Article

Larry Flynt visits Penn State U.

“When I was gunned down ...and paralyzed, I saw that pretty much as my life being over. I made a calculated decision to spend the rest of my life devolted to expanding the parameters of free speech.” Larry Flynt
Gwenn Miller - Daily Collegian (Penn State U.)

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. - This is no ordinary arrival at University Park Airport.

At 9 o’clock on a mild early October evening, a white stretch limousine approaches the main terminal — but drives right by it. It pulls up to a smaller, luxurious building less than a quarter mile down the road, a vast difference from the sterile main structure.

The VIP terminal is quiet except for muffled exchanges between a few workers and the limousine driver, with the annoying television drone of “The O’Reilly Factor” in the background.

“Waiting for LFP?” asks the worker manning the desk.

There is nothing to do but wait and anticipate. Pace around, sit back down. Look at the watch. Pace some more.

Finally, word comes that LFP is approaching. The limo cruises out to the tarmac, and the wait continues.

Few people could create this much drama with an arrival in State College, Pa.

Minutes later, red and white lights punctuate the skyline. The jet roars as it touches the runway at 9:40.

As it taxis into view, the plane’s identity is revealed. Right there on the tail, which is painted in a stars-and-stripes pattern, bears the large letters “LFP,” which stands for Larry Flynt Publications.

To borrow a moniker from Larry Claxton Flynt’s autobiographical movie, “The Pervert” has arrived. The wait is over.

The Pennsylvania State University community didn’t have many days to build anticipation for the arrival of Hustler publisher Larry Flynt.

Signs were posted advertising his speech less than two weeks before the event.

That, however, was plenty of time for a full pot of controversy to brew.

With Pennsylvania state representative John Lawless’ crusade against flaunted sex on campus still fresh in many Penn State students’ minds, Flynt’s arrival was inevitably going to cause some kind of allergic reaction. The Montgomery County Republican succeeded in removing $9,520 from Penn State’s appropriations last spring after he charged that two campus events, Sex Faire and Cuntfest, used taxpayer dollars to fund them.

Sure enough, the symptoms appeared. Calls came into Penn State president Graham Spanier’s office. Many callers demanded to know if taxpayer dollars were being used for yet another seemingly sexually oriented event.

But several in the Penn State administration, including Rod Kirsch, vice president for development and alumni relations, and Janis Jacobs, vice president of administration, said that there should be no restrictions on who is allowed to speak on campus.

“Anytime you have a speaker at a university, someone disagrees with them,” said Steve McCarthy, vice president for university relations. “A university is supposed to be a marketplace of ideas and present different viewpoints so people can form their own opinions. The university will always be a place to go and express ideas.”

And thanks to conservative Philadelphia radio host Dom Giordana whipping his listeners into an anti-Larry Flynt frenzy, the feedback that Penn State received increased.

Douglas Anderson, dean of the College of Communications, fielded most of the e-mail and phone calls.

Anderson received more than 120 e-mails, most of them apparently triggered from the list serve of urbanfamily.org, which is the Web site for the Urban Family Council, a conservative group based in Philadelphia. The group’s mission statement, according to its Web site, is to “advocate for life, marriage and family” and bases its ideals around the Judeo-Christian ethics.

In the wake of the controversy, it was Flynt himself who set the record straight.

“One thing I want to make clear is that I came here on my own dime,” the multi-millionaire said at the beginning of his speech, which drew a standing-room-only crowd of 500 at HUB Heritage Hall.

Flynt has become an expert at defending himself.

He has been sued numerous times and estimates that he has spent $50 million in legal fees. It was part necessity, but also part survival.

“When I was gunned down in the streets of Georgia and paralyzed,” Flynt said, “I saw that pretty much as my life being over. And I made a calculated decision to spend the rest of my life devoted to expanding the parameters of free speech.”

“If I can leave students with a kernel of truth and inspire them to make the world a better and safer place, my time coming here will be worthwhile.”

That is his mission statement for his visits to college campuses. Flynt has spoken at many across the nation and worldwide.

But each campus offers a new challenge, a new accusation. Sometimes the surprises are benign, such as girls flashing their breasts at Flynt when he visited Yale University. Other times, the speech can escalate into a passionate shouting match.

The point is, when you’re Larry Flynt, you just never know.

As the roaring, black jet comes to a halt, the right side door drops down and the limo pulls ahead to meet it. Only then is it visible: Three-inch white letters to the left side of the door, spelling out the word Hustler.

Flynt might not travel to college campuses to promote his pornography, but it’s difficult for most to separate the man from the magazine. After all, that’s how he can afford this plane in the first place.

That becomes more obvious as his two pilots emerge, both wearing black jackets with Hustler in big, gold letters.

Hustler magazine is not in the same league as Playboy or 2 a.m. HBO porn. It depicts rape, torture and mutilation of women and overt racism.