BOISE, Idaho (AP) — As hate speech targeting LGBTQ people rises among some far-right influencers and others online, experts warn extremist groups may view the rhetoric as a call to action.
That may have been the case when 31 members of the neo-Nazi group Patriot Front were arrested Saturday in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, and charged with conspiracy to riot at a Pride event, said Sophie Bjork-James, an assistant professor in Idaho. anthropology at Vanderbilt University who studies the white nationalist movement, racism, and hate crime in the US. The arrests came as a poisonous concoction of anti-LGBTQ rhetoric in Idaho and elsewhere.
“There is a very clear link between normalizing this hateful content and extremist groups trying to mobilize it into hateful actions,” she said. “We can see a direct relationship between the spectrum of anti-LGBT rhetoric from state houses to these extremist groups.”
Domestic extremist groups see conservatives as potential allies, Bjork-James said, and they have found that anti-LGBTQ sentiment is one of the easiest ways to “build a broader coalition among the radical right.”
“Unfortunately, I think it’s a strategy that works,” she said.
Last month, a fundamentalist pastor in Idaho told his small congregation in Boise that gays, lesbians and transgenders should be executed by the government. Another fundamentalist preacher in Texas gives similar sermons.
Representative Heather Scott, a Republican lawmaker in Idaho, recently told an audience that drag queens and other LGBTQ supporters are waging a “war of perversion against our children.” And last week, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis said he would consider sending child protection services to investigate parents who take their children to drag shows.
The Department of Homeland Security warned last week that white nationalists and supremacists are using social media platforms like Instagram, Telegram and TikTok to present a skewed framing of divisive issues like abortion, guns and LGBTQ rights, potentially allowing extremists to take public places in the US in the coming months.
Online court records don’t yet show whether the Patriot Front members have been given attorneys. All were released from prison after paying $300 bail, and court dates have yet to be set for the felony charges.
Thomas Rousseau, a 23-year-old from Grapevine, Texas, has been identified by the Southern Poverty Law Center as the founder of the Patriot Front and was among those arrested. He did not immediately respond to an email requesting comment.
According to police, the men boarded a U-Haul truck wearing balaclavas and riot gear, with plans to start a riot in the park where families, children and supporters had gathered to celebrate the LGBTQ community. Those arrested were from at least 11 states, including Illinois, Arkansas and Virginia.
Coeur d’Alene Police Chief Lee White said Monday that his agency had received nearly 150 calls since the arrests, split evenly between those thanking officers for averting a riot and those angry about the arrests. Many of the calls included death threats, Lee said, and some came from as far away as Norway.
Jennifer McCoy, a political science professor at Georgia State University, said that when people with influence, such as political figures, sports or entertainment stars, religious leaders or media figures, engage in rhetoric against specific groups, supporters may interpret it as a call to action. .
“This can happen regardless of the intent or specific wording of the message, and is common in highly polarized contexts as the US currently experiences,” McCoy wrote in an email Monday.
For Bree Latimer, a 22-year-old trans woman from Boise, the news of the arrests was alarming. Even in Boise, one of the most progressive cities in scarlet Idaho, harassment or hostility is a daily risk, Latimer said. Just last week, the Boise Police Department launched an investigation after dozens of pride flags were stolen or damaged from a scenic neighborhood boulevard for the second year in a row.
“I always wonder when I walk past people in the aisles of the supermarket – do they know I’m trans? If they do, are they going to say something? Are they going to follow me to the parking lot? Will I become a groomer called it or something? It’s just living in constant fear,” Latimer said.
She gets frustrated when people call the anti-LGBTQ rhetoric a “culture war,” saying it feels much more ominous.
“That reduces what we go through. We have a feeling that a trans-genocide is almost imminent,” Latimer said. “They want us to lose access to our hormone therapy, to stop talking to trans youth – they want you to be so unhappy with your life that you kill yourself. And now the hate speech gets even scarier.”
Still, she tries to focus on her computer science degree at Boise State University. On weekends, she plays board games with friends or occasionally goes downtown for an evening.
“Being trans is a big part of my identity, but it’s certainly not everything,” Latimer said. “Still, the reality is that being transgender in America right now is scary.”
Northern Idaho has long been associated with extremist groups, especially the Aryan nations, which were often in the news in the 1990s. The area attracted disaffected people after white supremacist Richard Butler moved there from California in 1973.
After the heyday of the Aryan Nations, many local officials tried to disconnect the region from extremism. But in recent years, some politicians, civic leaders and real estate agents have bragged about Northern Idaho’s conservatism to attract like-minded people.
At a news conference Monday, Coeur d’Alene mayor Jim Hammond said the city is no longer a place of hatred.
“We are not going back to the days of the Aryan nations. We are beyond that,” he said.
Scott, the Northern Idaho legislator who said drag queens are waging a “war of perversion” against children, did not respond to an email request for comment.
Elsewhere in the country, authorities in the San Francisco Bay Area are investigating a possible hate crime after a group of men allegedly shouted anti-LGBTQ statements during Drag Queen Story Hour at the San Lorenzo Library over the weekend.
