June 13, 2022 • 46 mins
We discuss the attack on a family friendly drag event by self described Christian Fascists on June 4th.
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Speaker 1 (00:14):
Your children should be home. Your kids aren't actually gay,
you've just chromed to them. Welcome to It could have
happened here today. We are talking about something that did
happen just a few days ago, and we'll be discussing
it's possible ramifications going forward and similar subsequent attacks that
(00:34):
are most likely going to take place throughout this next month.
I'm Garrison Davis. With me is Chris Hello, Ready ready
to hear about a lot of threats of genocide and
a whole bunch of audio clips of fascists. You know, Okay,
I got I got one episode where there was like
(00:56):
a pretty clean win and like a good thing happened,
and so now I'm I'm ready to go back to
getting exterminated. This is so this this episode is going
to be kind of I don't speak German style, I
guess if if we were to compare it to another
one of our competitors in the field, Um yeah, so uh,
(01:17):
I mean, there's been a lot of threats against Pride
events over the course of the past month. There's we've
we've pointed towards some in Idaho. Uh, there has been
some in Arizona. There has been lots in Texas. By
the time this episode has dropped, the Gunda Lane event
in Idaho would have already taken place. We are recording
(01:37):
that just just before on on on June tent so
I'm unsure of how that's gone at this point. Hopefully
nothing horrible happened. Yeah, but but but if everyone dies,
that that's why we're not talking about it because it
hasn't happened yet. Oh but yeah, we're gonna be talking
about an attack on a Pride event in Dallas, Texas
(02:00):
that happened on June four, So starting starting kind of
closer to the lead up to this. On the conservative
trend setting limbs of TikTok, who now has over one
point two million followers on the Twitter account ran by
Chaia chick Uh, they started a threat titled quote Mega
(02:20):
Drag Thread. They say it's innocent. They say it's about
inclusion and acceptance. They say no one is trying to confuse, corrupt,
or sexualize kids. They lie. Increasingly many on the far
right are targeting family friendly drag events, including drag Time
story events that libraries across the country. The Gondolate event
(02:43):
in Idaho was precursored by a whole bunch of attacks
on drag story events at the libraries inside Idaho and
the very church gathering that they announced the event to
oppose the Pride on June eleven, That whole gathering at
the church was about removing lgbt Q materials from libraries
(03:06):
and targeting any drag queens who do any types of
story times. So this this over thirty tweet long thread
by lips of TikTok contained a list of drag queens,
story where flyers with dates and locations, and family friendly
or all ages drag events that had recently took place
over upcoming for Pride Month. One such event right check
(03:29):
posted about was a Pride themed family friendly drag event
that was to take place on Saturday, June four, hosted
at a gay venue in the Progressive neighborhood of Dallas, Texas.
In their post, lips of TikTok included the date and
location for the upcoming event, as well as an unrelated
picture of one of the drag performers wearing a skap
be outfit. I think right check just searched the internet
(03:51):
for a picture of this one person wearing as revealing
clothing as possible Based on the entire intimate presence and
like it's still not a nude photo. It's just like
someone like like a skimpy outfit. But anyway, you know,
you're trying to be like, this is what your kids
are gonna see, which means it's it's not, but you know,
you know the thing you're trying to do. The tweet
was shared by a new far right group called Protect
(04:14):
Texas Kids, who had also declared that they were organizing
a protest to oppose what they called a quote child
grooming event. They tweeted out the address of the venue
and called on people to join in on opposition to
the family friendly drag show. The initial limps of TikTok
tweet about the Dallas All Ages drug event raked up
(04:35):
over a thousand retweets and thousands and thousands of likes.
Less than a week later, the anti queer attacks moved
from the online sphere to the outside physical world. I
wonder if the mama bear instinct is going to come
out in three years when the mainstream Democrat party platform
and they want to rape your kids, and they're all
gonna think it's one big, smug, little joke. These people,
(04:57):
by the way, understand that there is a difference between
ten years ago and now. Then the wind be between
now and in five years when they're openly advocating for
pedophilia like they've already started doing. You people are the
symptom of a dying society, and you know it where.
(05:18):
That's John Doyle, a self described Christian fascist, standing outside
the family Friendly Drag event at nine am in the morning,
yelling through a megaphone at the families with kids lined
up to get inside the brunch event. A crowd mostly
in khaki shorts and button ups surrounded the venue, enchanted
groomer groomer as the group of men kept screaming at
(05:42):
the families stuck outside waiting on line. Kids just a
few feet away covered their ears. Amidst the screams and megaphones,
one person waved a Christian Diminianist flag. A man holding
a rosary shrieked verbal abuse at the children and parents.
The first have tried will come down very soon. What
(06:12):
was described as a quote protest immediately materialized as a
group of men and self described Christian fascists who came
to attack families at Pride, just yelling abuse at the
events attendees and staff, threatening people as they arrived and left,
and creating an actually unsafe environment for children, along with
a gaggle of far right grifting videographers who quote infiltrated
(06:36):
the event to film kids without their consent to create
viral propaganda. There was a very good article by Melissa
Geara Grant published a few days after the incident titled
a Pizza Gate in Every City, with the subheading quote
these conspiracy theories were once fringe. Now they're being fueled
(06:56):
by Republicans and driving far right anti LGBT you violence. Now.
I'm going to read a few quotes from this piece
throughout our episode today because the writer does a very
good job tying the current grooming rhetoric to the pattern
of escalating violence and conspiracism embraced by the right over
the past few years. So to quote the article, quote
(07:18):
from the idea that children inside this venue were being
abused and that such abuse was a plot by Democrats,
to the call to internet provocateurs to record their own evidence,
as well as the false claims of child rescues made
by those promoting these conspiracy theories. The attack on Mr MR,
which which was the venue that the Drike eventic placet
called to mind the same fears, if not the same
(07:41):
threat of gun violence as the assault on Comt Ping
Pong in Washington, d C. In a man motivated by
the Pizza Gate conspiracy theory arrived at the restaurant with
a rifle to quote rescue children from the non existent
sex trafficking ring supposedly orchestrated by prominent Democrats. Now a
little more than five years later, of Republicans identify as
(08:02):
believers of the Pizza Gate successor Q and on, and
the far right's capacity for street violence has grown. At
the same time, where once most elected Republican officials would
at least nominally distance themselves from Pizza Gate pushers out
on the fringe, that wall has largely eroded. Across the country.
GOP lawmakers have waged a legislative crusade targeting queer and
(08:24):
trans kids, smearing opponents as groomers, language that rhymes with
the pedophile claims that inspired the attack on Common Ping Pong,
and where once the targets of these conspiracy theories were
largely confined to select group of Democratic lawmakers and their allies,
the fearmongering amplified by Fox News and prominent conservative social
(08:45):
media accounts, is now targeting all LGBTQ people, from national
figures to members of your local community. The stage is
set for a pizza Gate in any city, and just
(09:06):
like Pizza Gate, where cases of threats of violence escalated
to the point of an attempted arson and a young
white man storming the establishment firing a rifle inside. The
homophobic and transphobic violence that is advocated or physically committed
is truly seen as like righteously justified by those who
do it, and even if those who promote it don't
(09:27):
sincerely hold those like illogical beliefs. Successful propagandists know how
to effectively frame bigoted violence as a moral imperative simply
as a way to encourage attacks on their own ideological enemies.
(09:48):
The far right conservatives and fascists who made explicit threats
of genocidal violence were not met unopposed. There was what
seems to be a mix of more official security for
the gay venue that usually functions as a bar, as
well as community defense volunteers and anti fascists who put
their body in between the fascists and the families with children.
(10:10):
Community community members wore low key Pride infected block attire,
black masks, and rainbow bandanas, with some holding trans and
queer Pride flags, which can come in handy for blocking
off unwanted persons. Not only did the community defense protect
families and attendees, but also works to protect the performers
(10:31):
who are being followed after the event was over by fascists.
The Elm Fork John Brown Gun Club did a stand
up job documenting the event as it happened and also
doing work after the fact to I d the people
who are leading the homophobic attacks. I truly believe if
there was less of a community defense effort, the day
could have gone much much uglier. And I think that's
(10:54):
a part that's worth emphasizing. Like everyone who showed up
to oppose the fast just did an amazing job. I mean,
like the it's honestly, I've I've looked at so much
footage of this day, um from the footage the fascists
were filming to the footage that the John Brown Gun
Club was putting out, and there were so many times
where people in with rainbow masks were physically preventing fascists
(11:19):
from chasing down kids. There was barely enough of them, right,
and you you would always, you would always want more
more community defenders there. But the ones who did show
up deserve much gratitude for putting their bodies on the line. Eventually,
police did show up and tried to keep some of
the conservative protesters who were screaming groomer at children on
(11:40):
one side of the street across from the venue. But
even with the cops there, self described fascists continued to
chase families as they walk with their kids to their car,
and anti fascists and counter demonstrators were the ones to
block the homophobes path to prevent them from the further
harassing kids and families, while while the counter demonstrators were
yelling the fascists to leave the kids alone. After the
(12:04):
police did arrive, Christian fascist leader John Doyle talked about
how police should quote go in there and put bullets
in their heads. They should be rewarded for it. That's
what the badges for. And now I'm gonna play a
clip of of him saying that it's a it's a
little bit hard to hear, but here's my due diligence.
(12:24):
Don't avertize everything. The sheriff so yeah, that is harkening
back to the very real history of police's willingness to
enforce homophobic laws, something that these Christian conservatives and fascists
(12:47):
want to bring back. And if you think some police
wouldn't enforce such laws, then oh boy, I don't know
what to tell you, Like, yeah, their entire job is
to enforce whatever the laws are, and lots of those up,
I'm sure don't have great opinions on gay people. So yeah,
I I know they were like like I I've had
conversations with people who were like I don't know, like sixteen, seventeen, eighteen,
(13:12):
who like you know, like who who? And I don't
want to be too hard on them. Bec's like people
who got their sort of education to queer history on
Tumbler and they'll on things like well like assist white
gay men were like never a pressed in the US,
and it's like no, like like like you, yeah, you
you you could be just assist white gay dude, and
like like really like not even really Like fifteen years ago,
(13:35):
it was pretty common for people to just like get
the ship beating out of him on the street for
being gay, and cop cops were participating in this like
regular people participating in this and this looks like what
we're heading back to, but possibly even worse. So if
you if you look around the social media feed of
many many cops, as I do for funds sometimes, um,
(13:58):
just like you know, like cops and they're like person
no feeds. And if you look at like who they follow,
what right wing influencers they follow, what churches they attend,
you can don't be fooled into thinking that cops will
not enforce homophobic laws. Yeah, they love this ship like
and I mean like anyway, Um, one of one of
their stated goals is to regress on gay rights and
(14:21):
to have their version of a Christian hegemonic order enforced
by the violence of law. And here is Doyle again
saying as such at the event everything. I'm gonna read
what he actually says there in case you could not
hear it. Quote, It's going to be so fun when
(14:43):
we take away all of your rights, every single one
of them. Let's now talk about some of the people
and groups who organized this confrontation and the resulting propaganda
piece put together by the right. So one of the
main people was Kelly Newter need need Er new I
think I think what who cares? One of the yes.
(15:12):
One of the people was Kelly Kneedert, one of the
Christian fascist organizers responsible for setting up the Facebook group
for the attack on the Pride event this past weekend.
She's worked with Gropers and Proud Boys in the past
for her Young Conservative of Texas events at University of
North Texas, and is a self described quote based Christian
(15:33):
fascist her words not mine. She's also hosted a campus
event with Jeff Younger, an anti trans Republican candidate for
the Texas House of Representatives who came to prominence on
the right for attempting to block his daughter's access to
gender affirming healthcare and who ultimately failed on both accounts
good good for her Kelly's. Kelly's current project is a
(15:58):
new anti Tris hate group called Protect Texas Kids, who
she's she calls herself the executive director of, but she's
basically the main driving force behind It. Was under the
Protect Texas Kids banner that she organized the harassment attack
on the All Ages drag Show, quoting from Pizza Gate
in Every City again quote. With her new group, Nader
(16:21):
says that quote, we will host protests of clinics that
do gender firm and care for minors and school districts
slash teachers who teach lgbt Q propaganda and critical race theory.
Protect Texas Kids is a friendly sounding vehicle with which
self a ad Christian fascists in Texas can go into
(16:42):
LGBTQ community spaces armed with video and claims to be
there to investigate. All of this expands on a now
common playbook produced local events antagonizing queer and trans people,
then go on Fox News, Newsmax and other right wing
media outlets to put the videos in front of an
even broader as unquote. The other major figure is obviously
(17:04):
John Doyle, the guy we've talked about a lot this
episode so far, and we've included many audio clips of
him screaming horrible things at kids. Uh. He is the
Christian fascist leader heard saying things like every single one
of gay right should be taken away and encouraging police
to go in there and put a bullet in their heads.
I guess the parents are drag performers. He has a
(17:26):
large YouTube channel with over three hundred thousands subscribers. Don't
don't worry, Chris, It's going to get worse Christian fascists
led by both Kelly Newtert and John Doyle have been
terrorizing the University of North Texas campus for months. On
one occasion, they brought proud Boys, armed security, and a
(17:50):
technical pickup truck. Now, when I say technical, I mean
like the military style vehicle like that. It was a
technical built onto a pickup truck. So basically a massive
truck armed with a pretty pretty intense gun. That seems
not legal somehow, but it's Texas, It's it is absolutely legal.
(18:15):
I'm going to place some audio from a University of
North Texas campus event that took place last October, featuring
Doyle and his crew of fascists. I am a radicalizing
(18:44):
the un and you can do nothing, you guys. I
would play more audio, but a high pitched whistle drowns
out the rest of what he says, and I will
not subject to the audio of the whistle because it
does a fantastic job making the audio completely unlistenable, so
(19:08):
much so that very soon Doyle just like gave up
talking because the whistle did a really good job drying
about um. But for more background, Doyle, I'll quote from
a pizza gate in every city again, quote John Doyle,
who yelled about rape at children through a megaphone, has
(19:28):
organized a stop the Steel Rally with Nick Quentz. Was
a special guest at the White Nationalist America First Pack Conference,
and as the leader of a group titled the American
Populist Union, he was in audience at ae event billed
as Hitler Youth without the Hitler. Wait, so can I
(19:51):
ask the question about this? So I've heard about this event?
Did they literally write that? Yes, it was called that
by one of the organizers, Ariel, early eighteen year old
white nationalist social media influencer built as a special guest
at the camping retreat, saying, I always say these events
are Hitler youth without the Hitler. And what do I
mean by that? You have to get to the youth.
(20:13):
They claim gen Z might be the most conservative generation,
but honestly, I'm not seeing it. I mean, I guess
that's good news. But if you ignore that, if you
don't know, if you know the Hitler part that he
as well maybe the father leader. Also, Kyle Rittenhouse says
that he's a John Doyle fan. So great and we
(20:46):
are back. I'm gonna continue to quote from the Pizza
game every City article again quote given many existing media connections,
videos from the event made by far right content creators,
some confronting attendees and performers, were widely picked up across
right wing social media by people including Andy Now, Benny Johnson,
and Pizza Gate promoter Jack Sobiak, who shared a video
(21:08):
of one drag performer and instructed his followers to contact
the state's Department of Family and Protective Services. When some
of these same videos made a two Tucker Carlson's show
on Monday night, he introduced a segment by saying, just
another weekend in vine Mar, selectively airing moments when adults
yelled back at people like Doyle, accusing them of abuse,
(21:29):
or when other adults used their bodies to block men
from forcing their way into the event. All of this
was used to portray the people threatening the Pride event
as the actual victims unquote. So yeah. Less than forty
eight hours after the all Ages Drag event had begun,
it was headlining on Tucker Carlson Just Another Weekend in Weimar.
(21:51):
On Saturday, a nightclub in Dallas held an event called
Drag Your Kids to Pride. At the event, little kids
danced with drag queens and tipped them with bills. This
is grotesque. Sexualizing children always is. So there were a
small number of brave protesters outside. One of them was
our friend Alex Stein. He tried to get into the
event because it was a public event, and so he
(22:12):
was assaulted. Watch the event on June four also attracted
an assorted collection of far right media personalities or those
who aspire to be. They themselves referred to their group
of far right videographers as the quote avengers of homophobes,
among which, as mentioned by Tucker, was aspiring comedian and
(22:34):
small far right commentator Alex Stein, who was prevented entry
to the venue by event security and community defenders, or
a Sucker would say, was assaulted. Here's an audio of
that interaction. Also, I want to note that in the
video Alex Stein has a big old smirk on his
face the entire time, and I think you can actually
hear that through the way he talks free asking they're
(23:08):
preg they're not letting me in here. I canfully they're
not letting me in a game. But I thought you
guys are inclusive, right, I'm not over day like you guys,
don't think that's weird trying to danger children in that
groom all right. Some of these videographers did make it
(23:34):
inside with their cameras, shooting videos that misrepresented the drug
performances as threatening to children or acting in an inappropriate
sexual manner, all while making threatening comments of their own
online or outside in person. One who interrogated a drug
performer captioned his video quote, these groomers need to be
(23:57):
exposed for what they are. Aman who shot some video
from in the side of the venue later tweeted quote,
this summer is slaying groomers summer. Two far right members
of the self described homophobic Avengers who made it inside
the event to film kids were Taylor Hanson, who got
(24:17):
a lot of notoriety after filming the Ashley Babbit shooting
as he was participating in the storming of the capital,
similar to how Elijah Shaffer was like making the events
seem like it was this big heroic thing and then
getting a lot of press coverage off of off of
his footage. And someone else who was who was going
inside the event to film kids was Aldo but Ziani.
(24:40):
After the event, the little collection of self described Christian
fascists and their propagandists got together on Elijah Shaffer's Blaze
Media podcast to do a sort of round table report back. Now,
Elijah Shaffer was not actually on that episode. John Doyle
was filling in as the host, self self described Christian
fascist Don Doyle, but Schaefer brands himself as a classic
(25:03):
I'm gonna say Christian fascist because that's what his rhetoric means. Now,
Schaeffer himself doesn't use the word fascist, but he does
share son and rab memes on Twitter and his and
his rhetoric is indistinguishable from Doyle's, who of course Doyle
does use the word fascist, and of course Schaefer is
totally fine with having Doyle fill in as him for
host on his own show. Anyway, here is Doyle introducing
(25:27):
people on that episode, including turning point us a representative
Elizabel Riley. We also have fellow e girl, Isabella Riley
want to be and I want white confetti, Please white confetti.
She likes her confetti, how she likes her country. So anyway,
tell me what you saw, Aldough, because you got there
a little bit before I did. And now we all
had this sort of like you know, homophobic avengers assemble
(25:49):
kind of thing where everyone did their part. I knew
that I probably couldn't get in, so I just thought
that I would assemble my army of young men to
go and confront these people. But although in Isabella actually
infiltrated the event and got the viral footage that you've
probably seen if you've been watching literally any news coverage
of this event. So that podcast can be found on
YouTube and Apple podcasts just openly hosting content that's that's
(26:12):
hosted by a Christian fascist saying should about wanting a
white America. Half a million subscribers on YouTube just yep.
So this ecosystem of aspiring right wing content creators is
part of this wave of like twenty something conservative influencers.
Like twenty something that's an age, like they're all like
(26:34):
their mid twenties or something. Um. But these conservative influencers
that are trying to market like old school right wing
evangelical bigotry to young people as like a cool trad
counterculture using mim asthetics. Fundamentally, these people are attention hounds.
As they cover events like these on the ground, you
can see them smirking the entire time, even when people
(26:58):
are acting hostile to them. Like the spectacle is the
point if they're not posing an actual, like active threat.
What these far right videographers hate the most is non engagement, right,
so if if there's the ability to do non engagement,
that's what they don't like. The most annoyed these people
get is when they're met with cold, still silence, like
(27:21):
in this case with Taylor Handsome. Can you guys, can
either you guys give me any information on I mean,
how you feel about what took place in here today
and about these counter protesters. What do you guys think anything?
No words? Where about getting rid of Why do you
(27:44):
hide your face? Is it because you're committing crimes, maybe
crimes against children, So they hide their face because they're
too scared of being identified as pedophiles and groomers. So,
I mean, you see this. This is a constant reoccurrence
with antifa and with left wing anarchist groups, and they
(28:04):
all hide their face because they think they're all tough
and hard in big groups. But the minute that they're
solowed out and or actually ask questions, they have nothing
to say about their ideology, their beliefs, about the fact
that they are actually the fascist here in this situation.
So I mean, I'd really like to just get one
word out of you, ma'am, because I mean, you just
want to be so silent, but you're so vi hummiently
defending this. I mean, do you have anything to say?
(28:27):
One more chance? They know they are saying ridiculous things
like none of which reads as genuine, Like they know
the absurdity of their own replies. In their podcasts, they
talk about how disgusted they were watching people dance together,
but in their own videos they're smiling, like relaxed, excited
(28:47):
about what's going on and how they'll spend whatever is
happening to boost their career. If they were actually concerned
about children, they wouldn't be having little giggle fests will
inside events like these, right they call the child grooming event,
And they're not acting like there's anything bad happening, like
you can say like, oh, they're trying to play cool
because they're doing infiltration. Like no, they're just being chill
(29:10):
like they're they're giggling and laughing and looking like look
at this sea gay people doing these things. I can't
wait to use footage of this to boost my career
and misrepresented to a wider audience. We're in this like
post irony world in many In many aspects, the level
of sincerity does not actually matter, right. All it's necessary
is saying the lines from the script that the audience
(29:33):
wants to hear. It's like algorithmically generated politics. You can
talk about how victims of sexual abuse should themselves be
locked up so they won't go on to abuse of
the people in the future. And even though you look
at the camera at the end and give a knowing smirk,
it doesn't matter because you're just saying the things that
are gonna get traction, and you're saying the things that
your misogynist audience wants to hear. Here's the turning point.
(29:57):
USA Representative Isabelle Riley on the Bla Media podcast, who
at the end of the clip does indeed give a
very knowing look to camera and a little smirk. Should
we lock up people that I've had sexual trauma in
their childhood because they tend to become abusers in the future.
Also just a few of their notes on this on
this Blaze Media podcast. So I I listened to this
(30:20):
whole podcast like twice to get to get clips for
my coverage here and just to kind of get a
sense of what they were doing. Um what one of
the speakers on the on the podcast blamed like the
recent mass shootings on the presence of nearby sex shops. Um.
Some of the videographers who were on the show went
on to Alex Jones show the next day. You know,
(30:41):
it was it was full of pretty I mean, it
was pretty bad homophobic rhetoric, but I mean it's just
so ever present that it's hard to even selectively get
certain clips of it. Like, they were doing a lot
of work to to tie mental illness to gainness, saying
that these two things are like intrinsically linked, and that
if we just locked up more into mentally ill people
(31:02):
in institutions, we wouldn't have as many gay people. I think.
The other interesting thing that I found to be really
funny in the podcast is that for for their first
ad break, they were selling testosterone boosting supplements. So in
this in this very like anti trans like podcast, the
(31:24):
first product they were selling was supplements to boost your
natural mail to stosterone. And it's just very funny because
like they're you know, they're talking about how evil a
turkey is and how evil and irreversible it is, and
then they're also selling things that are supposed to boost
testosterone levels. Right, like we are in a post irony world.
(31:45):
It doesn't like this anyway. Here's here's one more clip
from the podcast talking about how the bigoted community is
so diverse, and you'll notice to our group was very diverse,
which I think we made this point yesterday as all
the bigoted community is so accepting. All you have to
be is also bigoted and you're allowed to hang out
with us. And so we had this nice mob of
(32:06):
well dressed, handsome young guys to go confront these people
because no one else would. All right, that is that
is enough of that um On onto our final section
of the day. So Texas based journalist Stephen Monticelli reported
that later that same night of the drag event, incidents
(32:26):
that police categorized as terroristic threats of an anti homosexual
nature were reported by bar owners in the same neighborhood.
After the event, the venue and gay bar released a
media statement saying that it's weekly drag brunches are normally
for guests who are twenty one and over, but decided
to host a special Pride drag brunch for all guests,
(32:49):
including those who can't attend other drag shows because of
the drinking age restrictions, and as a part to raise
money for a local l g b t Q youth organization,
adding that it was quote more than happy to open
our doors to celebrate pride in a family friendly, safe
environment because we believe that everyone should have a space
to be able to celebrate who they are. Unquote. I'm
(33:12):
gonna I'm gonna read another quote from uh. I think
this is this is our last quote from piece of
gate in every city. Quote the street confrontation to video
to Fox News to Republican Party pipeline took only a
little more than two days to complete. By the next Monday,
Texas Republicans state Representative Brian Slayton cited the Protect Texas
(33:35):
Kids attack on the Dallas event in his announcement to
introduce quote a bill to ban drag shows in the
presence of miners in Texas unquote. A Florida state representative
pledged to follow suit. US Representatives Marjorie Taylor Green and
Lauren Bobbert voiced their support. By then, Protect Texas Kids
had already moved on to a new target, an LGBTQ
(33:57):
affirming church that was having a service next Sunday, and
the group had already announced several more plans to protest
LGBTQ spaces this month. What we are already seeing this
Pride season is alarming, but it did not come out
of nowhere. There's a continuation of campaigns targeting drag Queen
story hours. It was fed by Republican attacks on queer
(34:19):
and trans kids in the state legislators across the country,
and it is coordinated by people on the far right
who have names and very specific movement affiliations. As these
threats continue, as they generate yet more videos of confrontations,
they may also give heft to lie that supporting lgbt
Q youth is grooming and that queer community spaces are
(34:42):
commercial settings for child abuse. No Republican would say the
pizza Gate shooter had a point, but now simply based
on videos of deliberate confrontations with kids at Pride events,
they're happy to co sign unquote. Whilemakers won't be able
to consider a Slantin's proposal on a statewide band of
kids being around drag performances until the tenth of January,
(35:08):
which is when the next Texas legislative session kicks off.
But if the no drag around miners lug it's enacted,
that could have many many ramifications depending on enforcement. One
possible scenario is not being allowed to have dray get Pride,
or people under the age of eighteen just not being
allowed to attend Pride all right, because those if you're
(35:29):
having a pride Pride and the drike performers and the
kids there, now that's a crying you're all going to jail. Um.
You could also just see this as an attempt by
Texas to recriminalize cross dressing because by and large, drag
shows and events are usually taking place at twenty one
and up bars. Right, generally unless it's the drag time storytime,
(35:50):
stuff like drags not around kids super often, right, and
including like very like non sexual dragons. That's just because
of because of how work around bars. Usually those things
don't have much crossover. But that's not what they're targeting though, right.
They just don't want gay people or men in dresses
(36:10):
to be around kids. Right. If you're seen cross dressing
while a child is nearby, now that's a drag show.
You're going to jail. And if you think a ban
on quote drag in front of children won't be applied
to just trans people existing in public. Then again, I
don't know what to tell you because depending on how
they define what drag is like, they're not limiting this
(36:33):
to like drag shows. They're talking about men in dresses
like that. That's that's what it's going to be. Because
they're targeting library events, they're targeting events in public. It's
not it's not about like drag shows with tickets and stuff.
It's about men wearing dresses or you know, in the
in the case the trans people just existing. Here, here's
(36:55):
the helm of Hublic Avengers talking about the introduced legislation
after they're little propaganda campaign. But wow, the guys, we
really did and I'm not trying to pat ourselves on
the back, but which Brian Slaton with the legislation he's
trying to put through exposing these people, we really did
take a wt in the culture battle. We didn't win
the culture warrior. I don't think I've ever seen such
(37:15):
enough I mean an after effect of an event, I
mean in positivity for us. I mean, I don't think
I've ever seen, you know, a bunch of journalists go
and expose an event like this and then have actual
legislation drafted almost immediately after. I think this is a
new sphere that we're entering in, and I think, I mean,
we got a freaking role with Yeah. I really hope
that the momentum is maintained to close off I'm gonna
(37:36):
I'm gonna riff off a point made by Stephen Moncelli.
At what point will become clear to those in media
who run quotes or use selective footage from these people
that intentionally obscure the extreme nature of their beliefs. Right,
These these are not like simple economic conservatives. However, if
contemporary mainstream conservatives are willing to accept this sort of
(37:59):
politicy x in their movement, then it's the case that
mainstream conservatism in America has become almost indistinguishable from fascism.
Much of the coverage of the protest of this Pride
event gives credibility to the fascist side, basically endorsing their
homophobic framing, positioning the drag performers as somehow inherently sexual
(38:21):
for wearing them outfits and doing dances that are in
reality more conservative than your basic high school cheerleading team.
Mainstream media and pundance and even some leftist ones quote
like quote unquote leftist pundance fell for the bait and
treated kids playing musical chairs with people in drag and
(38:41):
giving the performers cash from their parents as more inappropriate
than the mob of open fascists hurling verbal abuse at
kids and chasing them down as they head to their cars.
So that is my little rite up on what has
happened in Dallas last week. Um, they are the Protect
(39:02):
Texas Kids group is planning more and more events in
Texas for for four Pride months. It's they're they're they're
they're targeting not just events with kids, they're also targeting
twenty one and up drag brunches, they're targeting churches. They're
doing the bit right there, doing the thing, and people
(39:24):
really fell for the bait on this one. People really did. Um.
If I've seen all of the videos from the events,
there's nothing inherently sexual about these people's style of dancing.
There's nothing inherently sexual about their outfits. Right, playing with
gender isn't inherently sexual. It's playing with gender. It's those
are those are two different things? Um So, but yeah,
(39:50):
a lot of a lot of a lot of people
fell fell for the bit um. A lot of people
took the bait. We're sharing photos and being like, look
at this, how can you defend this? So I'm like,
defend what. It's people dancing, you would see, you would
see it's it's the dances are not like, they're not
about sex, they're not imitating sex acts. It's just it's
(40:14):
fun and chill um. People got really mad that there
was there was a sign at the at the venue
that was an innuendo, and there's a ice cream shop
like a block away from the venue with the very
same sign. Um, they're not actually mad about that, Like,
that's not what they're actually mad about, because you can
walk down the street and look at so many, so
(40:35):
many things there innuendoes if you want. If you watch
a Pixar movie right they're there will there will be innuendos.
That's not what they're talking about. They're talking about gay
people being around kids. And I would like for people
to stop falling for debate anyway. I'm We're gonna be
doing another episode on the City of Hate, on the
homophobic stuff in Dallas later later this week, and we're
gonna be talking about Steadfast Church I'm still writing that
(40:56):
episode at the moment, but I'm planning to put that
out later this week as well, And depending how the
Gunderline event went to Idaho and the various other things,
I'm sure we'll be talking more about this type of
stuff as as Pride goes on. So, yeah, Chris, any
thoughts on the word of ament, I just gave it
for the past forty minutes, you know, and mostly just
(41:18):
like I don't know, it's it's we. We We've somehow
managed to create a version of like the like worst
at parts of like the queer bashing two thousand's, but
like even worse because now there's there's an even larger
media cycle around it. And like, I think it's worth
mentioning that, like one of the ways that stuff ended
(41:39):
was that like a lot of people, most of them
were like like systems, straight right people. A bunch of
people who weren't queer We're just like literally fucked this
and started attacking people back. And you know, you see
the working clas neighborhoods right that there there'd be a
period of time where you have these evangelical churches who
are just you know, like openly in setting attacks on
people and how they got the ship beat out of
(42:01):
him by a bunch of working class kids and that's
when that ship stopped. And unless we fucking fight these people,
they're going to keep doing this until people start getting murdered.
And I guess I know a more positising to end
on would be saying big thank you to everyone who
showed up to physically oppose this UM. When I was
listening to the Homophobic Avengers podcast, John Doyle said that
(42:25):
there was a few points where he was scared UM.
There were some people who some some people wearing like
Pride bandanas and stuff who had handguns UM, and he
did not John Doyle did not like that. At one
point he talked about how he was heading to his
car and there was in the counter the counter demonstrators
(42:46):
were following him to make sure he was actually going
to leave UM and he saw that some of the
people were carrying UM and he freaked out. He screamed
for police and he said that these people were threatening
to shoot him UM, which is mean just an attempt
to get police to shoot the Canadams traders right like
(43:07):
it's it's it's it's just it's John Doyle screaming, these
people have guns, they're trying to shoot me, right And
even though they were, they weren't even holding their guns.
They were they were, they were, they were just having guns.
But like these people can be scared. And again, no
one was even violent against John Doyle. That was just
people who were who were carrying standing near him. UM.
(43:29):
And I just big thank you to everybody who showed
up to try to prevent these fascists from chasing down
these kids, from hurling abuse at these kids. UM. I
would recommend you follow uh the Elm Fork John Brown
Gun Club on Twitter. They did a really good job
documenting this. UM. And then for this stuff in Idaho,
(43:50):
you can follow Redoubt anti Fascists. UM. Those those would
be the two the two people I say to follow
on Twitter right now. UM for tracking these attacks on
pride in Texas and inside Idaho. UM. I guess that's
that's yeah, yeah, I guess The last thing I would
say is just like it's important to remember that unlike
(44:12):
a lot of the periods in Queer history, like these
people are actually a minority, and and like they're trying
to regress, right, like they we've already got to this
point they're trying to pull it back. Yeah, this is
kind of a new thing, but it's like but yeah,
but it's like this something like we like on unlike
the fucking seventies, Like we are actually the solent majority
here and if enough people fucking show up, and just like,
(44:34):
these people need to be framed as Yeah, I excuse
my I guess semi ablest language here, but like ideal
with my ideal, mental ideal with mental health issues of
my own. But like, these people need need to be
framed as wack us, right, they these people need need
to be framed as framed. These people need to be
framed as as crazy extremists. They need they need to
(44:56):
be belittled, they need to be put down, they need
to be they need to be viewed as as as
as pathetic as is scared. Right Like that that's the
way to do successful proprianda framing, um, because they need
to be they need to stay outside the majority, right
like they need to be mothered. That's the way to
win this, right that That's the thing they always that's
(45:17):
the thing they always try to do, right, That's why
they always try to frame gay people as being severely
mentally ill. A the time, right like that that that's
all what they try to do. And because enough of
progress has happened, we we just need to defend the
line that is already drawn. Because like like I said before, right,
like these people are not regular economic conservatives, right, but
(45:37):
if mainstream and conservatism is going to be isnt is
going to continue to accept this politics in their movement,
then mainstream conservatism will be the same as fascism. Right,
So you need to point at the people, like John
Doyle pointed, the people who call themselves Christian fascists and
be so demeaning to them, um and so making them
(45:58):
feel so separate from every part of regular social life.
And because their whole goal is to integrate themselves into
the larger conservative movement, integrate themselves into larger American politics,
and that can't happen. It could Happen Here is a
production of cool Zone Media. For more podcasts from cool
Zone Media, visit our website cool zone media dot com,
(46:20):
or check us out on the I Heart Radio app,
Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to podcasts. You can
find sources for It could Happen here, updated monthly at
cool zone media dot com. Slash sources. Thanks for listening,
Your children should be home. Your kids aren't actually gay,
you've just chromed to them. Welcome to It could have
happened here today. We are talking about something that did
happen just a few days ago, and we'll be discussing
it's possible ramifications going forward and similar subsequent attacks that
(00:34):
are most likely going to take place throughout this next month.
I'm Garrison Davis. With me is Chris Hello, Ready ready
to hear about a lot of threats of genocide and
a whole bunch of audio clips of fascists. You know, Okay,
I got I got one episode where there was like
(00:56):
a pretty clean win and like a good thing happened,
and so now I'm I'm ready to go back to
getting exterminated. This is so this this episode is going
to be kind of I don't speak German style, I
guess if if we were to compare it to another
one of our competitors in the field, Um yeah, so uh,
(01:17):
I mean, there's been a lot of threats against Pride
events over the course of the past month. There's we've
we've pointed towards some in Idaho. Uh, there has been
some in Arizona. There has been lots in Texas. By
the time this episode has dropped, the Gunda Lane event
in Idaho would have already taken place. We are recording
(01:37):
that just just before on on on June tent so
I'm unsure of how that's gone at this point. Hopefully
nothing horrible happened. Yeah, but but but if everyone dies,
that that's why we're not talking about it because it
hasn't happened yet. Oh but yeah, we're gonna be talking
about an attack on a Pride event in Dallas, Texas
(02:00):
that happened on June four, So starting starting kind of
closer to the lead up to this. On the conservative
trend setting limbs of TikTok, who now has over one
point two million followers on the Twitter account ran by
Chaia chick Uh, they started a threat titled quote Mega
(02:20):
Drag Thread. They say it's innocent. They say it's about
inclusion and acceptance. They say no one is trying to confuse, corrupt,
or sexualize kids. They lie. Increasingly many on the far
right are targeting family friendly drag events, including drag Time
story events that libraries across the country. The Gondolate event
(02:43):
in Idaho was precursored by a whole bunch of attacks
on drag story events at the libraries inside Idaho and
the very church gathering that they announced the event to
oppose the Pride on June eleven, That whole gathering at
the church was about removing lgbt Q materials from libraries
(03:06):
and targeting any drag queens who do any types of
story times. So this this over thirty tweet long thread
by lips of TikTok contained a list of drag queens,
story where flyers with dates and locations, and family friendly
or all ages drag events that had recently took place
over upcoming for Pride Month. One such event right check
(03:29):
posted about was a Pride themed family friendly drag event
that was to take place on Saturday, June four, hosted
at a gay venue in the Progressive neighborhood of Dallas, Texas.
In their post, lips of TikTok included the date and
location for the upcoming event, as well as an unrelated
picture of one of the drag performers wearing a skap
be outfit. I think right check just searched the internet
(03:51):
for a picture of this one person wearing as revealing
clothing as possible Based on the entire intimate presence and
like it's still not a nude photo. It's just like
someone like like a skimpy outfit. But anyway, you know,
you're trying to be like, this is what your kids
are gonna see, which means it's it's not, but you know,
you know the thing you're trying to do. The tweet
was shared by a new far right group called Protect
(04:14):
Texas Kids, who had also declared that they were organizing
a protest to oppose what they called a quote child
grooming event. They tweeted out the address of the venue
and called on people to join in on opposition to
the family friendly drag show. The initial limps of TikTok
tweet about the Dallas All Ages drug event raked up
(04:35):
over a thousand retweets and thousands and thousands of likes.
Less than a week later, the anti queer attacks moved
from the online sphere to the outside physical world. I
wonder if the mama bear instinct is going to come
out in three years when the mainstream Democrat party platform
and they want to rape your kids, and they're all
gonna think it's one big, smug, little joke. These people,
(04:57):
by the way, understand that there is a difference between
ten years ago and now. Then the wind be between
now and in five years when they're openly advocating for
pedophilia like they've already started doing. You people are the
symptom of a dying society, and you know it where.
(05:18):
That's John Doyle, a self described Christian fascist, standing outside
the family Friendly Drag event at nine am in the morning,
yelling through a megaphone at the families with kids lined
up to get inside the brunch event. A crowd mostly
in khaki shorts and button ups surrounded the venue, enchanted
groomer groomer as the group of men kept screaming at
(05:42):
the families stuck outside waiting on line. Kids just a
few feet away covered their ears. Amidst the screams and megaphones,
one person waved a Christian Diminianist flag. A man holding
a rosary shrieked verbal abuse at the children and parents.
The first have tried will come down very soon. What
(06:12):
was described as a quote protest immediately materialized as a
group of men and self described Christian fascists who came
to attack families at Pride, just yelling abuse at the
events attendees and staff, threatening people as they arrived and left,
and creating an actually unsafe environment for children, along with
a gaggle of far right grifting videographers who quote infiltrated
(06:36):
the event to film kids without their consent to create
viral propaganda. There was a very good article by Melissa
Geara Grant published a few days after the incident titled
a Pizza Gate in Every City, with the subheading quote
these conspiracy theories were once fringe. Now they're being fueled
(06:56):
by Republicans and driving far right anti LGBT you violence. Now.
I'm going to read a few quotes from this piece
throughout our episode today because the writer does a very
good job tying the current grooming rhetoric to the pattern
of escalating violence and conspiracism embraced by the right over
the past few years. So to quote the article, quote
(07:18):
from the idea that children inside this venue were being
abused and that such abuse was a plot by Democrats,
to the call to internet provocateurs to record their own evidence,
as well as the false claims of child rescues made
by those promoting these conspiracy theories. The attack on Mr MR,
which which was the venue that the Drike eventic placet
called to mind the same fears, if not the same
(07:41):
threat of gun violence as the assault on Comt Ping
Pong in Washington, d C. In a man motivated by
the Pizza Gate conspiracy theory arrived at the restaurant with
a rifle to quote rescue children from the non existent
sex trafficking ring supposedly orchestrated by prominent Democrats. Now a
little more than five years later, of Republicans identify as
(08:02):
believers of the Pizza Gate successor Q and on, and
the far right's capacity for street violence has grown. At
the same time, where once most elected Republican officials would
at least nominally distance themselves from Pizza Gate pushers out
on the fringe, that wall has largely eroded. Across the country.
GOP lawmakers have waged a legislative crusade targeting queer and
(08:24):
trans kids, smearing opponents as groomers, language that rhymes with
the pedophile claims that inspired the attack on Common Ping Pong,
and where once the targets of these conspiracy theories were
largely confined to select group of Democratic lawmakers and their allies,
the fearmongering amplified by Fox News and prominent conservative social
(08:45):
media accounts, is now targeting all LGBTQ people, from national
figures to members of your local community. The stage is
set for a pizza Gate in any city, and just
(09:06):
like Pizza Gate, where cases of threats of violence escalated
to the point of an attempted arson and a young
white man storming the establishment firing a rifle inside. The
homophobic and transphobic violence that is advocated or physically committed
is truly seen as like righteously justified by those who
do it, and even if those who promote it don't
(09:27):
sincerely hold those like illogical beliefs. Successful propagandists know how
to effectively frame bigoted violence as a moral imperative simply
as a way to encourage attacks on their own ideological enemies.
(09:48):
The far right conservatives and fascists who made explicit threats
of genocidal violence were not met unopposed. There was what
seems to be a mix of more official security for
the gay venue that usually functions as a bar, as
well as community defense volunteers and anti fascists who put
their body in between the fascists and the families with children.
(10:10):
Community community members wore low key Pride infected block attire,
black masks, and rainbow bandanas, with some holding trans and
queer Pride flags, which can come in handy for blocking
off unwanted persons. Not only did the community defense protect
families and attendees, but also works to protect the performers
(10:31):
who are being followed after the event was over by fascists.
The Elm Fork John Brown Gun Club did a stand
up job documenting the event as it happened and also
doing work after the fact to I d the people
who are leading the homophobic attacks. I truly believe if
there was less of a community defense effort, the day
could have gone much much uglier. And I think that's
(10:54):
a part that's worth emphasizing. Like everyone who showed up
to oppose the fast just did an amazing job. I mean,
like the it's honestly, I've I've looked at so much
footage of this day, um from the footage the fascists
were filming to the footage that the John Brown Gun
Club was putting out, and there were so many times
where people in with rainbow masks were physically preventing fascists
(11:19):
from chasing down kids. There was barely enough of them, right,
and you you would always, you would always want more
more community defenders there. But the ones who did show
up deserve much gratitude for putting their bodies on the line. Eventually,
police did show up and tried to keep some of
the conservative protesters who were screaming groomer at children on
(11:40):
one side of the street across from the venue. But
even with the cops there, self described fascists continued to
chase families as they walk with their kids to their car,
and anti fascists and counter demonstrators were the ones to
block the homophobes path to prevent them from the further
harassing kids and families, while while the counter demonstrators were
yelling the fascists to leave the kids alone. After the
(12:04):
police did arrive, Christian fascist leader John Doyle talked about
how police should quote go in there and put bullets
in their heads. They should be rewarded for it. That's
what the badges for. And now I'm gonna play a
clip of of him saying that it's a it's a
little bit hard to hear, but here's my due diligence.
(12:24):
Don't avertize everything. The sheriff so yeah, that is harkening
back to the very real history of police's willingness to
enforce homophobic laws, something that these Christian conservatives and fascists
(12:47):
want to bring back. And if you think some police
wouldn't enforce such laws, then oh boy, I don't know
what to tell you, Like, yeah, their entire job is
to enforce whatever the laws are, and lots of those up,
I'm sure don't have great opinions on gay people. So yeah,
I I know they were like like I I've had
conversations with people who were like I don't know, like sixteen, seventeen, eighteen,
(13:12):
who like you know, like who who? And I don't
want to be too hard on them. Bec's like people
who got their sort of education to queer history on
Tumbler and they'll on things like well like assist white
gay men were like never a pressed in the US,
and it's like no, like like like you, yeah, you
you you could be just assist white gay dude, and
like like really like not even really Like fifteen years ago,
(13:35):
it was pretty common for people to just like get
the ship beating out of him on the street for
being gay, and cop cops were participating in this like
regular people participating in this and this looks like what
we're heading back to, but possibly even worse. So if
you if you look around the social media feed of
many many cops, as I do for funds sometimes, um,
(13:58):
just like you know, like cops and they're like person
no feeds. And if you look at like who they follow,
what right wing influencers they follow, what churches they attend,
you can don't be fooled into thinking that cops will
not enforce homophobic laws. Yeah, they love this ship like
and I mean like anyway, Um, one of one of
their stated goals is to regress on gay rights and
(14:21):
to have their version of a Christian hegemonic order enforced
by the violence of law. And here is Doyle again
saying as such at the event everything. I'm gonna read
what he actually says there in case you could not
hear it. Quote, It's going to be so fun when
(14:43):
we take away all of your rights, every single one
of them. Let's now talk about some of the people
and groups who organized this confrontation and the resulting propaganda
piece put together by the right. So one of the
main people was Kelly Newter need need Er new I
think I think what who cares? One of the yes.
(15:12):
One of the people was Kelly Kneedert, one of the
Christian fascist organizers responsible for setting up the Facebook group
for the attack on the Pride event this past weekend.
She's worked with Gropers and Proud Boys in the past
for her Young Conservative of Texas events at University of
North Texas, and is a self described quote based Christian
(15:33):
fascist her words not mine. She's also hosted a campus
event with Jeff Younger, an anti trans Republican candidate for
the Texas House of Representatives who came to prominence on
the right for attempting to block his daughter's access to
gender affirming healthcare and who ultimately failed on both accounts
good good for her Kelly's. Kelly's current project is a
(15:58):
new anti Tris hate group called Protect Texas Kids, who
she's she calls herself the executive director of, but she's
basically the main driving force behind It. Was under the
Protect Texas Kids banner that she organized the harassment attack
on the All Ages drag Show, quoting from Pizza Gate
in Every City again quote. With her new group, Nader
(16:21):
says that quote, we will host protests of clinics that
do gender firm and care for minors and school districts
slash teachers who teach lgbt Q propaganda and critical race theory.
Protect Texas Kids is a friendly sounding vehicle with which
self a ad Christian fascists in Texas can go into
(16:42):
LGBTQ community spaces armed with video and claims to be
there to investigate. All of this expands on a now
common playbook produced local events antagonizing queer and trans people,
then go on Fox News, Newsmax and other right wing
media outlets to put the videos in front of an
even broader as unquote. The other major figure is obviously
(17:04):
John Doyle, the guy we've talked about a lot this
episode so far, and we've included many audio clips of
him screaming horrible things at kids. Uh. He is the
Christian fascist leader heard saying things like every single one
of gay right should be taken away and encouraging police
to go in there and put a bullet in their heads.
I guess the parents are drag performers. He has a
(17:26):
large YouTube channel with over three hundred thousands subscribers. Don't
don't worry, Chris, It's going to get worse Christian fascists
led by both Kelly Newtert and John Doyle have been
terrorizing the University of North Texas campus for months. On
one occasion, they brought proud Boys, armed security, and a
(17:50):
technical pickup truck. Now, when I say technical, I mean
like the military style vehicle like that. It was a
technical built onto a pickup truck. So basically a massive
truck armed with a pretty pretty intense gun. That seems
not legal somehow, but it's Texas, It's it is absolutely legal.
(18:15):
I'm going to place some audio from a University of
North Texas campus event that took place last October, featuring
Doyle and his crew of fascists. I am a radicalizing
(18:44):
the un and you can do nothing, you guys. I
would play more audio, but a high pitched whistle drowns
out the rest of what he says, and I will
not subject to the audio of the whistle because it
does a fantastic job making the audio completely unlistenable, so
(19:08):
much so that very soon Doyle just like gave up
talking because the whistle did a really good job drying
about um. But for more background, Doyle, I'll quote from
a pizza gate in every city again, quote John Doyle,
who yelled about rape at children through a megaphone, has
(19:28):
organized a stop the Steel Rally with Nick Quentz. Was
a special guest at the White Nationalist America First Pack Conference,
and as the leader of a group titled the American
Populist Union, he was in audience at ae event billed
as Hitler Youth without the Hitler. Wait, so can I
(19:51):
ask the question about this? So I've heard about this event?
Did they literally write that? Yes, it was called that
by one of the organizers, Ariel, early eighteen year old
white nationalist social media influencer built as a special guest
at the camping retreat, saying, I always say these events
are Hitler youth without the Hitler. And what do I
mean by that? You have to get to the youth.
(20:13):
They claim gen Z might be the most conservative generation,
but honestly, I'm not seeing it. I mean, I guess
that's good news. But if you ignore that, if you
don't know, if you know the Hitler part that he
as well maybe the father leader. Also, Kyle Rittenhouse says
that he's a John Doyle fan. So great and we
(20:46):
are back. I'm gonna continue to quote from the Pizza
game every City article again quote given many existing media connections,
videos from the event made by far right content creators,
some confronting attendees and performers, were widely picked up across
right wing social media by people including Andy Now, Benny Johnson,
and Pizza Gate promoter Jack Sobiak, who shared a video
(21:08):
of one drag performer and instructed his followers to contact
the state's Department of Family and Protective Services. When some
of these same videos made a two Tucker Carlson's show
on Monday night, he introduced a segment by saying, just
another weekend in vine Mar, selectively airing moments when adults
yelled back at people like Doyle, accusing them of abuse,
(21:29):
or when other adults used their bodies to block men
from forcing their way into the event. All of this
was used to portray the people threatening the Pride event
as the actual victims unquote. So yeah. Less than forty
eight hours after the all Ages Drag event had begun,
it was headlining on Tucker Carlson Just Another Weekend in Weimar.
(21:51):
On Saturday, a nightclub in Dallas held an event called
Drag Your Kids to Pride. At the event, little kids
danced with drag queens and tipped them with bills. This
is grotesque. Sexualizing children always is. So there were a
small number of brave protesters outside. One of them was
our friend Alex Stein. He tried to get into the
event because it was a public event, and so he
(22:12):
was assaulted. Watch the event on June four also attracted
an assorted collection of far right media personalities or those
who aspire to be. They themselves referred to their group
of far right videographers as the quote avengers of homophobes,
among which, as mentioned by Tucker, was aspiring comedian and
(22:34):
small far right commentator Alex Stein, who was prevented entry
to the venue by event security and community defenders, or
a Sucker would say, was assaulted. Here's an audio of
that interaction. Also, I want to note that in the
video Alex Stein has a big old smirk on his
face the entire time, and I think you can actually
hear that through the way he talks free asking they're
(23:08):
preg they're not letting me in here. I canfully they're
not letting me in a game. But I thought you
guys are inclusive, right, I'm not over day like you guys,
don't think that's weird trying to danger children in that
groom all right. Some of these videographers did make it
(23:34):
inside with their cameras, shooting videos that misrepresented the drug
performances as threatening to children or acting in an inappropriate
sexual manner, all while making threatening comments of their own
online or outside in person. One who interrogated a drug
performer captioned his video quote, these groomers need to be
(23:57):
exposed for what they are. Aman who shot some video
from in the side of the venue later tweeted quote,
this summer is slaying groomers summer. Two far right members
of the self described homophobic Avengers who made it inside
the event to film kids were Taylor Hanson, who got
(24:17):
a lot of notoriety after filming the Ashley Babbit shooting
as he was participating in the storming of the capital,
similar to how Elijah Shaffer was like making the events
seem like it was this big heroic thing and then
getting a lot of press coverage off of off of
his footage. And someone else who was who was going
inside the event to film kids was Aldo but Ziani.
(24:40):
After the event, the little collection of self described Christian
fascists and their propagandists got together on Elijah Shaffer's Blaze
Media podcast to do a sort of round table report back. Now,
Elijah Shaffer was not actually on that episode. John Doyle
was filling in as the host, self self described Christian
fascist Don Doyle, but Schaefer brands himself as a classic
(25:03):
I'm gonna say Christian fascist because that's what his rhetoric means. Now,
Schaeffer himself doesn't use the word fascist, but he does
share son and rab memes on Twitter and his and
his rhetoric is indistinguishable from Doyle's, who of course Doyle
does use the word fascist, and of course Schaefer is
totally fine with having Doyle fill in as him for
host on his own show. Anyway, here is Doyle introducing
(25:27):
people on that episode, including turning point us a representative
Elizabel Riley. We also have fellow e girl, Isabella Riley
want to be and I want white confetti, Please white confetti.
She likes her confetti, how she likes her country. So anyway,
tell me what you saw, Aldough, because you got there
a little bit before I did. And now we all
had this sort of like you know, homophobic avengers assemble
(25:49):
kind of thing where everyone did their part. I knew
that I probably couldn't get in, so I just thought
that I would assemble my army of young men to
go and confront these people. But although in Isabella actually
infiltrated the event and got the viral footage that you've
probably seen if you've been watching literally any news coverage
of this event. So that podcast can be found on
YouTube and Apple podcasts just openly hosting content that's that's
(26:12):
hosted by a Christian fascist saying should about wanting a
white America. Half a million subscribers on YouTube just yep.
So this ecosystem of aspiring right wing content creators is
part of this wave of like twenty something conservative influencers.
Like twenty something that's an age, like they're all like
(26:34):
their mid twenties or something. Um. But these conservative influencers
that are trying to market like old school right wing
evangelical bigotry to young people as like a cool trad
counterculture using mim asthetics. Fundamentally, these people are attention hounds.
As they cover events like these on the ground, you
can see them smirking the entire time, even when people
(26:58):
are acting hostile to them. Like the spectacle is the
point if they're not posing an actual, like active threat.
What these far right videographers hate the most is non engagement, right,
so if if there's the ability to do non engagement,
that's what they don't like. The most annoyed these people
get is when they're met with cold, still silence, like
(27:21):
in this case with Taylor Handsome. Can you guys, can
either you guys give me any information on I mean,
how you feel about what took place in here today
and about these counter protesters. What do you guys think anything?
No words? Where about getting rid of Why do you
(27:44):
hide your face? Is it because you're committing crimes, maybe
crimes against children, So they hide their face because they're
too scared of being identified as pedophiles and groomers. So,
I mean, you see this. This is a constant reoccurrence
with antifa and with left wing anarchist groups, and they
(28:04):
all hide their face because they think they're all tough
and hard in big groups. But the minute that they're
solowed out and or actually ask questions, they have nothing
to say about their ideology, their beliefs, about the fact
that they are actually the fascist here in this situation.
So I mean, I'd really like to just get one
word out of you, ma'am, because I mean, you just
want to be so silent, but you're so vi hummiently
defending this. I mean, do you have anything to say?
(28:27):
One more chance? They know they are saying ridiculous things
like none of which reads as genuine, Like they know
the absurdity of their own replies. In their podcasts, they
talk about how disgusted they were watching people dance together,
but in their own videos they're smiling, like relaxed, excited
(28:47):
about what's going on and how they'll spend whatever is
happening to boost their career. If they were actually concerned
about children, they wouldn't be having little giggle fests will
inside events like these, right they call the child grooming event,
And they're not acting like there's anything bad happening, like
you can say like, oh, they're trying to play cool
because they're doing infiltration. Like no, they're just being chill
(29:10):
like they're they're giggling and laughing and looking like look
at this sea gay people doing these things. I can't
wait to use footage of this to boost my career
and misrepresented to a wider audience. We're in this like
post irony world in many In many aspects, the level
of sincerity does not actually matter, right. All it's necessary
is saying the lines from the script that the audience
(29:33):
wants to hear. It's like algorithmically generated politics. You can
talk about how victims of sexual abuse should themselves be
locked up so they won't go on to abuse of
the people in the future. And even though you look
at the camera at the end and give a knowing smirk,
it doesn't matter because you're just saying the things that
are gonna get traction, and you're saying the things that
your misogynist audience wants to hear. Here's the turning point.
(29:57):
USA Representative Isabelle Riley on the Bla Media podcast, who
at the end of the clip does indeed give a
very knowing look to camera and a little smirk. Should
we lock up people that I've had sexual trauma in
their childhood because they tend to become abusers in the future.
Also just a few of their notes on this on
this Blaze Media podcast. So I I listened to this
(30:20):
whole podcast like twice to get to get clips for
my coverage here and just to kind of get a
sense of what they were doing. Um what one of
the speakers on the on the podcast blamed like the
recent mass shootings on the presence of nearby sex shops. Um.
Some of the videographers who were on the show went
on to Alex Jones show the next day. You know,
(30:41):
it was it was full of pretty I mean, it
was pretty bad homophobic rhetoric, but I mean it's just
so ever present that it's hard to even selectively get
certain clips of it. Like, they were doing a lot
of work to to tie mental illness to gainness, saying
that these two things are like intrinsically linked, and that
if we just locked up more into mentally ill people
(31:02):
in institutions, we wouldn't have as many gay people. I think.
The other interesting thing that I found to be really
funny in the podcast is that for for their first
ad break, they were selling testosterone boosting supplements. So in
this in this very like anti trans like podcast, the
(31:24):
first product they were selling was supplements to boost your
natural mail to stosterone. And it's just very funny because
like they're you know, they're talking about how evil a
turkey is and how evil and irreversible it is, and
then they're also selling things that are supposed to boost
testosterone levels. Right, like we are in a post irony world.
(31:45):
It doesn't like this anyway. Here's here's one more clip
from the podcast talking about how the bigoted community is
so diverse, and you'll notice to our group was very diverse,
which I think we made this point yesterday as all
the bigoted community is so accepting. All you have to
be is also bigoted and you're allowed to hang out
with us. And so we had this nice mob of
(32:06):
well dressed, handsome young guys to go confront these people
because no one else would. All right, that is that
is enough of that um On onto our final section
of the day. So Texas based journalist Stephen Monticelli reported
that later that same night of the drag event, incidents
(32:26):
that police categorized as terroristic threats of an anti homosexual
nature were reported by bar owners in the same neighborhood.
After the event, the venue and gay bar released a
media statement saying that it's weekly drag brunches are normally
for guests who are twenty one and over, but decided
to host a special Pride drag brunch for all guests,
(32:49):
including those who can't attend other drag shows because of
the drinking age restrictions, and as a part to raise
money for a local l g b t Q youth organization,
adding that it was quote more than happy to open
our doors to celebrate pride in a family friendly, safe
environment because we believe that everyone should have a space
to be able to celebrate who they are. Unquote. I'm
(33:12):
gonna I'm gonna read another quote from uh. I think
this is this is our last quote from piece of
gate in every city. Quote the street confrontation to video
to Fox News to Republican Party pipeline took only a
little more than two days to complete. By the next Monday,
Texas Republicans state Representative Brian Slayton cited the Protect Texas
(33:35):
Kids attack on the Dallas event in his announcement to
introduce quote a bill to ban drag shows in the
presence of miners in Texas unquote. A Florida state representative
pledged to follow suit. US Representatives Marjorie Taylor Green and
Lauren Bobbert voiced their support. By then, Protect Texas Kids
had already moved on to a new target, an LGBTQ
(33:57):
affirming church that was having a service next Sunday, and
the group had already announced several more plans to protest
LGBTQ spaces this month. What we are already seeing this
Pride season is alarming, but it did not come out
of nowhere. There's a continuation of campaigns targeting drag Queen
story hours. It was fed by Republican attacks on queer
(34:19):
and trans kids in the state legislators across the country,
and it is coordinated by people on the far right
who have names and very specific movement affiliations. As these
threats continue, as they generate yet more videos of confrontations,
they may also give heft to lie that supporting lgbt
Q youth is grooming and that queer community spaces are
(34:42):
commercial settings for child abuse. No Republican would say the
pizza Gate shooter had a point, but now simply based
on videos of deliberate confrontations with kids at Pride events,
they're happy to co sign unquote. Whilemakers won't be able
to consider a Slantin's proposal on a statewide band of
kids being around drag performances until the tenth of January,
(35:08):
which is when the next Texas legislative session kicks off.
But if the no drag around miners lug it's enacted,
that could have many many ramifications depending on enforcement. One
possible scenario is not being allowed to have dray get Pride,
or people under the age of eighteen just not being
allowed to attend Pride all right, because those if you're
(35:29):
having a pride Pride and the drike performers and the
kids there, now that's a crying you're all going to jail. Um.
You could also just see this as an attempt by
Texas to recriminalize cross dressing because by and large, drag
shows and events are usually taking place at twenty one
and up bars. Right, generally unless it's the drag time storytime,
(35:50):
stuff like drags not around kids super often, right, and
including like very like non sexual dragons. That's just because
of because of how work around bars. Usually those things
don't have much crossover. But that's not what they're targeting though, right.
They just don't want gay people or men in dresses
(36:10):
to be around kids. Right. If you're seen cross dressing
while a child is nearby, now that's a drag show.
You're going to jail. And if you think a ban
on quote drag in front of children won't be applied
to just trans people existing in public. Then again, I
don't know what to tell you because depending on how
they define what drag is like, they're not limiting this
(36:33):
to like drag shows. They're talking about men in dresses
like that. That's that's what it's going to be. Because
they're targeting library events, they're targeting events in public. It's
not it's not about like drag shows with tickets and stuff.
It's about men wearing dresses or you know, in the
in the case the trans people just existing. Here, here's
(36:55):
the helm of Hublic Avengers talking about the introduced legislation
after they're little propaganda campaign. But wow, the guys, we
really did and I'm not trying to pat ourselves on
the back, but which Brian Slaton with the legislation he's
trying to put through exposing these people, we really did
take a wt in the culture battle. We didn't win
the culture warrior. I don't think I've ever seen such
(37:15):
enough I mean an after effect of an event, I
mean in positivity for us. I mean, I don't think
I've ever seen, you know, a bunch of journalists go
and expose an event like this and then have actual
legislation drafted almost immediately after. I think this is a
new sphere that we're entering in, and I think, I mean,
we got a freaking role with Yeah. I really hope
that the momentum is maintained to close off I'm gonna
(37:36):
I'm gonna riff off a point made by Stephen Moncelli.
At what point will become clear to those in media
who run quotes or use selective footage from these people
that intentionally obscure the extreme nature of their beliefs. Right,
These these are not like simple economic conservatives. However, if
contemporary mainstream conservatives are willing to accept this sort of
(37:59):
politicy x in their movement, then it's the case that
mainstream conservatism in America has become almost indistinguishable from fascism.
Much of the coverage of the protest of this Pride
event gives credibility to the fascist side, basically endorsing their
homophobic framing, positioning the drag performers as somehow inherently sexual
(38:21):
for wearing them outfits and doing dances that are in
reality more conservative than your basic high school cheerleading team.
Mainstream media and pundance and even some leftist ones quote
like quote unquote leftist pundance fell for the bait and
treated kids playing musical chairs with people in drag and
(38:41):
giving the performers cash from their parents as more inappropriate
than the mob of open fascists hurling verbal abuse at
kids and chasing them down as they head to their cars.
So that is my little rite up on what has
happened in Dallas last week. Um, they are the Protect
(39:02):
Texas Kids group is planning more and more events in
Texas for for four Pride months. It's they're they're they're
they're targeting not just events with kids, they're also targeting
twenty one and up drag brunches, they're targeting churches. They're
doing the bit right there, doing the thing, and people
(39:24):
really fell for the bait on this one. People really did. Um.
If I've seen all of the videos from the events,
there's nothing inherently sexual about these people's style of dancing.
There's nothing inherently sexual about their outfits. Right, playing with
gender isn't inherently sexual. It's playing with gender. It's those
are those are two different things? Um So, but yeah,
(39:50):
a lot of a lot of a lot of people
fell fell for the bit um. A lot of people
took the bait. We're sharing photos and being like, look
at this, how can you defend this? So I'm like,
defend what. It's people dancing, you would see, you would
see it's it's the dances are not like, they're not
about sex, they're not imitating sex acts. It's just it's
(40:14):
fun and chill um. People got really mad that there
was there was a sign at the at the venue
that was an innuendo, and there's a ice cream shop
like a block away from the venue with the very
same sign. Um, they're not actually mad about that, Like,
that's not what they're actually mad about, because you can
walk down the street and look at so many, so
(40:35):
many things there innuendoes if you want. If you watch
a Pixar movie right they're there will there will be innuendos.
That's not what they're talking about. They're talking about gay
people being around kids. And I would like for people
to stop falling for debate anyway. I'm We're gonna be
doing another episode on the City of Hate, on the
homophobic stuff in Dallas later later this week, and we're
gonna be talking about Steadfast Church I'm still writing that
(40:56):
episode at the moment, but I'm planning to put that
out later this week as well, And depending how the
Gunderline event went to Idaho and the various other things,
I'm sure we'll be talking more about this type of
stuff as as Pride goes on. So, yeah, Chris, any
thoughts on the word of ament, I just gave it
for the past forty minutes, you know, and mostly just
(41:18):
like I don't know, it's it's we. We We've somehow
managed to create a version of like the like worst
at parts of like the queer bashing two thousand's, but
like even worse because now there's there's an even larger
media cycle around it. And like, I think it's worth
mentioning that, like one of the ways that stuff ended
(41:39):
was that like a lot of people, most of them
were like like systems, straight right people. A bunch of
people who weren't queer We're just like literally fucked this
and started attacking people back. And you know, you see
the working clas neighborhoods right that there there'd be a
period of time where you have these evangelical churches who
are just you know, like openly in setting attacks on
people and how they got the ship beat out of
(42:01):
him by a bunch of working class kids and that's
when that ship stopped. And unless we fucking fight these people,
they're going to keep doing this until people start getting murdered.
And I guess I know a more positising to end
on would be saying big thank you to everyone who
showed up to physically oppose this UM. When I was
listening to the Homophobic Avengers podcast, John Doyle said that
(42:25):
there was a few points where he was scared UM.
There were some people who some some people wearing like
Pride bandanas and stuff who had handguns UM, and he
did not John Doyle did not like that. At one
point he talked about how he was heading to his
car and there was in the counter the counter demonstrators
(42:46):
were following him to make sure he was actually going
to leave UM and he saw that some of the
people were carrying UM and he freaked out. He screamed
for police and he said that these people were threatening
to shoot him UM, which is mean just an attempt
to get police to shoot the Canadams traders right like
(43:07):
it's it's it's it's just it's John Doyle screaming, these
people have guns, they're trying to shoot me, right And
even though they were, they weren't even holding their guns.
They were they were, they were, they were just having guns.
But like these people can be scared. And again, no
one was even violent against John Doyle. That was just
people who were who were carrying standing near him. UM.
(43:29):
And I just big thank you to everybody who showed
up to try to prevent these fascists from chasing down
these kids, from hurling abuse at these kids. UM. I
would recommend you follow uh the Elm Fork John Brown
Gun Club on Twitter. They did a really good job
documenting this. UM. And then for this stuff in Idaho,
(43:50):
you can follow Redoubt anti Fascists. UM. Those those would
be the two the two people I say to follow
on Twitter right now. UM for tracking these attacks on
pride in Texas and inside Idaho. UM. I guess that's
that's yeah, yeah, I guess The last thing I would
say is just like it's important to remember that unlike
(44:12):
a lot of the periods in Queer history, like these
people are actually a minority, and and like they're trying
to regress, right, like they we've already got to this
point they're trying to pull it back. Yeah, this is
kind of a new thing, but it's like but yeah,
but it's like this something like we like on unlike
the fucking seventies, Like we are actually the solent majority
here and if enough people fucking show up, and just like,
(44:34):
these people need to be framed as Yeah, I excuse
my I guess semi ablest language here, but like ideal
with my ideal, mental ideal with mental health issues of
my own. But like, these people need need to be
framed as wack us, right, they these people need need
to be framed as framed. These people need to be
framed as as crazy extremists. They need they need to
(44:56):
be belittled, they need to be put down, they need
to be they need to be viewed as as as
as pathetic as is scared. Right Like that that's the
way to do successful proprianda framing, um, because they need
to be they need to stay outside the majority, right
like they need to be mothered. That's the way to
win this, right that That's the thing they always that's
(45:17):
the thing they always try to do, right, That's why
they always try to frame gay people as being severely
mentally ill. A the time, right like that that that's
all what they try to do. And because enough of
progress has happened, we we just need to defend the
line that is already drawn. Because like like I said before, right,
like these people are not regular economic conservatives, right, but
(45:37):
if mainstream and conservatism is going to be isnt is
going to continue to accept this politics in their movement,
then mainstream conservatism will be the same as fascism. Right,
So you need to point at the people, like John
Doyle pointed, the people who call themselves Christian fascists and
be so demeaning to them, um and so making them
(45:58):
feel so separate from every part of regular social life.
And because their whole goal is to integrate themselves into
the larger conservative movement, integrate themselves into larger American politics,
and that can't happen. It could Happen Here is a
production of cool Zone Media. For more podcasts from cool
Zone Media, visit our website cool zone media dot com,
(46:20):
or check us out on the I Heart Radio app,
Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to podcasts. You can
find sources for It could Happen here, updated monthly at
cool zone media dot com. Slash sources. Thanks for listening,
It Could Happen Here News
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Robert Evans
Garrison Davis
James Stout
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