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Dec 3 • 9 tweets • 3 min read
Lotta eyes on the fascist circus in Columbus, OH, this morning, so I'm going to spotlight a few other places where protests against drag shows or Drag Queen Story Hours got outnumbered and outclassed, failed to materialize, or otherwise flopped today. 1/
In Fort Lauderdale, more than 50 showed up to counter a group of what looks like 25-30 Proud Boys and other local chuds grousing about "radicalized sexual curriculums" in school and "gender ideology" and other right-wing night terrors of the moment.
On Staten Island, a motley crew of a couple dozen—some Proud Boys, some Q-adjacent agitators—wandered around in the rain for a bit outside a children's museum where a Drag Story Hour took place, argued among themselves, then left.
Meanwhile, at Lincoln Center in Manhattan, the full-Nazi Goyim Defense League showed up to try to disrupt a drag story hour and apparently got jumped and run off by a gaggle of antifascists.
And in Aurora, IL, a crowd of community members gathered for a counter that looks like it turned into a party of sorts when the Proud Boys who'd threatened to protest a drag brunch at a local restaurant never showed up.
Heck, even in Columbus, where there were probably more than 100 fash in all, some of them going full militia, a sizeable crowd came out to counter. Watch the clip in the upper right here: "Get out, white boy, get the fuck out."
If you, like me, were getting peppered with video clips of white guys stomping around Columbus all morning, it's easy to feel like the fascists dominated the day. But a wider look tells a very different story.
Correction re Staten Island: police escorted the group of 30-40 chuds to a spot on museum grounds close to the event, and community members worked to keep things safe and fun for the kids attending. Apologies for my mistake.
And an addendum: in Southern Pines, NC, a drag fundraiser for a local pride org drew a crowd of praying protesters to a local theater, but an even larger crowd of supporters gathered to wave rainbow flags and chant for love. thepilot.com/news/drag-show…

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More from @JayUlfelder

Jay Ulfelder Profile picture
Nov 20
Breaking my self-imposed Twitter silence to offer some context for last night's mass shooting at Club Q in Colorado Springs. Since early 2021, the right has increasingly mobilized against the queer community, with drag shows being a particular focal point. countingcrowds.org/2022/09/30/esc… Bar chart showing monthly c...
Note, too, that the rhetoric used in this hate campaign has increasingly tilted toward violence.
Also, this recent piece from @lcrw does a great job showing how this campaign is hurting all kinds of people, even when it isn't directly violent. leftcoastrightwatch.org/articles/arizo…
Read 5 tweets
Jay Ulfelder Profile picture
Oct 30
Two key data points I wish everyone would keep in mind when talking about what role police might play in slowing the rise of fascism in the U.S.:

1) @emayfarris and @prof_mirya's recent survey of sheriffs nationwide... themarshallproject.org/2022/10/18/we-… Image
@emayfarris @prof_mirya ...and 2) Ba et al.'s recent analysis of demographic data on hundreds of thousands of officers in nearly 100 major police forces. scholar.princeton.edu/sites/default/… Image
I don't think any of the antifascist and anarchist activists I follow here are under any illusions about police acting as a bulwark against fascism. In those communities, I'd say the consensus view is that police are effectively an agent or arm of it.
Read 6 tweets
Jay Ulfelder Profile picture
Oct 26
Commercial media outlets, I am begging you: before you publish something describing violence at protests as "clashes" or "fighting" with no directionality, do some digging into the sequence of events and nature of the violence. Accuracy on this has real consequences.
There's been a lot of talk about this problem around the protest at Penn State on Monday night, but it happened again last night at UC Davis. Same script, similar result.
* Claiming free speech, right-wingers schedule a talk by an unabashed bigot on a college campus.
* Students organize a protest against that talk.
* Provocateurs arrive and attack the student protesters.
* The media reports the attack as a violent "clash."
* RW claims victimhood.
Read 10 tweets
Jay Ulfelder Profile picture
Oct 24
After watching counter-protesters overwhelm and drown out numerous recent protests against drag shows and Drag Queen Story Hours, I think it's fair to say that this particular choice of right-wing target du jour is having significant unintended consequences.
Specifically, I think it's re-energizing many anarchist and leftist groups that hadn't been in the streets so much since 2020 (although many of them have been busy doing other things), and it's helping renew or forge new alliances among activists resisting the right.
I know this queerphobia campaign is also having some intended consequences, namely, energizing right-wingers around the midterms and diverting everyone's energy away from issues that might threaten GOP elites' wealth (e.g., climate action, living wages, healthcare).
Read 8 tweets
Jay Ulfelder Profile picture
Oct 16
One of the most unabashedly Christian fascist actions I've seen, outside a church hosting a drag bingo event yesterday in Rochester, MN: "the church will conquer the state" + "reject cultural marxism America first" + queerphobic slurs. kaaltv.com/uncategorized/…
Anyone recognize the group involved? I can't make out the logos on those hats, and they may not be informative anyway. Thought I saw III% logos on the tactical gear worn by guys who appear to be security, but not entirely clear.
Also, I gotta say, the tone of the news report was a bit surreal. Just kind of taking this at face value like it's any old protest. No context provided. This is now normalization happens.
Read 6 tweets
Jay Ulfelder Profile picture
Oct 10
On Indigenous Peoples Day, I wondered what @crowdcounting would show about patterns in related protest activity. Here's a chart showing monthly counts of more than 1,500 protest events with claims tied to indigenous peoples' rights or concerns since January 2021. Bar chart showing monthly c...
I know from making the data that many of these events are linked to environmental concerns. Indeed, as this version of the chart shows, the majority of these events (59%) also involved claims about environmental issues. Bar chart of monthly counts...
Within the set raising environmental claims, many focused on stopping expansion of the Line 3 oil pipeline in MN. Indigenous led and heavy on direct action, that movement accelerated in 2021 until the expanded pipeline began operating that September. stopline3.org
Read 11 tweets

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