Far right groups shift focus to LBGTQ events. Their hateful aim hasn't changed npr
Two incidents in which far-right extremists targeted LGBTQ events earlier this month marked what appeared to be a shift in focus for white supremacist activists.
A group of men with ties to the white nationalist Patriot Front was
arrested outside a Pride event in Coeur D'Alene, Idaho. The same day, alleged members of the
far-right Proud Boys crashed
a children's drag queen storytelling event and shouted homophobic and transphobic slurs, in what Alameda, Calif., sheriffs are now
investigating as a possible hate crime.
Extremism researchers say the far-right activists are seizing on an opportunity of heightened attention around cultures that they have always seen as a threat to their hateful interests. And the particular events the extremists chose to target that Saturday had in recent weeks drawn negative attention among the far-right online networks that fuel their hate activism.
The recent far-right disruptions have prompted LGBTQ event organizers and law enforcement to stay
on high alert during Pride Month.
The far-right incidents are not isolated events, according to a study released last week by the Armed Conflict Location & Event Data Project. As conservative politicians and media have ramped up
anti-LGBTQ rhetoric and
anti-trans legislation in recent months, anti-LGBTQ demonstrations have increased — and grown more violent,
ACLED data shows.
The Patriot Front men likely saw the event as a soft target, Burghart added.
"It's pretty clear that Patriot Front saw what leaders viewed as a relatively safe opportunity to garner visibility, which is the oxygen of organization."
Although white supremacists have long villainized a range of groups, including Black people, Jews and LGBTQ people, white nationalist groups like Patriot Front historically haven't made Pride events a focus, according to Jon Lewis, a violent extremism researcher at George Washington University.
Far-right targets have shifted "based on what local events get picked up and gain traction in the national right-wing network of mainstream media voices," that they feed off of, he said, like "like Fox News, members of Congress like Marjorie Taylor Greene, and the right-wing influencers."
Earlier this month, Rep. Greene
said "it should be illegal" to take children to drag shows, words echoed by Florida
Gov. Ron DeSantis, who suggested he's considering punishing families who take their children to drag shows. In Idaho itself,
a pastor in Boise told his congregation last month that LGBTQ people are "worthy of death." This month, authorities said Pride flags in the city were vandalized for the second year in a row.
In the days leading up to the incidents in Idaho and California, Libs of TikTok, a social media account that aggregates and ridicules LGBTQ causes, had repeatedly posted about both the Coeur D'Alene event and drag queen storytelling events, including the one in Alameda.
Libs of TikTok, which has more than 1 million Twitter followers and whose content is frequently promoted by right-wing influencers, is run by a woman from Brooklyn,
The Washington Post reported in April.
"We are living in hell,"
Libs of TikTok wrote, criticizing a since-deleted tweet promoting a "family friendly drag dance party."
Less than a week earlier, Dave Reilly, who SPLC identified as a white supremacist,
tried to get Libs of TikTok to call attention to the event.
