Morning Briefing: Far Right Anti-LGBTIQ Groups Target Pride Events
Morning Briefing: Far Right Anti-LGBTIQ Groups Target Pride Events
During the first weekend of Pride Month, far right anti-LGBTIQ groups targeted Pride events in Texas, Louisiana, and North Carolina.
Morning Briefing: On the first day of Pride Month in Dallas, Texas, far right anti-LGBT activists spent the day targeting attendees of the Dallas Pride Music Festival. Kelly Neidert, self proclaimed Christian fascist, was joined by members of the New Columbia Movement, far right Christian Nationalist group, and posted several videos of families entering the venue hosting the event.
Sara Gonzales, executive director of the anti-GLBTIQ group Defend Our Kids Texas, posted multiple videos on social media of the Dallas Pride Parade, including video which appeared intended to be criticism of the participation of Dallas Police Department officers. Gonzales rhetorically asked, “Do these officers inspire confidence in DPD?”
In Mandeville, Louisiana, which was described as a “small Catholic city” by the right-wing publication The Federalist, anti-LGBTIQ activists staged a protest outside a local Pride event. The rally was organized by La Nouvelle Vendée, an organization that seeks to “resist secularism,” “reclaim our patrimony,” and “restore Christendom in Louisiana by implementing the Doctrine of the Social Reign of Christ the King.”
The North Carolina chapter of the Proud Boys, the far right violent extremists group, posted on the Cape Fear Proud Boys channel on Telegram, that the group “sent Proud Boys to eight different pride events” in North Carolina, and asserted that only one event permitted participation of all ages: “Highwire Brewing on Princess St. in Willington, NC has made the groomer list.”
TFP Student Action, the student group affiliated with the American Society for the Defense of Tradition, Family and Property (TFP America), a far right group associated with radical traditionalist Catholics, is targeting Our Lady of Grace Church in Hoboken, New Jersey, for the church planning to hold a “Pride Mass” on Sunday, June 23th.
In 2023, there were “the highest number of active anti-LGBTQ+ and white nationalist groups” ever recorded, according to a new report published by the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC). The report found “1,430 hate and antigovernment extremist groups that comprise the organizational infrastructure upholding white supremacy in the U.S.” (More on this report later this week.)
Must Reads
Aram Roston writes that “the Proud Boys are back. Four years after the failed effort to overturn Trump’s 2020 electoral defeat, the violent all-male extremist group that led the storming of Congress on Jan. 6, 2021, is rebuilding and regaining strength as Trump campaigns to return to the White House, according to interviews with eight Proud Boys, two U.S. law enforcement officials and four experts who track the group’s online activity. Since the Jan. 6 Capitol riot, four former Proud Boys leaders have been convicted in federal court of seditious conspiracy, each sentenced to 15 or more years in prison. At least another 70 members were charged with participating in the violence. But that crackdown hasn’t stopped the Proud Boys. Some Proud Boys say they are preparing to emerge once again as a physical force for Trump, drawn to his hardline nationalism and convinced their leaders will be pardoned if he wins. Trump himself promises to pardon convicted Jan. 6 rioters if he’s elected.” [Reuters]
Leah Sottile writes that “a look at the history of Centralia and the wider region shows that ideological extremism has century-old roots here. In 1919, a group of veterans attacked a labor union hall, and five people died in the aftermath. Locals celebrated the instigators as patriots and the unionists as anti-American troublemakers who deserved their fate — and that story has persisted for a hundred years. At a moment when diverging narratives have become central to debates over the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot — not to mention the 2024 presidential election — Centralia’s history shows what happens when a community indulges in historical amnesia. By distorting truth and turning a blind eye to facts, Centralia helped smooth the way for modern-day bigotry. It is a test case, illustrating how easily extremism can find a permanent home. Casting minority voices as outsiders provides a convenient scapegoat — a shared enemy to be feared and shunned and fought. And it reinforces just how true it is that history repeats itself.” [High Country News]
David Brockman writes that “Texans like Wallnau and Jacobs, who take the titles ‘apostle’ and ‘prophet,’ are quite serious. And their version of Christianity, which an early leader named the New Apostolic Reformation (NAR) in the 1990s, is growing in nationwide religious and political influence—becoming, as two experts have deemed it, ‘one of the most important Christian religious and political movements of our time.’ Despite its name, the NAR isn’t all that new: A 2011 Texas Observer story revealed its ties to then-Governor Rick Perry. But it’s recently drawn attention, nationally and in Texas, reflecting its growth in the Christian landscape and the close ties of some NAR leaders to ex-President Donald Trump and other GOP luminaries. It’s also drawn criticism, even in evangelical circles. The NAR has deep roots in the Lone Star State, which is home to three of its leading ‘prophets’: Wallnau, Jacobs, and Corinth minister Chuck Pierce.” [Texas Observer]
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.
Nice to see that the Proud Boys are back in their navy and beige drag. Gayer than the Village People.
Despite FELON trump having more than 34 counts of guilt, not including rape, not including insurrection, he is allowed to speak publicly and his complicit right-wing-media makes FELON trump a star. This results in harm! Violence, threats, intimidation and death…remember J6? Rather than choking a black man to death for selling cigarettes on the street, why don’t we call up the National Guard to do to these thugs what they did to Kent State students in 1970. Let them do to this group what they do to Black protesters and left-wing protesters against inequality & war. We’re past time..to have the deadliest biggest felon (who was selected for the office of president in 2016) to be muzzled and imprisoned for the safety of so many citizens in this country!