On the 3ed of December, the Proud Boys, so-called “Gays against Groomers” “Moms4Liberty,” and other far rights extremists rallied on the beach in Ft Lauderdale, FL to support DeSantis’s attacks on transgender folks. Counterprotesters matched their turnout, and repeatedly drove Proud Boys out of the counterprotest site. Soon,the fascists tired and left, leaving the pro-LGBTQ contingent in posession of the field.
The fascist rally included Chris Nelson’s attempts to disrupt the counterprotest, Proud Boys trying to walk through the counterprotest only to be immediatly engaged and driven out, a Pepe the Frog flag, and fundamentalist Christian music and slogans near the beginning. As always, it was clear their message is about hate and religious bigotry. The LGBTQ community turned out to oppose them.Both liberals and hardcore anti-Fascist activists turned out. As confrontations flared, anti-Fascist camerapeople took zoom closeup photos of any many Proud Boys and other prominant extremists as possible. These will be of use later.
Broward County School Board member Brenda Fam spoke at this so-called “Protect the Children” rally, standing with all manner of fascists, neo-Nazis, and Christian nationalists, Proud Boys included. This may make her re-election campaign more difficult.
On the liberal side, even a Florida state Senator and the Mayor of Ft Lauderdale spoke. While one of the Mayor’s staffers whined to cops about the presence of anarchists and anti-fascists, the presence of the Mayor and his speaking at the counterprotest limited the cops. The Ft Lauderdale Police in blue were unable to openly side with the Proud Boys in black and gold after the Mayor spoke for their opponents. As a result, the cops were mostly hands-off and a joint police-Proud Boys attack on the counterprotest was averted.
In Ft Lauderdale, the Proud Boys were the smallest force, backing up a fascist political rally and with plenty of lead time for the community to respond and fight back. Several other cities were not so lucky.
Ugly things happened elsewhere this same day, some reaching the level of hard core terrorism. First and foremost, far right extremists shot up several electrical power substations in North Carolina, shutting off power to about 40,000 people. This was for nothing more than a FAILED attempt to forcibly shut a drag show! The Three Percenters and Oath Keepers were not known to be active in attacking drag shows prior to Dec 3, so that makes Proud Boys the most likely suspects. Another incident also involving firearms took place in Columbus, Ohio, where far right extremists, some carrying guns, descended on the site of a drag show, again with the objective of forcibly shutting it down. Still another drag show in Lakeland, Florida was harassed by Nazis but contrary to earlier reports was able to continue. Hard Nazis with a swastika flag and a black sun flag screamed slurs outside.
In less than two weeks, the LGBTQ community has been targettted with one mass shooting (Club Q in Colorado Springs, five dead), one shooting attack on electrical power used by the general public, one drag show shut down by armed force, and probably many others harassed.