Far right groups shift focus to LBGTQ events. Their hateful aim hasn't changed

[Jilly_in_VA]

Two incidents in which far-right extremists targeted LGBTQ events earlier this month marked what appeared to be a shift in focus for white supremacist activists.

A group of men with ties to the white nationalist Patriot Front was arrested outside a Pride event in Coeur D'Alene, Idaho. The same day, alleged members of the far-right Proud Boys crashed a children's drag queen storytelling event and shouted homophobic and transphobic slurs, in what Alameda, Calif., sheriffs are now investigating as a possible hate crime.

Earlier iterations of Patriot Front and the Proud Boys were among the neo-Nazi factions who sought to intimidate the Charlottesville, Va., community at the "Unite the Right" rally in 2017.

So, why would members of a white supremacist group — many of whom, in the case of the Idaho event, had traveled from other states — choose to target a local Pride event?

Extremism researchers say the far-right activists are seizing on an opportunity of heightened attention around cultures that they have always seen as a threat to their hateful interests. And the particular events the extremists chose to target that Saturday had in recent weeks drawn negative attention among the far-right online networks that fuel their hate activism.

https://www.npr.org/2022/06/20/1106112160/patriot-front-extremists-lbgtq-pride

I think they're just going after what they think are "soft targets" with no one to defend them. Wait till they find out some of these folks are also armed.

[Ocelot II]

1. They needed some new people to hate.

Hating Black people, immigrants, Muslims, Jews, women, poor people, liberals, teachers and epidemiologists was so last year.

[SWBTATTReg]

2. Thing is today, w/ society (overwhelming so) accepting (or acceptance) of LBGTQ values,

these thugs will be overwhelming outnumbered hence why they are finding low attended events, so they won't get picked on or beat up on (as they should be), coming in to mouth off their filthy language in front of children no less.

They should be hit w/ a hate crime charge (all of them) as this is exactly what it is, hate crimes.

[SoonerPride]

3. I was attacked and nearly killed outside a gay bar in 1985

These people haven't changed their stripes and never will.

They are exactly the same as their parents and their grandparents.

Racist, homophobic, white nationalist, xenophobes.

Their hate is a smorgasbord and they move from one appetizer to an entree to dessert and back again nonstop.

[msongs]

4. republican party patriot front called activists? shame on npr nt

[Initech]

5. The hate in this country is really getting out of control.

I personally blame a certain news network for escalating it.

[IngridsLittleAngel]

6. Note to NPR: These are domestic terrorists, not "activists"

That'd be like calling the lunatics behind January 6 "activists."

As far as the shitshow we're watching unfold now... The QOP and reich-wing media have worked so hard in 2022 to make the LGBTQ community the ultimate enemies. So of course the mindless drones with more guns than brains now think it's okay to terrorize and kill us.

This is what happens when these fuckers "other" people they don't like. And in my time I've never seen a group "othered" the way LGBTQ's have been this year. Hundreds of bills. Nonstop hate from "leaders" and the media. "Groomers." It just never fucking stops.

I'm so tired of waking up with dread, worrying I'll check here and see a Pride event shot up or blown up with multiple fatalities... While the QOP laughs, the reich-wing media says "You deserved it" and the "mainstream" media like CNN tries to "both sides" it.

This has gone beyond a joke (not that it was ever a joke). This has gone beyond a "culture war" (not that it was ever a culture war). This is rapidly spinning toward violence and murder - all because a pack of stupid whiny incels can't handle the fact not everyone is cishet.

[vercetti2021]

7. Soft targets?

Hardly. And you're right. I'm one of these LGBTQ that carries. Some asshole wants to fucking target me. They are in for a huge ass surprise

[Jilly_in_VA]

8. I didn't say they WERE

I said the reich wingers think they are. Big difference. And good on you for carrying. I hope more of those they think are "soft targets" start carrying. Everywhere. They can find out the hard way that it's all fun and games until it's not.