“War against Drags” in the US – these (combat) groups mingle with Iran and the moral police – why the horror probably isn’t over yet

A children’s drag show in Columbus, Ohio, was canceled at the last minute on Saturday. The reason for this was the march of 50 to 70 actors, some of whom were armed, who wanted to disrupt the performance.

The “Holi Drag” show was planned by a local school and was supposed to take place at Columbus’s First Unitarian Universalist Church. With the onslaught of troublemakers, the organizers canceled the show “for security reasons”. The police were there, but remained passive in the background.

But who are the men behind the ski masks, uniforms and posters? An insight into the most prominent actors and their ideologies.

Proud boys

The Proud Boys stand out from the crowd with their yellow and black clothing. Numerically, they are the largest group on the ground and probably the driving force behind the campaign. The Columbus section had already announced its “visit” to the show on its Telegram channel in mid-November.

The Proud Boys were founded in 2016 by Gavin McInnes, one of the founders of the media portal Vice. There is no national organization; the grouping is divided into many small subgroups that share more or less the same values. According to the Telegram channel Proud Boys Chapters, there are about 200 such sections in the US and a few internationally, including in Germany, Australia and Norway. Women are not allowed to participate.

By their own statement, the Proud Boys are committed to a conservative future: less awake, less state, more guns and more freedom of speech. They are politically close to former President Donald J. Trump, but are not officially a political organization. Several Proud Boys members and leaders were convicted as part of the January 2021 storming of the Capitol.

The posters of the men in black feature slogans such as “Leave our children alone” and “18+ and we’re gone”. The background to this is that the Proud Boys do not want children to come into contact with drag queens. They accuse the organizers of so-called “grooming”: specifically addressing minors to enter into sexual relations with them.

Although the Proud Boys describe themselves as LGBT-friendly (Gays Against Groomers representatives are also present), this story is widespread in far-right and homophobic circles. The groomer’s story aims to ensure that gay, transgender and drag queens are associated with pedophilia.

Patriotic Front

Also notable are the members of the Patriot Front. They can be recognized by their beige hats and white masks. Normally, a dark blue polo shirt and light khaki belong to the militia uniform; presumably this was not done here because of the temperature.

Unlike the Proud Boys, who at least pretend to distance themselves from fascism and racism, the Patriot Front is openly nationalist-racist. She propagates a purebred (white) America based on the traditional family image. The rhetoric is familiar from Nazi Germany:

Unlike the men in black and yellow, the men in white and beige seem to have prepared less specifically for the event. They don’t carry banners or placards with anti-towing slogans. They just march one after the other shouting “Life, liberty, victory or death”.

It is possible that the men of the Patriot Front want to take the opportunity to put themselves in the spotlight once again.

Unidentified gunmen

Not much is known about the third group. Unlike the others, the men are armed and appear in riot gear. They join the Proud Boys but wear no badges and tell a police officer that they are alone here and not affiliated with any of the other groups.

The policeman has no problem with the presence of the armed men; he merely admonishes the lords to make sure they handle their weapons safely. Meanwhile, a woman with a gun who appears to be part of the group shouts, “God hates Pride.”

And why are you here? Even though nothing is known about the group except for the calls from the lady who probably belongs to them, they are probably ideologically close to the others. The procession in riot gear was probably intended to intimidate and it finally succeeded.