Lauren Southern

Lauren Cherie Southern (born 16 June 1995) is a Canadian alt-right YouTuber, political activist and commentator.

In 2015, Southern ran as a Libertarian Party candidate in the Canadian federal election.

On 18 October 2015, Southern was a candidate in the 2015 Canadian federal election representing the Libertarian Party in the district of Langley–Aldergrove.

She was briefly removed by the party as a candidate but was reinstated with support from Breitbart News and The Rebel Media.

The election was won by Conservative candidate Mark Warawa.

Southern finished last, receiving 535 votes, or 0.9% of the total.

Southern has been widely described as alt-right, far-right and right-wing.

Some academics and journalists have described Southern as a white nationalist, which she has denied.

Southern also rejects the label "far-right", preferring to be described as a conservative.

The Southern Poverty Law Center has characterized Southern's videos as "anti-feminist, xenophobic, Islamophobic diatribes" which "tiptoe at the precipice of outright white nationalism".

Her first video, "Why I Am Not A Feminist", appeared on the website in April 2015.

She worked regularly with Milo Yiannopoulos and Faith Goldy while at Rebel Media and made multiple videos with both of them.

In October 2016, Southern had some documentation of her gender legally changed to male as part of a video produced for The Rebel Media to show the ease of Ontario's new gender ID laws.

In December 2016, Southern self-published a short book Barbarians: How Baby Boomers, Immigrants, and Islam Screwed My Generation.

In the book, she wrote: "As far as I'm concerned, Hitler was just a SJW who happened to get freaky amounts of power and actually implement his #KillAllJews (the predecessor to #KillAllMen) worldview".

According to her, Hitler "fawned over Muslims more sycophantically than Justin Trudeau."

Barbarians gained a cover endorsement from Ann Coulter.

Southern worked for Rebel Media until March 2017, when she began to work independently.

In May 2017, Southern supported Defend Europe in their efforts to obstruct search-and-rescue operations of refugees from North Africa in the Mediterranean Sea.

Southern was briefly detained by the Italian Coast Guard for blocking a ship embarking on a search-and-rescue mission.

Consequently, crowdfunding website Patreon removed her from the platform, accusing her of engaging in activity "likely to cause loss of life".

She was also demonetized by YouTube and banned from GoFundMe.

Some academics and journalists have described Southern as a white nationalist for her promotion of the Great Replacement and white genocide conspiracy theories, though she has denied being a white nationalist.

Southern promoted the Great Replacement conspiracy theory via her YouTube video of the same name, released in July 2017; the video was reported to have helped to promote the white nationalist viewpoint, having garnered over 600,000 views by March 2019.

In March 2017, Southern announced she would be leaving The Rebel Media.

In the same month, she gained access to White House press briefings.

She has appeared on Lana Lokteff's program Radio 3Fourteen.

Southern is against multiculturalism.

She has been described as an advocate of the white genocide conspiracy theory for her documentary Farmlands (2018), in which she suggested the imminence of a race war in South Africa in response to South African farm attacks.

In July 2018, she visited Australia for a speaking tour with Stefan Molyneux; that August, the pair were banned from speaking in New Zealand.

Southern announced her retirement from political activism on 2 June 2019, but returned to YouTube on 19 June 2020.

As of 2021, she is a contributor for Sky News Australia.

She has rejected the "far-right" label and said she is not a racist, preferring to be described as a conservative.

In 2019, when making such denials to a journalist from The Times of London, Southern ended their "conversation by predicting a race war."

Southern was born in Surrey, British Columbia.

She studied political science at the University of the Fraser Valley, but left after two years.

She was interviewed by the London Times in 2019: "When we speak, Southern flatly denies being racist or even far right, then ends our conversation by predicting a race war and quoting Enoch Powell."

Before she left university, The Rebel Media founder Ezra Levant met Southern at a conference.

He had been impressed by the questions she had asked the speakers and asked her to audition.

She moved to Toronto to work in the website's offices.