Anonymous submission to Unsalted Counter Info.
This past Saturday proud boys attempted to harass an inclusive drag event hosted at a church in Portage, Michigan. A queer and anti-fascist rapid community response defended the event, outnumbering bigots and providing a strong physical deterrent to their presence.
My crew arrived around when the event was scheduled to start. One small circle of supporters was keeping watch of the quieter entrance to the parking lot to cheerfully greet attendees, while the bulk of the anti-fascist presence of about 50-75 people was at a larger entrance, watching the few proud boys across the street who arrived first and were waiting for other fellow bigots to arrive. The mood was cheerful but somewhat tense. There were free zines available, a speaker playing tunes, and overall the crowd was sociable while focused on defending the event and wider queer community. There were young people and adults, many people wearing some kind of black bloc, and others wearing typical street clothing. Immediate police presence was initially small, one marked squad SUV near the proud boys, one farther down the street, some presumed unmarked SUVs nearby, and more police farther away to serve as backup.
The proud boys hung by their car waiting for their friends in cringey bud light costumes to arrive, and finally started making their way towards the church without police escort. At this point there was approximately a dozen proud boys and affiliated bigots. The crowd of defenders started chanting in response to warn the proud boys to stay away, which unfortunately sparked some frustrating debate between a small number of liberals and the generally more militant crowd. The liberal concern and peace-policing over ‘instigating’ the anti-drag bigots would be a recurring theme over the afternoon. Whether they saw the verbal disagreements as confusion within the crowd or were simply self-confident, the proud boys approached the crowd, attempting to cross the street. At this point a scuffle broke out, with proud boys throwing the first punches, but being handily dealt with in return. The police responded quickly, but only had two or three officers immediately present and could only threaten antifascists with arrest. As police SUVs staged nearby arrived, there was quickly a dozen officers, and one of the proud boys was cuffed and taken away. No antifascists were detained or arrested, and some appeared to only suffer minor injuries. The police separated the crowds and primarily kept watch of the anti-fascists.
The quick scuffle was followed by a standoff on opposite sides of the road, with police in-between. Insults were exchanged for about an hour and a half until the proud boys eventually decided to leave. Probably because there wasn’t anything more they could do, and possibly because they had their fellow chud to bail out. As the immediate chud threat left, police also eventually left. Most defenders left after this, while some stayed back to watch for any possible returning proud boys, which didn’t happen.
Unfortunately one woman entered the event with malicious intentions, non-consensually filming children, parents, and drag performers to exploit for social media outrage fame later. This part of the event aftermath is currently playing out on social media.
Analysis
The rapid response worked fairly well for a short-notice event. In my opinion, this speaks to the strength of building ties and relationships within your own communities and with others in nearby towns and cities. These relationships enable this kind of quick action, where various affinity groups and crews can act autonomously, communicate with and support each other. It’s very handy having the gear and friends at the ready so you can quickly make a plan together, prepare support, and take collective action with people you trust.
In the case of defending an event at a fixed location such as this, controlling all entrances/exits is crucial. This was done well, with both entrances having a visible presence of supporters and defenders, with a large number of people committed to moving wherever the bigots may attempt to go to get closer. Planning to have radios or runners to call for backup if necessary is a good idea.
The police seemed mostly concerned with preventing fighting and keeping the road clear. It’s somewhat surprising they weren’t escorting proud boys initially, but they responded quickly when fighting did break out. The fact the only possible arrest was a proud boy indicates to me that they probably didn’t see arresting any anti-fascists involved in the fighting as possible due to the numbers, and may also show a “whoever throws the first punch” approach to blame. To avoid accountability, police had their badge numbers covered.
These proud boys seemed divided over interest in actually fighting versus trading insults, “triggering the libs” and live-streaming, spending most of the time shouting across police lines. They were significantly outnumbered and largely stuck together. Given the way this kind of standoff attracts attention, there was likely an opportunity for a sneakier normie-bloc crew to circle around and inspect the bigot’s vehicles, which were parked together in a known location.
The small number of liberals who sought to control the crowd (telling people to not chant, etc) were an amazingly oblivious distraction who seemed most concerned with a “peace” where bigots kept off the property and everyone stayed quiet. In the moment it seemed that this minor spectacle allowed or enticed proud boys to edge closer to the event. Debating love-based approaches to handling bigots is best done when not immediately physically defending a queer event from bigots who don’t tolerate queer existence. That said, for those willing to have the conversations, it may be worthwhile to try making inroads with said liberals. They may not ever be convinced that militant defense is correct, but they may at least be left with enough understanding and some notion of a relationship that they’ll keep out of the way in the heat of the moment.
The woman who filmed from within the event in an effort to catch her 15 minutes of fame in the right-wing outrage cycle is important to highlight. She seems to be 25 year old Olivia Claire Hickey, currently a grad student at Sam Houston State University.
https://twitter.com/antichud/status/1660333576691535872
(archived: https://archive.is/QBuEM)
Antifascists and those running or hosting drag and queer events should be aware of her to prevent her from doing the same kind of filming at other events. We need a proactive approach of keeping out known right-wing troublemakers, and probably want a strictly enforced no-photography policy, with possible exceptions for photographers who are known, trusted and invited to do event photography. This woman was unfortunately able to get footage of event-goers without their consent, to abuse for her own benefit.
What Next?
At this point it’s well established that the right is uniting around anti-LGBTQ hatred. It’s long been a feature of their politics, but has become a primary driver of action. While various GOP-controlled states compete to implement the cruelest eliminationist policy, far-right actors from proud boys to open nazis are making a point of threatening queer events on the ground. There’s indications within proud boy channels that they’ll make this a focus of their activity for the month of June, attempting to counter pride celebrations, pride in general, and even Juneteenth. It’s not hard to imagine other nazi and fascist groups doing the same.
However, the far-right’s echo chambers are fooling them. This kind of bigotry is far too popular, but less popular than they think. This gives us an opportunity. These calls to defend our community from hate groups can attract the numbers to solidly keep the bigots at bay or even run them off in the right circumstances. They’re a great opportunity to meet other like-minded people under circumstances of actually taking action to defend each other, and these experiences can also radicalize some of the liberal attendees. Defending ourselves from fascist attack doesn’t require justification, but these are nice bonuses.
These right-wing threats will become more common. Prepare for them now. Check in on your queer and radical networks, get a trusted crew together that you know well and can communicate well with, get gear ready (umbrellas, clothing, etc. 😉 ). Make plans for support, everything from jail support to snacks, rides and pet-sitting. Keep tabs on right-wing chatter, or get updates from people who do. Think about what these bigots are trying to get out of these escalations (rage-bait footage, IRL events, disrupting queer existence, …) and how to deny that to them, or make it cost more than they’re able to tolerate.