By James Finn | DETROIT — Chaos erupted this weekend in New York and San Francisco as participants in America’s two largest and longest-running Pride parades panicked over reported gunfire. In Nevada, masked Proud Boys threatened a group of young children and their parents watching Pride, causing families to flee in panic.
According to Washington Post, On Sunday, “loud noises” scared Pride crowds through New York’s Washington Square Park “and nearly caused a stampede”.
Some witnesses, who reported minor injuries requiring medical attention, said they “almost” missed the target. The noises were later determined to be fireworks, according to parade organizers, who suggest the continued threats of violence had angered Pride attendees.
Panic over reported gunshots and a gun at weekend Pride events
Chaos erupted this weekend in New York and San Francisco as participants in America’s two largest and longest-running Pride parades panicked over reported gunfire. In Nevada, masked Proud Boys threatened a group of young children and their parents watching Pride, causing families to flee in panic.
According to Washington Post, On Sunday, “loud noises” scared Pride crowds through New York’s Washington Square Park “and nearly caused a stampede”.
Some witnesses, who reported minor injuries requiring medical attention, said they “almost” missed the target. The noises were later determined to be fireworks, according to parade organizers, who suggest the continued threats of violence had angered Pride attendees.
Thousands Flee San Francisco Pride
On Saturday, panic erupted at San Francisco Pride, as reported by Kylie Robison of Initiated, who was there. “I was in pride, she tweeted, “and people started screaming, running, saying there had been gunshots. I started running with the crowd, but it’s just crazy to live in a country where we’re all ready to run or die like that.
I was in pride and people started shouting, running, saying there had been gunfire. I started running with the crowd but it’s just crazy to live in a country where we’re all ready to run or die like this
— Kylie Robison (@kyliebytes) June 27, 2022
According BNC Newssan francisco pride ended early after someone started spraying mace near the san francisco civic center: ‘The incident caused a panic and within an hour of street brawls were reported as people were leaving the event.”
Other reports suggest people rushed over the sounds of gunfire. A security guard told NBC that “two scuffles broke out with crowds running for the exits amid rumors of a gun fire.”
Details are unclear, but it appears no shots were fired. Mass reports are conflicting and unconfirmed, but the fear and panic were very real.
“I was at the SF pride event with my son”, comments a witness. “I can only describe it as a World War II type of panic. At first, a group of a few hundred sprinters dodged the area near the exit. The second wave was made up of thousands of people, many crying, most scared running for the exits. »
Children Flee Nevada Pride Event When Proud Boy Approaches With Gun
As far as reporters are able to confirm, no firearms were involved in the San Francisco and NYC Pride stampedes, but Proud Boys protesters threatened a Pride event at the Sparks Library in Reno on Sunday. , Nevada. Several sources of information, including the LA bladereport that a group of Proud Boys interrupted a drag queen story hour, chanting obscenities and shouting that the parents who brought their children to Pride are “carers” and “abusers”.
Reno police were keeping watch, but when protesters began to move away, officers reportedly left the scene. Then one of the Proud Boys pulled out a gun and approached the crowd of parents and children. Details are conflicting, with some witnesses reporting that the masked man shouted and waved his gun, others that he simply held it in his hands as he approached the children.
Witnesses all agree that the families fled into the library, with many children screaming and crying.
LGBTQ people face rising tides of violence and extremism
Pride watchers in New York and San Francisco may have overreacted, but not without reason. Most of them were probably aware of a mass shooting early Saturday in Oslo, Norway, which claimed two lives and seriously injured ten others outside a popular gay club. Police charged a 42-year-old man with murder and the Oslo Pride Parade, scheduled for later in the day, was called off.
Attendees were likely also aware that several US Pride events this year were threatened by Christian nationalist groups like the Patriot Front, 31 of whom were arrested – with body armor, riot gear and at least one grenade smoke bomb – on its way to terrorize Pride in Idaho. Groups of masked Proud Boys terrorized children at several library events this month, including at the San Lorenzo library in California and at a North Carolina library near Wilmington. Sherriff’s deputies in the latter case tacitly encouraged the Proud Boys, punching them and indulging in occasional banter instead of stopping them from yelling at young children.
God, Arms and Glory, Christian Nationalist Extremists Cry
Social media is a scary place to be LGBTQ these days, with conservative Christian leaders openly calling for the execution of transgender and gay people. Their messages and media accounts, like this one Steadfast Baptist Church Account on Twitter and this one on Facebook, are often overlooked by Facebook and Twitter officials, who cite freedom of religious expression.
This year, steadfast pastors in several American churches called for LGBTQ people to be killed, and if their threats frighten us, can you blame us? Instead of being arrested and incarcerated or incarcerated, these religious extremists continue to incite violence and call on their followers to arm themselves.
Gods, Weapons and Glory is the rallying cry of conservatives today, which, coupled with the rise of anti-LGBTQ extremism, makes violent threats all the more worrying.
Equally worrying, last week the United States Supreme Court struck down a New York state that makes it a crime to carry a concealed firearm without a license. The ruling will mean almost anyone who wants to carry a gun in public will be able to do so.
New York Governor Kathy Hochul said, “This decision is not only reckless, it is reprehensible.
Maybe that’s what some of those in a hurry in Washington Square were thinking when they thought they heard gunshots.
Americans of goodwill will need to act together to take back our country
Pro-LGBTQ media organization GLAAD is calling on Americans to stand up to the growing gunning of our society, to protest the recent Supreme Court ruling that blocks reasonable gun licensing and regulation.
GLAAD President Sarah Kate Ellis also speaks out against anti-LGBTQ laws and false propaganda posts, calling on politicians and social media managers to reign in toxic rhetoric that equates LGBTQ people with the sexualization of ‘groomers’. who prey on children:
Lawmakers and governors like DeSantis and Abbott, and their co-conspirators at Fox News, better pause today and acknowledge that their anti-LGBTQ rhetoric and the nearly 250 anti-LGBTQ bills introduced this year are responsible for this dangerous climate. https://t.co/FzUwpmMj4W
— Sarah Kate Ellis (@sarahkateellis) June 12, 2022
Ellis says, “Lawmakers and governors like DeSantis and Abbott, and their co-conspirators at Fox News, better pause today and acknowledge that their anti-LGBTQ rhetoric and the nearly 250 bills anti-LGBTQ presented this year are responsible for this dangerous climate.”
She adds that “Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and social media platforms must also take responsibility and urgently stop fueling the hate and misinformation that inspires white supremacist groups like the Patriot Front.”
I join Ellis in calling for an end to the defamation of LGBTQ people for political purposes. What we saw this weekend in New York, San Francisco and Reno should be a wake-up call. Do we need another tragic anti-LGBTQ mass shooting like Pulse, or like JUST HAPPENED in Norway, before we face the dangerous reality of the path we are on?
What is the solution ? I don’t have all the answers, but I do know that we need to mobilize massively in November to elect a majority Democratic Congress, which, regardless of our political views, is the only way to stop the minority of extremists who dominate now the Republican Party, the only way to rein in the increasingly reckless Supreme Court.
If we don’t act together now, remember my words, the next articles won’t be about the stampedes at Pride, they’ll be about the massacres.
Breaking Update: New roses is reports that a trans teenager is hospitalized with a fractured skull and brain abnormalities, and that two other people were hospitalized in a terrifying attack after Pride celebrations on Saturday in Dublin, Ireland. A total of five people were attacked in St. Stephen’s Green as they celebrated Pride after the official event ended.
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James Finn is a columnist for LA Blade, a former Air Force intelligence analyst, alumnus of Queer Nation and Act Up NY, and an unpublished “agent” novelist. Send questions, comments and story ideas to [email protected]
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The previous article was previously published by Prism & Pen – Amplifying LGBTQ voices through the art of storytelling and is republished with permission.