Morning Briefing: LGBTIQ Events Target of Bomb Threats in Utah, Connecticut, and New York
Morning Briefing: LGBTIQ Events Target of Bomb Threats in Utah, Connecticut, and New York
A drag show in Salt Lake City, Utah, and a Pride event in New Haven, Connecticut, and a drag queen story hour in Brooklyn, New York, were each the target of bomb threats.
Morning Briefing: King’s English Bookshop, a bookstore in Salt Lake City, Utah which has been hosting all-ages drag story time events, was reportedly targeted with a bomb threat, and after local law enforcement found no explosives the “bookshop’s event was ultimately canceled and the store was closed for the day.”
The New Haven Pride Center was the target of a bomb threat and was forced to “temporarily shuttered a Ninth Square block that was supposed to be hosting a Pride Week-closing celebration — but which had been canceled the day before because of expected inclement weather.”
The Cortelyou branch of Brooklyn Public Library was reportedly the target of a bomb threat, “forcing the staff and patrons to relocate the scheduled Drag Queen Story Hour just prior to the event Saturday morning.”
White Supremacist and far right violent extremists reportedly “appear to have settled on a new strategy to grow their numbers and ready capable fighting forces across the United States, Canada and Europe while avoiding the scrutiny of law enforcement,” according to new research from the Counter Extremism Project (CEP).
In Beaumont, Texas, residents reportedly “found flyers in their yard from the white supremacist group.” The flyers were distributed by members of the Aryan Freedom Network, the neo-Nazi White Supremist group based in Texas.
The Aryan Freedom Network has also recent spread racist White Supremacist propaganda in Naples, Florida; Lexington, Kentucky; and Cincinnati, Ohio.
Updates Coming Soon: To understand how the individuals who participated in the Capitol Riot are connected to far right extremist groups and Trump Administration officials, explore the Capitol Riot Map.
Must Reads
Anne Applebaum writes that when Tucker Carlson “speaks on behalf of Viktor Orbán or Vladimir Putin, his words are repeated in Hungary and Russia, where they do have resonance: Look, a prominent American journalist supports us. I don’t know what Carlson’s motivation is—he did not respond to a request for comment—but his words also circulate in the far-right American echo chamber, where they are sometimes repeated by Republican presidential candidates, so unfortunately they require some explanation. Carlson’s hatred of American institutions, and of many Americans, is the starting point for many of his diatribes. Recently, for instance, he appeared at an event in Budapest, organized by a Hungarian-government-funded organization, where he called the U.S. ambassador to that nation a ‘creep,’ said he was ‘embarrassed that I share a country of birth with a villain like this,’ and apologized for American foreign policy in Hungary. But what is American foreign policy in Hungary? I asked the ambassador, David Pressman, to describe it to me. Pressman, who is gay, told me that when he first arrived in Budapest, his counterparts smirked at him during their meetings and asked if he wanted to talk about gay rights or other progressive causes. No, he told them. He wanted to talk about Russian and Chinese espionage and influence operations in Hungary, which are considerable.” [The Atlantic]
Sarah Posner writes that former President Donald Trump’s “openness to outside influence on his judicial nominees is well documented. Federalist Society heavyweight and dark money enthusiast Leonard Leo notoriously gave his list of preferred judicial nominees directly to Trump, who then released it as his own to reassure skeptical Republicans. Leo’s interests, while also encompassing other issues, are identical to those of right-wing evangelical activists who work to mobilize the voters essential for Republicans to win elections. The end goal is the same: elevate religious rights of conservative Christians over the rights of others, eviscerate church-state separation, and restrict or eliminate abortion and LGBTQ rights. At the polls, the Christian right provides the electoral muscle to make the judicial takeover a possibility. The impact of Supreme Court justices and lower court judges nominated by Trump and confirmed by the Republican Senate, led by now-Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, has been swift and severe. Most notably, the high court reversed Roe v. Wade, a goal Christian nationalist activists have sought for 50 years. It further undermined the separation of church and state, a long-standing project of the Christian right, spearheaded by the Alliance Defending Freedom.” [MSNBC]
James Factora writes that “despite the fact that the majority of Americans do not support book bans, they have been skyrocketing in the U.S., with a new report from PEN America recording a 33% year-over-year increase in book bans in American public school classrooms and libraries. The report partially attributes that rise to a handful of growing conservative advocacy groups, whose members go to great lengths to push for the removal of books at school board meetings and with school districts. PEN America’s report recorded 3,362 instances of book bans during the 2022-2023 school year, affecting at least 1,557 unique titles. During the 2021-2022 school year, the free speech advocacy organization tracked 2,532 such instances. The report also found that 30% of book bans apply to books that represent LGBTQ+ identities, with 6% of all book bans affecting books with trans characters specifically. The organization says that three advocacy groups have been particularly active in pushing these bans forward: Moms for Liberty, Citizens Defending Freedom, and Parents’ Rights in Education.” [Them]
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.
