Morning Briefing: Patriot Front, Proud Boys, and Neo-Nazis Target LGBTIQ Affirming Church in Texas
White Supremacists and far right anti-LGBTIQ activist, including Patriot Front, Proud Boys, and Neo-Nazis, targeted an LGBTIQ affirming Christian church outside of Houston, Texas
Morning Briefing: White Supremacists and far right anti-LGBTIQ activist targeted an LGBTIQ affirming Christian church outside of Houston, Texas, and “exhibited extreme outrage against the church holding a drag queen bingo fundraiser to benefit Transparent Closet, a free clothing boutique for disadvantaged transgender youth.”
Ronald Lee Murray, vice president of the White Supremacists neo-fascist 14 First Foundation, was among several White Supremacists and far right anti-LGBTIQ activists that attended the “protest against a drag queen bingo event” in Katy, Texas.
Murray is behind the widespread distribution of racists propaganda and White Supremacists recruitment flyers in Texas neighborhoods, and has claimed they are intended to encourage White people “to stand up and not allow the genocide and brutalities that are occurring to the white community at the hands of minorities.”
The protest, which took place outside of First Christian Church, also reportedly included members of the Proud Boys and Patriot Front.
Several Republican candidates around the country that have promoted the conspiracy theory of widespread voter fraud during the 2020 presidential election “are now scrubbing and revising these claims, both walking them back in public and trying to delete them from their websites.”
Giorgia Meloni’s victory “as the leader of a right-wing coalition, would make Italy the latest European country after Sweden to see a far-right party win power, months after Marine Le Pen staged a strong challenge to President Emmanual Macron in France.”
Must Reads
Jasper Jackson , Niamh McIntyre , Misbah Khan , Antoaneta Roussi , Selase Kove-Seyram report that “attempts by the US Christian right to export anti-reproductive health and abortion beliefs globally are well documented. But, unusually, CitizenGO incorporates an activist element of Russian Orthodox adherents with close ties to sanctioned oligarchs. The group was founded in 2013 by Ignacio Arsuaga, a far-right Madrid lawyer. He had previously established HazteOir to promote a hardline Christian agenda in Spain, but CitizenGO was built for a global crusade. The organisation’s key link to Russian oligarchs is Alexey Komov, who has served as a board member and is a leading campaigner against abortion and LGBTQ+ rights in Russia. He has made no secret of his aims, or where his support comes from.” [The Bureau of Investigative Journalism]
Jen Kirby writes that “Giorgia Meloni and her far-right Fratelli d’Italia are expected to lead a far right victory in Italian elections this weekend. That win, if it happens, would come shortly after the far-right Sweden Democrats won the second-largest share of the vote, helping to oust the center-left from power and giving the far right a potential role in the next government. These shifts are happening as Europe enters another precarious moment: a war on the continent that is increasingly unpredictable, and an inflation and energy crisis that will deepen as winter approaches. The politics of Sweden, in northern Europe, and Italy, in the south, are very different, and the historical origins and reasons for the far right’s recent successes in each of those countries are unique. But, the far right shares certain trends across Europe — and, really, the globe. What is happening in Sweden, and Italy, is not all that different from what is happening in Brazil, or India, or the United States of America.” [Vox]
Annika Brockschmidt and Thomas Lecaque write that “in a cynical way, trans people provide an easier target for right-wing ideologues—because they’re a far smaller group and less well known, they’re easier to demonize. It’s a coordinated attack that some have called genocidal in nature: It endangers the lives of trans people and those who care for them—and it’s only a question of time before health care providers or clinics are physically attacked as well. The Christian Right is copying a series of playbooks in their attacks against the trans community, one of which, at the risk of falling prey to Godwin’s Law, is Nazi-era attacks against trans people. Germany had been the center of transgender publications and advocacy in the Weimar Republic, and Berlin was considered the ‘undisputed gay capital of the world’ until the rise of the Nazis. Active person-to-person violence, like the assaults by neo-Nazi groups on Pride events, is part of it, but it has many more components with Nazi-era echoes.” [Religion Dispatches]
What to expect from Radical Reports: Morning Briefing provides a daily round-up of reporting on the Radical Right; Extremist Links offers a weekly round-up of extremists activities including the white supremacist and militia movements; Research Desk provides monthly highlights research and analysis from academia on the Radical Right; Field Notes delivers research on key organizations and analysis of the strategies and tactics of the Radical Right.