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