YNOT – Hustler founder and staunch First Amendment defender Larry Flynt will deliver the keynote address at the eighth annual University of North Carolina First Amendment Law Review Symposium. The Feb. 18-19 event is organized and presented by students and the school’s law journal.Flynt will speak about sexually explicit language and material and how defending the production and distribution of adult content is vital to First Amendment rights overall.
According to Symposium Editor David Wicclair, Flynt was selected precisely because he is controversial. The group expects the porn maven to draw a “different crowd” from the academics that typically populate law school events.
“When you talk about the First Amendment, and you talk about controversy, one person comes to mind, and it’s Larry Flynt,” he told the Independent Weekly blog Triangulator. “We really thought there hadn’t been a symposium on pornography or sexually explicit content, and we figured that’s a fairly pertinent issue in First Amendment law that would really spur some debate.”
Past symposia have focused on cyber speech, free speech at work and religion in public schools, Wicclair noted.
“If you disagree with Mr. Flynt, that’s great,” Wicclair told Triangulator. “We want you there, and we want you to tell him why you disagree and have a thoughtful debate.”
Flynt has been a lightning rod for controversy for decades, and his appearance in staid North Carolina is certain to generate debate. Variously described as “hedonistically obnoxious,” abrasive, “unseemly,” and indomitable, Flynt began using his vast porn fortune to defend First Amendment rights to publish explicit pornography by defending himself in courts nationwide during the 1970s. The effort earned him an assassination attempt in 1978, which left him a paraplegic confined to a wheelchair. A somewhat idealized version of his life was depicted in the 1996 Hollywood movie The People vs. Larry Flynt, which received two Academy Award nominations.
Flynt also helped establish the concept that public figures are fair game for even the basest parodies when he prevailed in the landmark Supreme Court case Hustler Magazine v. Fallwell.
According to the UNC symposium’s promotional materials, Flynt is expected to give a 10- to 15-minute address at 8 p.m. Feb. 18. Afterward, he will take questions from moderators and the general public. The keynote presentation is free, but requires advance tickets due to a 500-seat limit in the Great Hall of the UNC Student Union.
The symposium continues from 10 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. the following day with panel discussions about issues surrounding free speech, censorship and sexually explicit content. Panelists include industry insiders like attorneys Larry Walters and Jeffrey Douglas as well as Free Speech Coalition Executive Director Diane Duke. General admission to the panel discussions is $20, which includes a boxed lunch.
