Olly Alexander publicly calls out newspaper over Milo Yiannopoulos coverage

Years & Years frontman Olly Alexander has attacked the London Evening Standard for a feature the newspaper ran on controversy-baiting right-wing media personality Milo Yiannopoulos, arguing that the article failed to take into account the people he has attacked.

Yiannopoulos, who in 2012 argued that the internet “feeds the trait of sociopathy”, is perhaps best known for being a racist, sexist, transphobic troll, whose penchant for attacking minorities online and inciting his followers to do the same saw him permanently booted off Twitter in July this year.

The 33-year-old, who has dismissed feminism as “cancer”, rape culture as “fantasy”, and called for the LGBT+ movement to exclude trans people, has previously defended his attacks on larger women, trans women and women of colour as guarding against the “body-positivity” movement, which he believes is marginalising “traditional beauty standards”.

After the Standard ran an in-depth profile on the notorious “alt-right” figure on Friday (November 25), former Attitude cover star Olly Alexander took to Twitter to challenge the publication over the tone of its coverage, accusing the writer of speaking to Yiannopoulos’ “supporters and colleagues” but not to “any of the people he has targeted and abused”.

https://twitter.com/alexander_olly/status/802249210263433216

While the newspaper’s feature, which has also been published online, states that Yiannopoulos “is contemptuous of women and minorities,” it includes just one quote from someone who has been on the receiving end of his followers’ attacks.

Olly also tweeted an excerpt from the article in which an entire paragraph is devoted to noting Yiannopoulos’s positive attributes:

“Ultimately, Yiannopoulos resists definition, preferring to tease and provoke. And despite all this, in private, he seduces. “He’s well-connected, good at making introductions and can be incredibly charming and helpful,” offers an acquaintance. “I once attended a birthday party of his, held at a bar in Old Street, where he arrived on a throne; carried by four topless hunks. He’s like a combination of Ab Fab’s Eddie Monsoon and Nigel Farage, with better hair.” A journalist who once worked in an office with him confirmed, “he always got the rounds in at the pub”.

Meanwhile, Olly recently issued a plea to the gay community to get tested as part of National HIV Testing week – click here to find out more.

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