WCF Communications Directors Speech Disrupted by Demonstrators
WCF Communications Director Don Feder was invited by the College Republicans to speak on hate crime laws at a forum at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst on March 11.
Due to frequent outbursts, sign-waving and heckling by several hundred protestors — including a coalition of feminists, socialists and homosexuals — Feder was unable to finish his speech.
Feder had intended to speak on hate crime laws as an attack on both free speech and religious freedom, among other examples, citing the case of Swedish Pastor Ake Green, who was sentenced to a month in jail for a sermon on homosexuality in which he cited Scriptures. The ruling was later overturned by the nation’s high court, when Green’s lawyers threatened to take the case to the European Court for Human Rights.
Feder also intended to mention the Philadelphia 11, a group of Christians who were arrested and prosecuted for protesting quietly and peacefully at a 2005 homosexual celebration (“Outfest”). If convicted of all charges, each defendant could have faced sentences of up to 47 years in prison, and $90,000 in fines. At trial, after viewing a videotape of the incident, a judge dismissed all charges.
Protestors, who wouldn’t allow Feder’s lecture to continue, called his talk “hate speech.” A number of students from various political perspectives expressed dismay at Feder’s treatment. Later in the evening, Feder gave an impromptu speech and took questions at a private gathering of about 50.
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