Morning Briefing: Drag Shows Target of Bomb Threats in New York, Alaska, and Texas
Morning Briefing: Drag Shows Target of Bomb Threats in New York, Alaska, and Texas
Pride Month drag show events in New York, Alaska, and Texas were the target of bomb threats: 'Fuck you and your drag queens.'
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Morning Briefing: In Woodstock, New York, the Woodstock Public Library received a bomb threat via email reportedly in “response to a drag-story hour held the previous day.” The email read: “We placed a bomb in the library that will detonate soon — fuck you and your drag queens.”
In Austin, Texas, a drag event at the The Brewtorium Brewery & Kitchen was canceled “after a bomb threat targeted the event,” and reportedly “the person who made the threat cited the drag show as the reason.”
In Seward, Alaska, the Seward Community Library & Museum was “evacuated after a caller threatened to bomb the place in response to the pride-themed event,” however, the drag story hour relocated to parking lot of a nearby business which “served as a gathering space for various events throughout the weekend.”
In Newberg, Oregon, a Pride flag on display at the Newberg Public Library was reportedly “was shot at with a pellet gun,” and local law enforcement is “investigating it as a possible hate crime.”
In Flower Mound, Texas, local law enforcement is reportedly investigating “hundreds of plastic bags containing antisemitic flyers” found in neighborhoods, and the flyers appear to have been distributed by members of Goyim Defense League (GDL), a neo-Nazi White Supremacist group.
Several members of Blood Tribe, the neo-Nazi White Supremacist group, reportedly “unfurled a Nazi flag” during a stated protest “on the steps of South Dakota's state capitol building.” Christopher Pohlhaus, the leader of Blood Tribe, claimed the protest was “largely related to anti-semitism legislation passed this year.”
South Dakota, Florida, and Wyoming were among “the worst states for LGBTQ+ safety in the nation, earning F grades due to their high number of discriminatory laws and hate crime reporting rates,” according to a new report.
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Tim Dickinson writes that Tim Dunn’s “comics-infused fundamentalism is not a private matter. It drives his engagement in politics. Dunn is the largest donor in Texas politics over the past decade, where he’s built a formidable political machine to warp state government to his will. ‘The Republican Party in Texas is not the party of a smaller, less-intrusive government,’ says Kel Seliger, a recent-former GOP state senator. ‘The religious right is very strong right now — and still in its ascendancy. And Tim Dunn is probably the best example of that.’ James Talarico, a Democratic state representative from Austin, observes the same dynamic, telling Rolling Stone: ‘Tim Dunn is spending his vast fortune to turn his beliefs into law.’ A notorious figure in Texas, Dunn has not previously been a power player in Washington, D.C. But with $2 billion in his war chest — from the recent sale of his fracking business — that’s changing dramatically. Dunn has staked millions to send Donald Trump back to the White House in 2024. And he has formed an alliance with Trump’s former presidential campaign manager and voter-targeting guru Brad Parscale, who has opened up shop in Midland. Dunn is also bankrolling a bevy of high-profile groups that are crafting an extreme 2025 agenda, one that seeks to roll back reproductive rights and tear down the wall between religion and politics.” [Rolling Stone]
Hannah Allam writes that “from the earliest days of the republic, American radicals have drawn inspiration from a simple white flag emblazoned with a green pine tree and the words, ‘An Appeal to Heaven.’ Among 18th-century revolutionaries, the flag emerged as a call to arms in the buildup to war against British rule, a plea for divine help when all else had failed and it was time to fight. More than two centuries later, extremism monitors say the self-styled revolutionaries of today’s Christian far right are reviving the idea that drastic action is again required to save the republic, and they have adopted the flag as their own. Appeal to Heaven banners have appeared at rallies against pandemic-era lockdowns and at protests against LGBTQ+ events, such as Pride parades. Photos show dozens of them in the mob that attacked the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. One also flew at the New Jersey vacation home of Supreme Court Justice Samuel A. Alito, Jr. and his wife, Martha-Ann Alito. Together with the upside-down U.S. flag flown at their Virginia home, another emblem appropriated in recent years by extremist groups, researchers say the two symbols represent problem and solution: a nation in grave distress, and Christian patriots willing to rally to its rescue.” [The Washington Post]
Jason Wilson writes that “a long-standing US anti-pornography campaigning group has advised, promoted and endorsed anti-LGBTQ+ activists and politicians in Uganda, including a governing party member who endorsed anti-LGBTQ+ laws by saying gays ‘should be castrated’, and a virulently homophobic founder of a “militaristic” Christian boys camp. The revelations about Washington DC-based National Center on Sexual Exploitation (NCOSE) and its spin-offs and affiliates – based on documents, audio and video recordings and open-source materials – raise questions about its recent disavowals of its history of anti-LGBTQ+ positions, and its role in Uganda’s passage last year of laws on homosexuality which are among the most punitive and restrictive in the world. It also complicates NCOSE’s efforts to play down its religious associations and its history on the Christian right in order to exercise a more authoritative influence on policymakers in the US and around the world.” [The Guardian]
What to expect from Radical Reports: Morning Briefing provides a daily round-up of reporting on the Radical Right; Extremist Links offers a weekly round-up of extremists activities including the white supremacist and militia movements; Narratives of the Right delivers weekly analysis of the current narratives in far right online spaces and promoted by right-wing media; and Research Desk provides monthly highlights research and analysis from academia on the Radical Right.
Sounds like the love of Christ is at it again!