City of Hate: The Fascist Attack on Dallas Pride

a whole bunch of audio clips of fascists. You know, Okay, I got I got one episode where there was like 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, 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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, 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.

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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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

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. 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. 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 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

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

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

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 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.

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 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, 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, 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, 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 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 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. 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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.

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

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 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 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

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. 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

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 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, 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. 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 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 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 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 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 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 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. 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

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 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 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 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 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 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

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 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 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? 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 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 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 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. 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 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, 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 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 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.

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 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 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, 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 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 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 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 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

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, 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 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, 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 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

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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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

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, 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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. 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,

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 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, 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 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 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 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 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, 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,