Lone Star hate: Right-wing activists in Texas drive a new wave of anti-LGBTQ bigotry

[marmar]

Lone Star hate: Right-wing activists in Texas drive a new wave of anti-LGBTQ bigotry
Sure, Texas is a red state. But the merger of MAGA and anti-LGBTQ activism has revealed a whole new level of ugly

By KATHRYN JOYCE


(Salon) Last weekend in Houston, Texas Republicans got a taste of just how far right their party has become. At the state's biennial GOP convention, delegates officially declared Joe Biden an illegitimate president, proposed repealing the 1965 Voting Rights Act and voted for a platform calling on schools to teach that life begins at conception and to avoid all discussion of gender identity or sexuality. Additional planks attacked trans rights, cast gender-affirming medical care as actionable malpractice and declared homosexuality "an abnormal lifestyle choice." When one delegate pushed back on that last point — saying, "We are the Republican Party of Texas, not the Westboro Baptist Church" — he was greeted with boos, laughter and another delegate's tirade about "dildos and fisting."

But perhaps the most explosive takeaway from the convention was a series of heated confrontations (inevitably turned into viral videos) in which a group of far-right activists and social media personalities, led by self-described comedian Alex Stein, followed Rep. Dan Crenshaw, R-Texas, through the hallways of the convention hotel, chanting "eyepatch McCain." This ended in a violent scuffle between Stein and two Crenshaw staffers. Stein also targeted Sen. Ted Cruz in similar fashion, while a different protester shouted that Crenshaw should be hanged. After the hecklers were ejected from the convention, some were photographed standing amid a group of men wearing the black-and-gold shirts of the "Western Chauvinist" Proud Boys.

Although Stein and his cadre's complaints on Saturday were mainly focused on gun laws and Ukraine aid rather than queer rights, his presence at the convention followed the national notoriety he'd gained just two weeks before, when he filmed himself trying to force his way into a Dallas gay bar that was hosting a family-friendly drag show.

As Salon reported at the time, the protest, organized by a right-wing nonprofit called Protect Texas Children, attracted a broader coalition of far-right activists, including members of the white nationalist America First/groyper movement, which hosted a conference last February praising Vladimir Putin, Hitler and the hanging of political enemies. Also involved were a Catholic youth organization that openly endorses theocratic fascism and a network of anti-LGBTQ activists who have gained substantial social media followings through stunt provocations in the broader Dallas-Fort Worth (DFW) area, often with the Proud Boys in tow.

....(snip)....

On Tuesday, June 7, for the first time in its history, the city council of Frisco, Texas, a suburban community of some 220,000 people due north of Dallas, issued a proclamation recognizing June as Pride Month. After an opening invocation by a local minister, praying for open hearts and minds, around two dozen members of the local LGBTQ community came on stage, one sparking tearful cheers by declaring, "Progress is here." Across the majority of the auditorium, there was sustained applause, a standing ovation and the waving of rainbow flags. But from one corner, there were boos.

After the proclamation was read, most of the audience left, walking to a nearby burger joint for a planned reception hosted by the recently-formed group Pride Frisco. And so, when the meeting was opened for public comment, those who rose to respond to the proclamation came almost exclusively from the right, as one person after another got up to condemn the recognition of Pride Month and the LGBTQ community more broadly. ...........(more)

https://www.salon.com/2022/06/22/lone-star-hate-right-wing-activists-in-texas-drive-a-new-wave-of-anti-lgbtq-bigotry/

[IngridsLittleAngel]

1. The LGBTQ Year of Hate, brought to you by "fine" states like Texas and Florida

Thanks to them and all of their bigotry, hatred and hostility in what has now been one half of a year, we are dealing with a full-on tsunami of hate and bigotry. It feels like it's been impossible to go 24 hours without being subjected to this shit - bigoted bills, hatred in the media, hostility and threats and harassment in person. All because these narrow-minded fucks can't handle the fact that not everyone is just like them.

What frightens and sickens me is there's another four months to ratchet this shit up leading to the election.. and another six months until 2023. It feels like there is no end in sight to any of this. All the while, Abbutt and DeSatan are playing monkey-see, monkey-do - one reaches a new level of hate, the other says "Hold my beer!" and outdoes him.

Christofascism and stochastic terrorism at its worst... All brought to us by the "freedom for me, not for thee!" thugs who openly worship Putin and Hitler, and want to bring that kind of "greatness" here.

It's hard to believe how much these monsters can hate America and their fellow Americans, but here we are... Thanks, MAGA.