Between The Lines Capitol Correspondent and Lansing resident Todd A. Heywood will present a lecture called "Diagnosis: Hate Group," about the evidence and investigation which ultimately lead to the Michigan State University chapter of Young Americans for Freedom as the nation's first and only university recognized and sponsored hate group as listed and designated by the Southern Poverty Law Center.

The lecture will be held at Everybody Reads Bookstore 2019 East Michigan Avenue Lansing at 7 p.m. The event is sponsored by Michigan Equality.

Heywood was the first reporter to discover that the nation's leading anti-hate group was investigating the self described nonpartisan conservative student group as a hate group. His investigation uncovered dozens of troubling documents including a written agenda of hate and prejudice.

Heywood originally presented a truncated version of this speech to Central Michigan University's Student Government as part of their consideration to list their own chapter of YAF as a hate group. That move failed, in part because Heywood encouraged the student leaders to investigate the group more thoroughly and to open a community dialogue about the impact of hate and hate speech on the campus community.



Todd A. Heywood is the Capitol Correspondent for Between the Lines Newspaper. He has worked as a journalist since 1989, serving at The Lookout at Lansing Community College; Education and Government reporter for the Ingham Newspaper Company; Assignment Editor for ABC 53 News Now' and freelanced for City Pulse in Lansing, Between the Lines, INdulge GR in Grand Rapids, The Capitol Chronicle, The Capital Times, and was published in The Journal of Process Theology. Heywood is also a produced playwright, having had plays produced in Lansing, Jackson, Ann Arbor, Grand Rapids Michigan and St. Louis MO. Heywood was also the first openly gay man elected to both the Lansing Community College Student Government and the Lansing Community College Board of Trustees. He has received numerous awards for his leadership, including three PRISM Awards from the Lansing Association for Human Rights, The Catalyst Award from Triangle Foundation and The Community Pride Award from Between the Lines for his theatre company Sunsets with Shakespeare.