It Is Getting Scary Out There!

This time it has a different twist!

This time we stood our ground and they backed off.

Proud Boys aim to disrupt South Bend drag event but are outnumbered by LGBTQ advocates
South Bend Tribune
By Jordan Smith
October 25, 2022


When The LGBTQ Center hosts an all-ages drag show outside of Pride Month, between 70 and 90 attendees is considered a strong turnout, Executive Director H.R. Jung said. 

But after social media posts alerted the center to an attempt by the Michiana Proud Boys, a local chapter of the white nationalist hate group, to shut down a show Friday evening, nearly 120 people bought tickets. Jung said the audience was protected by two dozen supporters who formed a barrier between the venue — The Well Coffee House —and a handful of anti-LGBTQ protesters. 

“The funny thing is, because of their threat and because of it getting a lot of attention, we ended up actually making a lot more money than we normally do on the show,” Jung told The Tribune on Monday. 

“In a way,” Jung added, “thank you, Proud Boys, for bringing some attention to what we do at the (LGBTQ) Center and riling up some more actual support and financial support.”

I worry that next time they will come armed like they have done in other places.

Jung had called the South Bend Police Department, and at least four squad cars were parked across the street. One officer can be seen holding a non-lethal weapon in a photo shared to Twitter.

[...]

“We were ready in case something happened that would have made safety a concern,” O'Chap said.

The right is becoming violent on their protests, coming armed with military type weapons, we seen it down in Texas and other states, it is a worrisome trend.

Drag story time at Oregon pub draws gun-carrying protesters
AP News
October 24, 2022


Protesters, some of them armed, threw rocks and smoke grenades at each other outside a drag queen story time event at an Oregon pub, but the weekend show that was to have featured a child performer went on as planned.

The 11-year-old did not take part as scheduled but was in the audience of about 50 people as some 200 demonstrators and counterdemonstrators — some of them armed — faced off outside the Oregon pub where Sunday’s story time was held.

Authorities said people in the crowd of about 200 protesters on both sides briefly “lobbed projectiles” at each other, prompting authorities to shut down the street. Some in the crowd had semi-automatic rifles, police said. The projectiles were rocks and some smoke bombs, the Register Guard reported.

[…]

The pub’s staff had “an intense weekend filled with racist and homophobic hate mail, physical threats of violence, and repeated attacks by right wing media outlets framing our Drag Queen Storytime as nefarious.”

Then down in Florida they forced us back in the closet.

Orlando LGBTQ center cancels Drag Queen Story Hour over ‘several threats from hate groups’
New York Daily News via Yahoo News
By Muri Assunção
October 25, 2022


An LGBTQ community center in Orlando, Fla., has canceled this weekend’s Halloween edition of Drag Queen Story Hour after receiving threats from extremist groups, including the far-right organization Proud Boys.

“Due to several threats from hate groups aimed at The Center and to those participating in Drag Queen Story Hour, we have decided to cancel the event for this Saturday’s Halloween Edition,” organizers announced Monday afternoon.

[...]

“It was sold out,” he told the Orlando Sentinel. “But again, safety is first in mind. We don’t want to put anyone in harm’s way, especially kids. ... They don’t need to be subjected to yelling and seeing that type of behavior.”

They won, I hope that the police are going after the ones who threaten the community center.

Some day it will go beyond throwing rocks to gun shots as anger mounts on both sides and the other side is the one with guns.