comments drew widespread condemnation. The American Conservative Union rescinded his invitation to speak at its annual CPac conference while Simon & Schuster’s conservative imprint, Threshold Editions, cancelled publication of his upcoming book, Dangerous.



Amid reports that some Breitbart employees had threatened to leave if Yiannopoulos was not fired, Breitbart editor-in-chief Alex Marlow commented that his editor’s comments were “not defensible”.

Yiannopoulos initially addressed the controversy on Facebook, rejecting claims that he was an advocate for pedophilia. He said that while he regretted his past remarks, he claimed the video had been “deceptively edited”.

“I did say that there are relationships between younger men and older men that can help a young gay man escape from a lack of support or understanding at home. That’s perfectly true and every gay man knows it. But I was not talking about anything illegal and I was not referring to prepubescent boys.



At a press conference in New York following his resignation, Yiannopoulos offered a quasi-apology, saying: “I am certainly guilty of imprecise language, which I regret.”

“Anyone who suggests I turn a blind eye to illegal activity or to the abuse of minors is unequivocally wrong ... To repeat: I do not support pedophilia. It is a disgusting crime of which I have personally been a victim.”

However, he also offered a defense, saying his remarks were about “my personal life experiences”.

“I will not apologize for dealing with my life experiences in the best way that I can, which is humor. No one can tell me or anyone else who has lived through sexual abuse how to deal with those emotions. But I am sorry to other abuse victims if my own personal way of dealing with what happened to me has hurt you.”

Yiannopoulos was forced to cancel a speaking tour stop at the University of California, Berkeley, earlier this month after students protested, and he was permanently banned from Twitter in July 2016 for instigating abuse of Ghostbusters actor Leslie Jones.