Conservative columnist Ann Coulter will speak at the Riverside Theater on Saturday, Oct. 19, the venue announced, promoting her latest book, Memo to Republicans: We're Not Democrats. It's an unusual booking for the Pabst Theater Foundation, which has hosted many of authors and media personalities in recent years, including Bill Maher and Jon Stewart, but none who have welcomed controversy as eagerly as Coulter, who critics have frequently accused of hate speech.
The event announcement has garnered more than 100 comments on the Pabst Theater's Facebook page, most of them negative.
"Would you also book members of Westboro Baptist Church to speak at the Pabst? Members of the KKK?" one user wrote. Another echoed those sentiments: "I'm exercising my free speech by expressing my disappointment with Pabst/Turner for booking someone who contributes to the deep divisions and misunderstanding in this country. Hate-mongering should not have a place here."
Some users defended the booking, and accused Coulter's liberal critics of stifling opposing political views, while one disappointed Pabst Theater fan dismissed that logic. "I love your venues but I'm disappointed that you would host such a hateful person," she commented on the Pabst's page. "I don't say this because she is a Republican; I say this because this is someone who has advocated parents disown their gay children, for example. She is toxic, plain and simple, and I don't think you as a venue should feel obligated to give her views a platform."
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Coulter's appearance is sponsored by the website RightWisconsin.com.
