Thread by @UR_Ninja

NEW: Noisy Philly Counter-Demo Challenges 'TERFs' at Independence Hall [article + video]
unicornriot.ninja/2022/noisy-phi…
Unicorn Riot interviewed nearly a dozen hoarse but spirited attendees.

Full video premiering now: Philly Noise Demo Confronts 'TERFs' at Independence Hall [4K] (29min)

On Sunday, November 13, a hundred-plus counter-demonstrators tried to drown out about 30 protesters who were demonstrating against transgender people's access to medical transitions #TransAwarenessWeek
29min video premiering now:

Philadelphia Police and U.S. National Park Service Park Rangers separated the crowds using bicycle police and portable barricades. Inside the barricades, several men, mostly masked up concealing their identities, paced around and eyed the crowd; widely suspected to be Proud Boys

Unicorn Riot interviewed nearly a dozen hoarse but spirited attendees.
We heard about why consider noisy counter-demonstrations strategically significant, & how US elections largely—but not entirely—refuted anti-transgender politicians & messages.
29min:

Some interviewees believed that @JohnFetterman, the current lieutenant governor of Pennsylvania, who will soon be seated as a U.S. senator, would protect their rights. unicornriot.ninja/2022/noisy-phi…

Another interviewee said that democracy and electoralism create situations where groups are enabled to spread messages about taking away rights from transgender people. No arrests transpired during our time observing the event.

The marquee anti-trans speaker was British activist Kellie-Jay Keen Minshull, who has also been known by the name “Posie Parker.” Keen Minshull appeared on a podcast with white nationalist French Canadian Jean-Francois Gariepy. (via @PinkNews )

@PinkNews An ardent ‘white ethnostate’ supporter, Gariepy has made videos with key Neo-Nazis including Richard Spencer, David Duke and Mark Collett. Several Philadelphia counter-demonstrators highlighted this connection between Keen & Duke, although they have not appeared side-by-side.

@PinkNews Connections between “gender-critical feminists” like Keen and far-right white supremacists have been turning up for years, and the far-right has tried to leverage opposition to transgender rights to expand its movement. wehuntedthemammoth.com/2019/10/16/tra… (h.t @DavidFutrelle )

@PinkNews @DavidFutrelle In 2019 Keen Minshull praised high-profile English racist ‘Tommy Robinson’ of the English Defense League who has been supported by the Philadelphia-based think tank Middle East Forum, The Guardian reported in 2018. theguardian.com/uk-news/2018/d…

@PinkNews @DavidFutrelle After the anti-trans protesters left #Philly's #IndependenceHall area, they were forced to leave the nearby Khyber Pass Pub by employees who became aware of their bigoted views. (h.t. @ErinInTheMorn )

https://twitter.com/ErinInTheMorn/status/1591998696086212608

@PinkNews @DavidFutrelle @ErinInTheMorn The Khyber Pass Pub “is a punk and metal institution … they aren’t to be fucked with by bigots and fascist[s],” one observer @pyhtila79 noted.

https://twitter.com/pyhtila79/status/1591999385784975361

@PinkNews @DavidFutrelle @ErinInTheMorn @pyhtila79 TERFs in the Big Apple; arrests follow. The following day, on November 14, a similar rally with Keen Minshull transpired in New York City. The NYPD’s anti-protest Strategic Response Group took aggressive actions to break up the counter-demonstration.

@PinkNews @DavidFutrelle @ErinInTheMorn @pyhtila79 Local street reporter @AshAgony documented NYC events in a video thread 👇👇 Ash noted the presence of key NYPD officers including “copaganda minister” Sgt. Carlos Nieves from NYPD DCPI, and another frequent officer at protests, Rodney Rosado.

https://twitter.com/AshAgony/status/1592267956511277058

Strategic Response Group (SRG) was created after #OccupyWallStreet in 2015, and civil society groups have long called attention to its mission which conflates protest policing and counter-terrorism. nyclu.org/en/publication…

FULL: Noisy Philly Counter-Demo Challenges ‘TERFs’ at Independence Hall
unicornriot.ninja/2022/noisy-phi…
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