It was announced this weekend that Milo Yiannopoulos will keynote the Conservative Political Action Conference opening this week in DC. Now, a video has emerged of Milo defending sex between adolescents and older men. From the transcript:

MILO: The law is probably about right, that’s probably roughly the right age. I think it’s probably about okay, but there are certainly people who are capable of giving consent at a younger age, I certainly consider myself to be one of them, people who are sexually active younger. I think it particularly happens in the gay world by the way. In many cases actually those relationships with older men…This is one reason I hate the left. This stupid one size fits all policing of culture. (People speak over each other). This sort of arbitrary and oppressive idea of consent, which totally destroys you know understanding that many of us have. The complexities and subtleties and complicated nature of many relationships. You know, people are messy and complex. In the homosexual world particularly. Some of those relationships between younger boys and older men, the sort of coming of age relationships, the relationships in which those older men help those young boys to discover who they are, and give them security and safety and provide them with love and a reliable and sort of a rock where they can’t speak to their parents. Some of those relationships are the most –

Milo, who is Catholic, then credits the Catholic priest who molested him for teaching him how to perform oral sex skillfully. One of the people in the group says to Milo: “You are advocating for cross generational relationships here, can [you] be honest about that?” He replies

Yeah, I don’t mind admitting that. I think particularly in the gay world and outside the Catholic church, if that’s where some of you want to go with this, I think in the gay world, some of the most important, enriching and incredibly life affirming, important shaping relationships very often between younger boys and older men, they can be hugely positive experiences for those young boys they can even save those young boys, from desolation, from suicide (people talk over each other)… providing they’re consensual.

Molesting 13 year old boys can save them from suicide? Yes, says the CPAC keynoter, in a line sure to delight the hearts of NAMBLA members.

You can read the whole thing and watch the video here.

Milo has responded forcefully on his Facebook page. He points out, among other things, that he does not defend sex with pre-pubescent children. Well, okay, but how, exactly, does it make acceptable defending what is, legally speaking, the rape of teenage boys?

This is unconscionable. CPAC deserves to be radioactive after this. Run, don’t walk, away from these scumbags. This is true:

Milo-to-CPAC demonstrates how thoroughly the pretense that conservatism is about socially conservative morality has been abandoned. — Josh Barro (@jbarro) February 19, 2017

Matt Schlapp, head of the American Conservative Union, which sponsors CPAC, circles the wagons:

Jonah 1st amendment is dead on campus. Conservatives should fight back. As radioactive as milo is he is fighting back. https://t.co/grkdlGNBt3 — Matt Schlapp (@mschlapp) February 20, 2017

Look, I fully defend the right of Milo Yiannopoulos to speak on college campuses without being threatened by violence. But that is a very different thing from defending what he says, or his personal integrity.

Religious and social conservatives had better wake up and realize that there is no room for us in movement conservatism — at least not if our principles and self-respect matter to us.

A man who praised gay sex between adults and adolescents is the keynote speaker at the Conservative Political Action Conference, the highest-profile meeting of movement conservatives. Why? Because he makes liberals mad.

This scandal shows why it is more important than ever for conservatives to get straight in their minds that conservatism is not mere anti-liberalism. Matt Schlapp and the American Conservative Union have forgotten this. Don’t you make that mistake. Defending pederasty is a stain that will not come out.

UPDATE:So now CPAC has disinvited him. That’s the right thing to do, but I don’t think they will be able to easily shake off the stink of having invited him in the first place. Why, exactly, would young conservative men and women of vision, character, and intellect want to go to an event like that?