WEBVTT - The Tenacious Unicorn Ranch: How to Build a Haven, Part 1: The Siege 0:00:00.080 --> 0:00:02.880 Hi, everyone, it's James. I just wanted to explain why 0:00:03.000 --> 0:00:05.119 you're only going to hear my voice in the first episode, 0:00:05.120 --> 0:00:07.160 but you're going to hear Garrison in the other episodes 0:00:07.200 --> 0:00:09.920 as well. And that's because I went into Natius Unicorn 0:00:10.000 --> 0:00:12.640 Ranch twice, once during the period that we're going to 0:00:12.720 --> 0:00:16.280 call the siege, and once again in the summer. And 0:00:16.360 --> 0:00:18.599 so the part that only I experienced only I'm going 0:00:18.640 --> 0:00:20.200 to talk about. We felt that was the most honest 0:00:20.200 --> 0:00:21.759 way to do it. I hope you enjoy it. I 0:00:21.800 --> 0:00:28.720 have worked on this for a very long time. Hard 0:00:28.720 --> 0:00:31.920 scrabbled pass in southern Colorado in the winter. It's not 0:00:32.000 --> 0:00:34.200 where you'd expect to start a story that's fundamentally about 0:00:34.200 --> 0:00:37.159 the Internet, but it's where a four wheel slid a 0:00:37.159 --> 0:00:40.360 rental car in the spring of If you remember, back then, 0:00:40.840 --> 0:00:44.199 Biden had just been inaugurated, some chads had stormed the capitol, 0:00:44.640 --> 0:00:49.120 and vaccines were gradually being administered across the country. Less remarkably, 0:00:49.240 --> 0:00:51.680 frontier rail lines are taken forever to find my damn bag, 0:00:51.880 --> 0:00:55.280 and I was trying to get there before dark about 0:00:55.280 --> 0:00:57.680 a week before it's in a tweet, I thought that 0:00:57.760 --> 0:00:59.520 this is a Nature's Unicorn Ranch because I grew up 0:00:59.520 --> 0:01:02.760 as a farm who didn't really slide quite as easily 0:01:02.760 --> 0:01:06.320 as others did into the supermatcho stuff, and I certainly 0:01:06.360 --> 0:01:10.280 didn't slide anywhere near conservative politics. What the ranches were 0:01:10.319 --> 0:01:13.480 doing building a queer haven and anarchistyle pack of farming 0:01:13.560 --> 0:01:16.320 co op inspired me. I've been missing country life a 0:01:16.319 --> 0:01:18.679 lot during the pandemic, and they wanted to get out 0:01:18.720 --> 0:01:22.360 onto the ranch. But that wasn't really why I was 0:01:22.400 --> 0:01:25.120 driving an appropriate, rittle car through a white out. I 0:01:25.200 --> 0:01:27.560 was doing that because I've seen this tweet, and that 0:01:27.640 --> 0:01:30.679 tweet said there ranches under attack and they needed help. 0:01:31.240 --> 0:01:35.120 The tenacious Unicorn Ranches under attack by local biggots and militia. 0:01:35.440 --> 0:01:38.800 They have threatened violence publicly to us and those that 0:01:38.880 --> 0:01:42.360 help or associate with us. They have encroached on our property, 0:01:42.480 --> 0:01:45.400 armed at night, with the intent to harm those of 0:01:45.480 --> 0:01:48.440 us that live here. We need help. That's where the 0:01:48.520 --> 0:01:51.000 story starts for me. It's where the story starts for 0:01:51.040 --> 0:01:53.360 a few characters you're going to hear this week, but 0:01:53.560 --> 0:01:56.400 it's not where the story really starts. It starts with 0:01:56.440 --> 0:01:59.760 Penelope log we'll call Penny, working at a big box 0:01:59.760 --> 0:02:03.760 store dealing with increasing transphobia both online and in person 0:02:04.120 --> 0:02:07.080 in the early Trump era. Penny's a veteran and a 0:02:07.160 --> 0:02:09.800 country girl, and she was looking to get out of 0:02:09.800 --> 0:02:13.040 the city along with her partner's Canton Gin. She decided 0:02:13.080 --> 0:02:15.960 to rent some land and set up Founding Rescued Our Packers. 0:02:16.560 --> 0:02:20.600 So we started in Livermore, Colorado, which is on the 0:02:20.639 --> 0:02:23.919 whole entire other side of the state. UM, And it 0:02:24.040 --> 0:02:28.360 really was a reaction to what was happening to the 0:02:28.440 --> 0:02:32.200 queer community, UM, not only locally, but kind of what 0:02:32.280 --> 0:02:35.679 we were seeing nationally. Went about two years into the 0:02:35.720 --> 0:02:39.080 Trump presidency where things were just getting really bleak and 0:02:39.160 --> 0:02:43.960 dire for the majority of people that we hung out with. UM. 0:02:44.400 --> 0:02:46.520 We we were originally going to try to like just 0:02:47.440 --> 0:02:51.600 make a make a bus that was roadworthy and we 0:02:51.639 --> 0:02:53.960 could live in and just kind of be nomadic, but 0:02:54.040 --> 0:02:56.720 we couldn't really on board and help other people that way. 0:02:56.760 --> 0:02:58.360 Like that was really just like it would have been 0:02:58.360 --> 0:03:01.160 hard to have the cats we had. Yeah, we also 0:03:01.440 --> 0:03:03.480 like even at that point we had like four cats, 0:03:03.480 --> 0:03:06.079 so it was two three cats whatever at the time, 0:03:06.120 --> 0:03:09.959 but still too many umbo young dogs and whatever. So 0:03:09.960 --> 0:03:12.960 so we uh so I had always wanted to do 0:03:13.000 --> 0:03:16.480 a homestead, and I grew up farming and ranching, so 0:03:16.560 --> 0:03:19.440 it was very natural for me. Um, And so we 0:03:19.520 --> 0:03:23.000 found a ramp that we could rent and livermore Um 0:03:23.080 --> 0:03:27.960 and knee cat and gen Um just uh kind of 0:03:27.960 --> 0:03:30.959 set out to start somewhere. So that was a haven 0:03:31.040 --> 0:03:34.880 for queer people, um, but also a home for us. 0:03:35.000 --> 0:03:37.680 You know. It turned out the United States didn't something 0:03:37.680 --> 0:03:41.800 given alt pack of crisis. The animals were once extremely fashionable, 0:03:42.000 --> 0:03:44.400 and herds popped up over the West in the nineteen eighties. 0:03:45.120 --> 0:03:47.800 Now that generation about pacer ranches are aging out of 0:03:47.800 --> 0:03:50.320 the hard physical labor that makes about every day on 0:03:50.360 --> 0:03:53.200 a ranch, and there are packers are often left to 0:03:53.240 --> 0:03:56.680 their own devices. The unicorns, as the people in the 0:03:56.760 --> 0:03:59.800 valley called them, adopt these al packers, which are often 0:03:59.840 --> 0:04:02.080 to elected, and care for them. They re feed them 0:04:02.080 --> 0:04:04.440 slowly so they would't die from the blow that comes 0:04:04.440 --> 0:04:09.440 from refeeding too fast, and they sell their fiber as yah. Gradually, 0:04:09.920 --> 0:04:13.040 with a ton of hard work and a growing community, 0:04:13.520 --> 0:04:17.160 they built their ranch into a sustainable operation. But as 0:04:17.160 --> 0:04:21.560 the herd grew and their unfortunate rental agreement became clearer, 0:04:22.160 --> 0:04:25.000 they decided they needed a different ranch, and so they 0:04:25.000 --> 0:04:28.039 moved across the state to Westcliffe and it was a 0:04:28.080 --> 0:04:32.200 rented ranch that we were trying to rent their own. 0:04:32.240 --> 0:04:35.840 We thought we were renting their own actually um, and 0:04:35.880 --> 0:04:39.440 then that rug got pulled out from underneath us, like 0:04:39.480 --> 0:04:41.560 they just they just when we went to purchase it, 0:04:41.560 --> 0:04:44.920 they were just like, no, you haven't been renting, going, 0:04:45.000 --> 0:04:47.200 you've just been renting. And we were in an additional 0:04:47.279 --> 0:04:52.960 hundred thousand dollars, So it was like, yeah, we had 0:04:53.000 --> 0:04:56.360 to move right as COVID was getting bad in America. 0:04:56.520 --> 0:05:00.200 So like March of that was fun. It was it 0:05:00.279 --> 0:05:02.960 was the worst and best move all at the same time, 0:05:03.200 --> 0:05:06.560 because the roads were fucking empty, like if quarantine was 0:05:06.600 --> 0:05:09.120 in full effects, so the roads were empty. So we 0:05:09.120 --> 0:05:12.040 were traveling with trailers full of animals on empty roads. 0:05:12.360 --> 0:05:15.680 And then after like the restrictions lightened and we got 0:05:15.720 --> 0:05:17.599 used to what like the normal traffic flow was, we 0:05:17.640 --> 0:05:21.479 were like fuck this, like but it was cool, like 0:05:21.800 --> 0:05:24.480 having everything shut down. We couldn't like the big problem 0:05:24.560 --> 0:05:28.040 was we couldn't rent anything because every rental place had 0:05:28.080 --> 0:05:31.719 shut down, and so the really it was like the 0:05:31.839 --> 0:05:35.880 beginnings of like the community for for us right. It 0:05:35.920 --> 0:05:38.560 was like we taped friends and you know, comrades to 0:05:38.600 --> 0:05:41.280 how social media. Yeah, and everybody really stepped up and 0:05:41.360 --> 0:05:43.559 helped with that move. So it was it was cool 0:05:44.080 --> 0:05:47.000 West Casts where I met them. It's a beautiful town 0:05:47.000 --> 0:05:49.719 in the sound grade to Christo's. In the summer, it's 0:05:49.760 --> 0:05:52.000 full of tourists taking weekend trip to the mountains and 0:05:52.040 --> 0:05:55.760 eating ice cream. And in the winter it's quiet, snow covered, 0:05:56.640 --> 0:06:02.479 beautiful and absolutely freezing. In March, I drove through the 0:06:02.520 --> 0:06:04.720 town in the afternoon and what I figured was an 0:06:04.760 --> 0:06:08.640 inconspicuous man. Everyone else who visited the ranch that month 0:06:08.680 --> 0:06:11.360 and picked up a tail. Aside from a few strange looks, 0:06:11.360 --> 0:06:14.680 I think I got through, okay. I took a long, 0:06:14.800 --> 0:06:17.800 lonely winding road through the valley and then turned down 0:06:17.800 --> 0:06:20.880 a dirt road towards the ranch. Penny met me at 0:06:20.880 --> 0:06:23.680 the gate in a plate carrier with a rifle. We 0:06:23.800 --> 0:06:26.800 briefly hugged, and then I quickly parked my car outside. 0:06:26.839 --> 0:06:29.000 That don't that the grown queer community at the ranch 0:06:29.080 --> 0:06:34.039 called home. It was a profoundly strange experience. Inside the 0:06:34.080 --> 0:06:37.520 house was full of warmth, conversation and laughter, people enjoying 0:06:37.520 --> 0:06:40.440 each other's company and enjoying being out of the biting 0:06:40.440 --> 0:06:44.320 wind and snow. Outside was cold. We wore plate carriers, 0:06:44.320 --> 0:06:47.520 and the ranches carried long guns. I carried a camera 0:06:47.640 --> 0:06:51.520 and go pro and a kniffac and then dressed in 0:06:51.560 --> 0:06:54.040 battle rattle. We broke the eyes on the art pack 0:06:54.080 --> 0:06:56.679 of drinking tanks and tried to stop the recently adopted 0:06:56.680 --> 0:07:00.520 animals from re feeding too quickly. I walked and talk 0:07:00.600 --> 0:07:03.400 with Penny and j another of the unicorns, whose story 0:07:03.440 --> 0:07:07.240 will get you later, about the stress that the increasing 0:07:07.279 --> 0:07:11.120 threats to them had had on them. But first we 0:07:11.160 --> 0:07:14.800 met the animals. We have sheeps, we have goats, We 0:07:14.880 --> 0:07:19.559 have of course alpaca. We have ducks and chickens um 0:07:20.120 --> 0:07:25.680 day to day, five Pyrenees which are life stock guardian dogs, 0:07:26.480 --> 0:07:34.840 and a couple of blue heelers rescues um and my 0:07:34.920 --> 0:07:43.840 dog Starbuck, and oh yeah, eight cats. Um, But the 0:07:43.920 --> 0:07:47.880 vast vast majority are the alpacas. It might sound a delic, 0:07:47.960 --> 0:07:50.640 and in many ways it is a dilic, But the 0:07:50.640 --> 0:07:53.200 work on the ranch never stops, and sick al packet 0:07:53.320 --> 0:07:56.960 need tending to almost constantly, even during the seats, which 0:07:56.960 --> 0:07:59.960 we will get too soon, I promise there was a 0:08:00.080 --> 0:08:02.800 lot of volunteers could help with, but animal husbandry wasn't 0:08:02.800 --> 0:08:06.240 on the list. So even after long night's patrolling their ranch, 0:08:06.840 --> 0:08:09.640 cold and afraid, Penny and j often had to take 0:08:09.640 --> 0:08:12.440 it in terns looking after old animals with blow let's. 0:08:12.480 --> 0:08:16.000 They labored to breathe. Here's one that I recorded, m 0:08:16.200 --> 0:08:18.400 can you set that down? Help me stand her up, 0:08:18.400 --> 0:08:19.800 because we're just gonna see if we can give her 0:08:19.840 --> 0:08:29.119 to walk, all right, if you'll run it, okay, I yeah, 0:08:31.680 --> 0:08:41.600 there you are there, you are there, you go. My 0:08:41.679 --> 0:08:46.960 felts are perfect. Good. Next up, they can set it 0:08:46.960 --> 0:08:53.920 in there. Gotta walk, baby, that's part of this. I 0:08:54.120 --> 0:08:59.880 know that's part of this through Okay, okay, okay, oh baby, 0:09:00.600 --> 0:09:08.960 I can't do that. It's all right, laugh it's sorry. Well, 0:09:09.000 --> 0:09:11.040 if you're not gonna walk, my love, I gotta do this. 0:09:12.440 --> 0:09:25.080 I know it hurts. Yeah, okay, let's get you crush. Yeah, 0:09:25.400 --> 0:09:41.280 it's okay. There, that's Cooper sounded like there was a 0:09:41.320 --> 0:09:45.520 little bit more movement. Yeah. I'm getting the feeling that 0:09:45.559 --> 0:09:47.800 they probably didn't even start asking for help until the 0:09:48.679 --> 0:09:50.720 we guess thought they heard was actually dying in the 0:09:50.720 --> 0:09:53.320 old field. The story about how we got from a 0:09:53.360 --> 0:09:56.360 thriving and happy ran community built on the anarchist principle 0:09:56.360 --> 0:09:59.600 of mutual aid and solidarity to what the Unicorns called 0:09:59.600 --> 0:10:03.080 the seat. If the story it's about lies, bigger tree, 0:10:03.320 --> 0:10:05.840 and the Internet, but it's hard to think about those 0:10:05.840 --> 0:10:08.199 things too much of the ranch, because in the two 0:10:08.240 --> 0:10:12.479 trips I've taken I felt nothing but incredible sense of love, solidarity, 0:10:12.480 --> 0:10:16.360 and supportive community. If you've engage with the story of 0:10:16.360 --> 0:10:19.720 the ranch at all, perhaps following Tenation's Unicorn Ranch online, 0:10:20.280 --> 0:10:23.360 it's probably because of the siege. But I don't want 0:10:23.400 --> 0:10:25.679 this to be storied. It's just about guns, bigger tree, 0:10:25.679 --> 0:10:28.280 and community defense. I also wanted to be a story 0:10:28.280 --> 0:10:31.520 about how long before the stiege began, the community at 0:10:31.520 --> 0:10:34.160 the Sana's Unicorn Ranch realized that nobody was coming to 0:10:34.200 --> 0:10:46.760 save them, and so they decided to save themselves. They 0:10:46.840 --> 0:10:52.440 were they want to kill us, and they yeah, but 0:10:52.520 --> 0:10:57.120 when we like call it out, you know, um, I, hey, 0:10:57.200 --> 0:11:00.760 stop killing us, not even like fuck of just hey, like, 0:11:00.800 --> 0:11:08.600 did you just like lay off the whole killing us thing? 0:11:08.760 --> 0:11:18.400 You fucking fun half like fucking unsympathetic victim screaming trainings forgot? 0:11:18.440 --> 0:11:23.160 All right? So no, the anther, no, you can't stop killing. Excellent, 0:11:24.559 --> 0:11:27.880 Maybe time to get guns now. The day I slip 0:11:27.880 --> 0:11:30.160 slid my way across hard scrabbled past in my not 0:11:30.240 --> 0:11:32.880 so trusty nous and our mirror with the same day 0:11:33.000 --> 0:11:35.720 that the gunman walked into a supermarket in Boulder, Colorado 0:11:36.320 --> 0:11:39.520 and killed ten people with an a R pistol. My 0:11:39.600 --> 0:11:41.959 social media feed was filled with the sadly all two 0:11:41.960 --> 0:11:44.400 common reactions to these, all two common mass murders that 0:11:44.440 --> 0:11:48.800 happen in this country. But the next day I saw 0:11:48.800 --> 0:11:51.040 people flooding gun shops in the fear that the state 0:11:51.080 --> 0:11:55.280 would begin enforcing to gun control laws. It didn't. As 0:11:55.280 --> 0:11:57.800 I edit this draft, another young man with another gun 0:11:58.240 --> 0:12:01.120 has walked into a gay bar in Colorado Springs, about 0:12:01.120 --> 0:12:04.480 an hour from the ranch. It's an intensely conservative city. 0:12:04.640 --> 0:12:07.920 The host focus on the family. You'll know by now 0:12:07.960 --> 0:12:10.000 that the club queue shooting result in the death of 0:12:10.040 --> 0:12:13.320 five people, including two trans people, and in your twenty 0:12:13.400 --> 0:12:16.360 one more, I'll be honest with you, it felt a 0:12:16.400 --> 0:12:19.120 bit weird driving through Colorado to write a story about 0:12:19.120 --> 0:12:22.319 guns was broadly positive, and in a sense it still 0:12:22.360 --> 0:12:26.280 does today. But the reason this story about guns is positive, 0:12:26.400 --> 0:12:28.640 really has very little to do with guns and everything 0:12:28.679 --> 0:12:32.400 to do with people. It's really a surly about solidarity 0:12:32.600 --> 0:12:35.360 what it is about a R fifteen, But some people 0:12:35.360 --> 0:12:37.280 will never get part of the A R fifteen enough 0:12:37.320 --> 0:12:40.599 to see that. In case you missed it or you 0:12:40.640 --> 0:12:42.360 caught one of the reports at the time that seemed 0:12:42.360 --> 0:12:44.320 to skim over the fact that the ranch is around. 0:12:45.000 --> 0:12:46.880 We should give an account of the siege up top 0:12:46.920 --> 0:12:50.600 here so you understand what happened. Understanding why it happened, 0:12:51.000 --> 0:12:53.640 that's another episode. So for now, just to understand. It's 0:12:53.640 --> 0:12:55.920 some boomer's log in to their social media and the 0:12:56.040 --> 0:13:00.120 queer elimination rhetoric we've reported so much about overlap with 0:13:00.160 --> 0:13:02.199 their small community in a valley in the Soengreade to 0:13:02.240 --> 0:13:06.280 Cristo Mountains, and this was a result. Things started, as 0:13:06.320 --> 0:13:09.400 they often do these days, online, with a throwaway comment 0:13:09.440 --> 0:13:12.800 about a parade in town. The girls didn't really know 0:13:12.880 --> 0:13:15.160 that they had moved into the reddest county in Colorado 0:13:15.600 --> 0:13:18.240 at the time. Lauren Bobot was that congress person. But 0:13:19.080 --> 0:13:21.520 soon they started to get an idea of what some people, 0:13:21.920 --> 0:13:24.520 pretty small minority of people as it turned down, thought 0:13:24.520 --> 0:13:28.960 about them. So It started on Facebook, like honestly, like 0:13:29.320 --> 0:13:32.120 we started seeing more comments and people getting weird about it, 0:13:32.400 --> 0:13:35.720 and then there was literally to this day, I will 0:13:35.720 --> 0:13:38.800 still say it was a fascist fucking parade. You're talking 0:13:38.800 --> 0:13:44.760 about July, they had a fascism, Like the local fascist 0:13:44.800 --> 0:13:49.520 did a fascism And we observed this by accident because 0:13:49.520 --> 0:13:51.960 we were like, oh, parade, that doesn't sound interesting, but 0:13:52.040 --> 0:13:54.319 we did go into town to get some coffee and 0:13:54.440 --> 0:13:58.640 ran smack into a fascist parade and and fascist and 0:13:58.720 --> 0:14:04.120 what what sort of like so fascist in the most 0:14:04.240 --> 0:14:08.280 like like direct way that there was Christian nationalist flags, 0:14:08.360 --> 0:14:13.120 three percent flags, Confederate flags carried by armed white people 0:14:13.559 --> 0:14:16.720 screaming about the government and the Libs and the queers. 0:14:16.760 --> 0:14:19.760 Like it was a they did a fashion there's that 0:14:19.760 --> 0:14:21.720 one guy with a shirt that says I know things 0:14:21.760 --> 0:14:26.920 and own guns or something like that and shooting and 0:14:26.960 --> 0:14:30.120 shoot things yeah, um and so like it was a 0:14:30.320 --> 0:14:38.520 overtly hard right sponsored parade that was supposed to be 0:14:39.040 --> 0:14:41.600 like hard like that, like it was like set up 0:14:41.640 --> 0:14:45.000 as a protest because of the COVID restrictions. They weren't 0:14:45.080 --> 0:14:48.200 letting people have a parade, and this was their answer 0:14:48.320 --> 0:14:51.840 to that. Um, and so really all we did was 0:14:51.920 --> 0:14:55.080 call that out on Twitter. We're like, wow, Like, there's 0:14:55.120 --> 0:14:57.720 a fashist parade in West Clifton. We'll come back to 0:14:57.720 --> 0:15:01.320 this parade next episode. It's organized by a local newspaper, 0:15:01.360 --> 0:15:03.920 which is, to be perfectly frank the most batchit, crazy, 0:15:03.960 --> 0:15:06.640 boom and brain worm thing I've ever seen in print. 0:15:07.680 --> 0:15:10.440 It was an open carry event where malicious from across 0:15:10.440 --> 0:15:13.800 the US come to open carry unloaded guns for reasons 0:15:13.800 --> 0:15:18.720 that we can't really pin down. Soon. The unicorns calling 0:15:18.720 --> 0:15:22.240 out the parade on Twitter set keyboard fingers clicking. I've 0:15:22.240 --> 0:15:25.960 said fingers here, but these people give off a distinct 0:15:26.000 --> 0:15:29.160 single finger typing vibe if I'm honest. We started. The 0:15:29.280 --> 0:15:33.680 first thing that we noticed was the tails. We started 0:15:33.680 --> 0:15:39.720 getting tailed from points that everybody that we were very 0:15:39.760 --> 0:15:45.120 public about frequenting, like Peregrine Coffee and Chappie's. We started 0:15:45.120 --> 0:15:51.800 getting picking up tails from those points routinely. Um, and 0:15:51.880 --> 0:15:55.800 that so like people like following you, yeah, yeah, not 0:15:56.040 --> 0:15:59.480 very covertely in the same three vehicles. And they wouldn't 0:15:59.480 --> 0:16:02.160 just follow us anyone that they figured out knew us. Yes, 0:16:02.400 --> 0:16:05.440 anybody that announced on any social media platform that they 0:16:05.480 --> 0:16:08.520 were coming to see us. They would then follow and 0:16:08.560 --> 0:16:13.480 then it really got it became super into the physical 0:16:13.520 --> 0:16:17.600 world when nine News, well nine News did a piece 0:16:17.640 --> 0:16:21.080 on us in which the Sheriff's department came up because 0:16:21.160 --> 0:16:24.080 they were mass reporting us for animal abuse. A lot 0:16:24.160 --> 0:16:26.400 of the harassment came from a website you're probably familiar 0:16:26.440 --> 0:16:28.760 with now, but maybe you wouldn't have been back then. 0:16:29.280 --> 0:16:32.320 It might have been farms and locals. You don't have 0:16:32.400 --> 0:16:34.960 to say their names, yeah, if we could blank out. 0:16:38.600 --> 0:16:40.320 But it's one of those things where like sis, people 0:16:40.400 --> 0:16:42.760 don't even know that Kwie Farms exists, and more people 0:16:42.760 --> 0:16:46.360 need to fucking now because it's it's it's ridiculous harass. 0:16:46.600 --> 0:16:48.080 We've done a couple of episodes. I don't want to 0:16:48.080 --> 0:16:49.680 give them attention, but like I don't know, I don't 0:16:49.680 --> 0:16:53.200 know whatever you think is best. Yeah, it's an entire 0:16:53.600 --> 0:16:57.160 forum dedicated to harassing Frans people that get any sort 0:16:57.160 --> 0:16:59.600 of popularity, ruining their lives as best they can with 0:16:59.640 --> 0:17:02.040 his stay did goal of making trans people kill themselves. 0:17:02.400 --> 0:17:04.920 And it's there's a lot of members like like like 0:17:04.920 --> 0:17:07.199 like notable turfs are part of it, like like like 0:17:07.280 --> 0:17:09.800 everyone has found this website now and people need to 0:17:09.800 --> 0:17:12.360 know it at least existed, and it's a truly awful 0:17:12.560 --> 0:17:15.560 cesspool of They spent all of their time obsessing over that. 0:17:16.440 --> 0:17:19.000 It seems like it's worth naming them, but please save 0:17:19.040 --> 0:17:21.160 yourself the time and don't click over there. It's nothing good. 0:17:21.800 --> 0:17:34.960 Soon things got more real. A local news report who 0:17:34.960 --> 0:17:37.040 covered the rude you've got apostle with a white powder 0:17:37.080 --> 0:17:39.800 in it. That powder wasn't deadly, but it was a 0:17:39.840 --> 0:17:43.199 real threat. Soon that threat came to the ranch, the 0:17:43.280 --> 0:17:46.240 nine news reporter. Thing happened, and then we started getting 0:17:47.119 --> 0:17:52.760 like warnings from people that were monitoring chat rooms, Like 0:17:52.840 --> 0:17:56.400 they were like, oh, hey, like the chatter about y'all 0:17:56.400 --> 0:18:01.119 has skyrocketed, and like it is blatant, like people making 0:18:01.240 --> 0:18:03.840 plans to burn your home down and kill you, like, 0:18:04.680 --> 0:18:07.399 and locals started warning us that like, hey, this has 0:18:07.440 --> 0:18:09.720 happened before you got to get ready. This is real. 0:18:10.040 --> 0:18:14.000 Don't have pea, like, don't be predensiti about this, Like 0:18:14.040 --> 0:18:17.399 we're being serious, And so me and Jay started for 0:18:17.480 --> 0:18:23.160 about two weeks, we were walking patrols around the perimeter. 0:18:24.080 --> 0:18:27.280 The unicorns are afraid, so they took steps to defend themselves. 0:18:27.960 --> 0:18:29.879 Lots of the people that they ranch, like Jen and 0:18:29.960 --> 0:18:32.240 Cat you can hear anything interview, didn't want to carry guns. 0:18:33.240 --> 0:18:36.399 Penny and j had some military experience and they knew 0:18:36.400 --> 0:18:39.120 how to use and carry guns. So every night they 0:18:39.119 --> 0:18:42.919 set out walking the perimeter to what for intruders on 0:18:42.960 --> 0:18:46.120 their property line patrols. They realized that there were people 0:18:46.119 --> 0:18:48.760 out there at the night looking back at them. That 0:18:48.920 --> 0:18:51.400 night is when me and Jay came back from that 0:18:51.760 --> 0:18:55.880 and put out a very whole heartfelt cry on Twitter, 0:18:56.359 --> 0:18:58.640 like we don't know what the funk to do. We're 0:18:58.800 --> 0:19:04.040 terrified and any help would be amazing. They were armed 0:19:04.080 --> 0:19:06.120 at this point, but they weren't ready for a gunfight. 0:19:06.119 --> 0:19:09.919 That's a very different thing. Sadly, though, the gunfight they 0:19:09.920 --> 0:19:11.920 weren't ready for wasn't going to wait until they were 0:19:12.440 --> 0:19:16.480 yeah armed, um rudimentally armed by the way, like Jay 0:19:16.560 --> 0:19:19.120 had a hunting rifle, no a shotgun at that point, 0:19:20.320 --> 0:19:25.040 Um and I had my springfield a r U and 0:19:25.119 --> 0:19:28.240 so we scared them off. But like that made it 0:19:28.359 --> 0:19:31.200 like clear and present for us, and so we put 0:19:31.200 --> 0:19:34.720 a heartfelt call out onto Twitter. Um and although was 0:19:34.800 --> 0:19:37.679 up here like the next day and caught people on 0:19:37.720 --> 0:19:41.320 the property that night, like it was armed people on 0:19:41.359 --> 0:19:45.800 the property, multiple people. Altho arrived the next day, spread 0:19:45.840 --> 0:19:49.240 on by that same tweet I'd seen. This isn't his voice, 0:19:49.560 --> 0:19:52.639 but they are his words. We wouldn't say too much 0:19:52.640 --> 0:19:55.119 about him other than that he has significant experience with 0:19:55.200 --> 0:19:57.760 this kind of thing, and he spent his own time 0:19:57.800 --> 0:20:00.399 and money to drive across the west to help some 0:20:00.480 --> 0:20:02.760 queer folks he'd never met. He just wanted to raise 0:20:02.760 --> 0:20:05.400 our package, and he left the funk alone. I saw 0:20:05.440 --> 0:20:08.000 a post on Twitter from someone else boosting the original 0:20:08.040 --> 0:20:11.400 Tenacious Unicorn ranch plea for help. I reached out to them, 0:20:11.520 --> 0:20:13.840 and after some back and forth and letting them vet me, 0:20:14.119 --> 0:20:16.000 we agreed I would drive down to help them out. 0:20:16.840 --> 0:20:18.679 I took a little time to do some map studies 0:20:18.680 --> 0:20:22.000 of the area and confirm some suspicions about local law enforcement. 0:20:22.359 --> 0:20:24.480 The sheriff at the time had publicly spoken at and 0:20:24.600 --> 0:20:28.320 supported oath Keepers rallies as a keynote speaker, alongside Stewart Rhodes, 0:20:28.440 --> 0:20:30.880 as well as other prominent oath keepers and three per centers. 0:20:31.280 --> 0:20:33.000 The cops haven't ever been much of an option in 0:20:33.080 --> 0:20:35.400 keeping marginals people safe, but this was on a whole 0:20:35.440 --> 0:20:38.320 other level. I called some people to tell them I 0:20:38.359 --> 0:20:41.040 was heading to its nacous unicorn ranch for accountability's sake. 0:20:41.359 --> 0:20:43.480 At the time, I was binging an unhealthy amount of 0:20:43.520 --> 0:20:45.480 letter Kenny, And when one of them asked me why 0:20:45.520 --> 0:20:48.160 I was driving six to seven hours to help total strangers, 0:20:48.359 --> 0:20:50.640 the first thing I thought was when a friend asked 0:20:50.640 --> 0:20:53.080 for help, you help them all. They gave us his 0:20:53.119 --> 0:20:55.679 account of what happens. Again, for everyone's safety, were not 0:20:55.680 --> 0:20:59.720 going to use his voice. But that night he patrolled 0:20:59.720 --> 0:21:01.639 the mentor, often nearly being run off the road on 0:21:01.680 --> 0:21:03.840 the way to the rug. He said, at first, when 0:21:03.840 --> 0:21:05.320 he saw at a tweet, he thought Penny and j 0:21:05.440 --> 0:21:08.840 were of reacting. But after that tale, and after what 0:21:08.920 --> 0:21:11.960 happened that night, he knew something very strange was going on. 0:21:12.800 --> 0:21:15.520 So on arrival at the hard Pack road off the highway, 0:21:15.560 --> 0:21:17.200 there were two cars on the other side of the 0:21:17.240 --> 0:21:20.080 highway from the intersection, backed in with their headlights off. 0:21:20.440 --> 0:21:22.800 There's an old Durango and a truck that I couldn't 0:21:22.800 --> 0:21:24.680 make the model of on the other side of that Durango. 0:21:25.320 --> 0:21:28.479 Once I turned down the road, probably two yards after turning, 0:21:28.520 --> 0:21:30.240 I looked back and saw one of them turn on 0:21:30.280 --> 0:21:32.959 their headlights and started gaining on me until they were tailgating. 0:21:33.560 --> 0:21:35.199 I started to slow and pull over to see if 0:21:35.240 --> 0:21:37.199 they would pass, and they slowed and stuck with me. 0:21:37.720 --> 0:21:40.040 I had a suspicion about the two cars initially, and 0:21:40.080 --> 0:21:42.840 this was confirmation. I can't really see how fast we 0:21:42.880 --> 0:21:45.119 started going, but I know it was significant enough that 0:21:45.160 --> 0:21:47.199 I was starting to oversteer and lose traction on the 0:21:47.200 --> 0:21:49.720 back end of my car on turns. I knew Penny 0:21:49.720 --> 0:21:51.840 and the rest were waiting at the property gate, so 0:21:51.880 --> 0:21:54.280 I signaled Penny to say, hey, I got a tail 0:21:54.520 --> 0:21:56.880 keep the gate locked. You'll see me driving by. Tell 0:21:56.920 --> 0:22:00.000 me what vehicle is following me. The vehicle slowed down 0:22:00.040 --> 0:22:01.879 we approached the gate, so it appeared they may have 0:22:01.880 --> 0:22:04.520 been anticipating me to do the same. Once I passed 0:22:04.560 --> 0:22:06.919 the gate, they continued to follow. It turns out it 0:22:06.960 --> 0:22:08.880 was the Drangle, which I later found out had been 0:22:08.880 --> 0:22:10.800 doing drive byes of the property of the past couple 0:22:10.840 --> 0:22:14.280 of days. The Draga quickly realized what all those doing 0:22:14.600 --> 0:22:17.639 and pursued him pasture rog further down that snowy do it. 0:22:17.760 --> 0:22:20.800 Right after I passed the ranch, I accelerated a little 0:22:20.800 --> 0:22:22.879 more to create some distance and drove to a spot 0:22:22.920 --> 0:22:24.280 that I had seen on the map on the way 0:22:24.320 --> 0:22:26.680 down that looked like I could effectively turn around without 0:22:26.680 --> 0:22:29.480 extra maneuvering. As I turned around, they had closed the 0:22:29.480 --> 0:22:32.119 gap and started to slow. Once they were pulling up 0:22:32.160 --> 0:22:33.880 next to me, I turned my high loom and carry 0:22:33.960 --> 0:22:36.280 light on them to at least disorient or over stimulate 0:22:36.320 --> 0:22:38.800 them with bright white light and try to catch faces. 0:22:39.359 --> 0:22:41.480 The windows had a dark tent, so it was not feasible. 0:22:42.080 --> 0:22:44.560 My other goal was trying to convey I see you 0:22:44.720 --> 0:22:48.919 and I have the advantage without actually visually threatening them. 0:22:49.080 --> 0:22:51.040 The driver had been rolling their window down until I 0:22:51.080 --> 0:22:53.560 put that light in the window, then immediately stopped and 0:22:53.600 --> 0:22:56.200 rolled it back up. At that point, it was apparently 0:22:56.280 --> 0:22:58.040 enough to make them decide it wasn't worth it and 0:22:58.080 --> 0:23:00.600