How the Proud Boys Use Anti-Trans Hate To Stoke Political Violence
Far-right militias like the Proud Boys have shifted their focus from assaulting the U.S. Capitol to targeting drag shows and LGBTQ events? In the first episode of the Anti-Trans Hate Machine, Imara Jones examines this pivot and the ways the Proud Boys are intertwined with Republican politicians. Learn about how they’re using anti-trans hate as a tool for their broader agenda of organized political violence and upheaval in Ep. 1 of the Anti-Trans Hate Machine Season 3, “The Proud Boys’ Anti-Trans Playbook to End Democracy.”
It’s winter of 2022 in Jackson Heights, a New York City neighborhood. A tense crowd is facing off outside a Queens public library.
Queer people have shown up to actively protect the people inside from an angry opposition shouting homophobic and transphobic slurs.
They’re the Proud Boys. They’re targeting the Library because of what’s happening inside: a drag story hour.
The Anti-Trans Hate Machine is expanding its operations beyond legislative bodies, courtrooms, and the media – to the streets.
Since storming the US Capitol in 2021, Proud Boys have been showing up in more and more communities across America.
Despite their frat boy image, the Proud Boys are among the most violent and confrontational paramilitary groups in America.
And nearly half of all the demonstrations of force by extremist organizations in 2023 alone took aim at the LGBTQ community, with particular ire for any gathering of people who exist outside of the gender binary.
In 2016, Gavin McInnes established the Proud Boys on his radio program, where he unveiled his vision of returning America to a traditional, “European” patriarchal society.
This patriarchal world view has led them to find common cause with political leaders, especially Donald Trump. And as we saw on January 6, Trump has embraced them too.
So if Trump is sworn in as president in January 2025, he’ll have an extrajudicial, paramilitary organization at his fingertips–with almost no checks and no balances.
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