Even in the face of a litany of atrocities, it is still hard to fathom how people can hold so much hate in their hearts.
Last month, it was the Buffalo shooter who put his racist screed into action when he targeted Black shoppers at a grocery store, killing 10 of them.
This month, it’s the various attacks on Pride events and LGBTQ+ individuals. On Saturday, a Good Samaritan informed police of what looked like a “little army” loading into the back of a U-Haul in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho. Police acted on the tip and pulled the van over not far from its intended destination: a park where a family-friendly Pride event was taking place.
Inside the van were 31 white men, dressed in uniforms of khaki pants, blue shirts and white balaclavas (which we’d hope for COVID prevention but were more likely for identity concealment) and equipped with shields, shin guards, helmets, long metal poles, at least one smoke grenade and other riot gear. Police also found a plan detailing how the group was going to riot in the park. According to the police chief: “They talked about entering the park and immediately confronting people; as soon as they met some level of resistance, they were going to release smoke grenades.”
The group, most of whom traveled from out of state, is believed to be associated with Patriot Front — the rebranding of a white nationalist group after one of its members drove a car through protestors in Charlottesville, Va., in 2017, killing one and injuring multiple others. But it was not the only hate group to mobile against the LGBTQ+ community this month.
In Dallas, the far-right group Protect Texas Kids, run by self-proclaimed “Christian fascist” Kelly Neidert, targeted a family-friendly drag show the week before. Protestors accosted families and children standing in line, followed several families and performers through the parking lot and some managed to get inside the venue. A known member of the white nationalist group American Populist Union joined the protest by shouting that the “Democrat[ic] party platform is to rape their kids” through a megaphone. Other protestors chanted “groomer” and “pedophile.”
On the same day Patriot Front targeted a Pride event in Idaho, a group of white men thought to be members of the Proud Boys interrupted a drag queen story time in Alameda County, Calif. The men came into the public library just after the event started and sat behind the kids in attendance. They shouted slurs and harassed the performer. One man wore a shirt that had “kill your local pedophile” emblazoned over the image of an assault-style rifle.
We wish we could say these were isolated incidents, but they are part of a national trend in which members of the LGBTQ+ community are villainized and dehumanized. The far-right’s new tactic is to frame LGBTQ+ individuals as “groomers” and “pedophiles” — twisting consensual acts between adults into something parents fear. There have been a swath of laws introduced and/or enacted — including in our own state — to deny transgender individuals access to sports, bathrooms and even to medical care. Many states refuse to codify protections against discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity. The new Supreme Court has proven it has no qualms overruling precedent to roll back personal liberty, and the right for same-sex couple to marry may be on the chopping block.
We can understand (quietly) not supporting something or someone because of your personal beliefs. What we can’t understand is the deep hatred for people who are different and this fervent drive to impose personal beliefs upon the general populace. We don’t understand this instinct to frame people who are different as inhuman — as monsters or creatures who deserve to be tortured and killed.
Maybe that’s what makes Pride Month so important: It makes people see that LGBTQ+ individuals are our friends, our neighbors, our coworkers, our family members. They are just as human as everyone else, and they deserve the same respect and rights.
