Given the fact that right-wingers in the US have tried to spark a new satanic panic, featuring LGBTQ Americans (transpersons in particular) as the current scapegoats, researchers monitoring the far right have warned that Pride events could be under attack this year.
In Coeur D'Alene, Idaho, this is precisely what happened, as various far-right groups decided to menace a Pride event. In a surprising, though heartening, turn of events, the police (not known to be simpatico with LGBTQ persons or, indeed, left-of-center individuals) actually arrested members of neo-Nazi group Patriot Front, who had apparently brought weapons to the vicinity in a rental truck. Thirty-one fascists were charged with conspiracy to riot.
Christopher Mathias of the Huffington Post wrote an in-depth article on far-right efforts to turn Idaho into a fascist fiefdom, also appearing on the QAnon Anonymous Podcast to discuss this issue. Put succinctly, Idaho has a serious neo-Nazi problem, but I have no doubt that other Pride events in smaller cities nestled in the bosom of Trumpland could also face potential attackers. Fascists disrupted a Pride event in Dallas last weekend. Here in the NYC metro area, there is a critical mass of LGBTQ individuals and their allies that I'm not overly concerned about Pride events here, though such attacks certainly occur even in the most gay-friendly neighborhoods.
It's depressing, this Culture War which once seemed won by tolerant people, has been jolted back to life, pushed by righty media giants as well as neo-Nazi edgelords. I don't believe the regressives will win, but I'm sick of the fact that these 'last gasps' never seem to be the end of the bullshit. Stay safe, people, protect each other, and defy these assholes with every fiber of your being.
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