It’s no secret that anti-LGBTQ+ animus has been ramping up all over the country. Conservative state legislatures are working at breakneck speed to pass legislation aimed at preventing many of the most vulnerable from receiving gender- and life-affirming health care. Some parents of trans children are fleeing states like Texas to avoid being deemed “child abusers” and separated from their kids, simply for providing them a supportive and affirming home. Drag queens are likened to pedophiles attempting to “groom” children through story hours. HIV-preventative care like PrEP is being excluded from insurance coverage based on some business owners’ “religious beliefs.”
LGBTQ-friendly New England is not exempt from these desperate and discriminatory movements. But while hate groups and some local politicians are trying to bring modern day hate-conservatism to the Northeast, many others are working hard to ensure that everyone remains safe, able to live our authentic lives and has equal opportunities to thrive.
In order to understand how we can fight back, we first need to understand who we are fighting against:
A Cause for Concern
MassResistance
A self-described “leading pro-family activist organization,” MassResistance was founded in Waltham in 1995—first called Parents’ Rights Coalition, then Article 8 Alliance—to originally fight what they call the “‘gay marriage’ crisis in Massachusetts.” They landed on their current moniker when their so-called role as “the true resistance to tyrannical government became clear.”
All this is according to their website, which is rife with false and misleading horror stories about sex-change procedures being done to children, drag-queen story hours targeting children, and graphic sex ed and LGBT propaganda in schools. Ironically, their disinformation hasn’t gotten much traction at home, but it certainly echoes and adds fuel to increased levels of violence and protest directed at LGBTQ people in Massachusetts. Their propaganda is taken seriously in other places, like in Minnesota, where one of their local activists was recently elected to a school board and immediately started banning books she said were “promoting sexual deviance, such as, but not limited to, topics of gay, lesbian, transgender, etc.”
One of their articles states that Boston Children’s Hospital “got ahold” of a set of twin boys, performed “‘gender’ procedures” on one of them and apparently also shrunk them in the process. According to the article the twins were both five feet, six inches and now one of them is five feet, one inch. It’s total nonsense that would be funny if it was not written in earnest.
Christopher Hood and the National Socialist Club (aka NSC-131)
Boston Spirit has reported many times about this hate group appearing at drag-queen story hours in the Commonwealth. Last summer, they showed up at an event in Jamaica Plain, a rather bold move considering the general LGBTQ-friendliness in the neighborhood. The group is relatively new, started in 2019, and is led by Christopher Hood—a fitting last name for the head of a white supremacist group. According to the Anti-Defamation League’s website, “NSC members see themselves as soldiers at war with a hostile Jewish-controlled system that is deliberately plotting the extinction of the white race.”
Hood has been arrested several times, once for engaging in a fight with counter-protestors in Jamaica Plain, and on another occasion for posting hate fliers in East Boston. Another recent showing by the group was at the 2022 St. Patrick’s Day parade, where the group was spotted, in masks, with a sign that said, “Keep Boston Irish.”
What’s particularly concerning about this group is their willingness to enter communities that are unwelcoming to them, raise signs with slogans like “Pedo Scum Off Our Streets,” and engage in physical altercations.
John Hugo and Super Happy Fun America
Don’t let the name fool you. This group is nothing like their name. It is led by Massachusetts local John Hugo, typically seen donning a tricorn hat and a dull expression on his face. With a catchphrase that claims, “It’s Great to Be Straight,” the group is known for their Straight Pride Parade, held in Boston just prior to the pandemic.
On their website they sell Straight Pride flags and reveal their “Ten Point Plan to Save America.” Items include returning the US to a gold-backed currency and removing all “gender madness and anti-American revisionist history from studies and teach patriotism.”
Most recently they had a rally in Boston to “Rise Against Lies,” described as a protest against “the corporate media propaganda establishment.” Boiled down, it was a pity party whining about Tucker Carlson getting fired from Fox News. That apparently made Super Happy Fun America super sad. The good news for them is that Tucker Carlson wasn’t fired for being a white supremacist. He was fired for talking bad about his bosses, and Trump, behind their back.
Gavin McInnes and Proud Boys
Apparently infamy is not a deterrent for this militant group with active chapters in every New England state save Vermont, according to the Southern Poverty Law Center. Toxic masculinity is literally on parade with many members of the Proud Boys. They had a large presence at the notorious “Unite the Right” rally in Charlottesville, Virginia.
Founder Gavin McInnes published an article titled “Transphobia is Perfectly Natural,” where he writes, “We’re all transphobic. We see there are no old trannies. They die of drug overdoses and suicide way before they’re 40 and nobody notices because nobody knows them. They are mentally ill gays who need help, and that doesn’t include being maimed by physicians.”
This was actually one of the tamer references regarding the transgender community. In December 2022, the Proud Boys confronted members of the LGBTQ community outside a drag story-time in Fall River. Witnesses claimed that the groups repeatedly screamed the word “faggots” at them and chanted “Nazism is the way!”
The Rhode Island chapter is particularly active with one member convicted for crimes related to the January 6 attack on the US Capitol. Recent reports say they’ve been actively recruiting in the streets of Providence and Nashua, New Hampshire.
Massachusetts Informed Parents
This group has a primary focus on banning books, especially those that supposedly contain objectionable and harmful content for minors. The objectionable content is typically LGBTQ-related. Their current outrage is directed toward “It’s Perfectly Normal,” a book intentionally designed to educate kids about their developing bodies, in and of itself objectionable to the group, but what most outrages this group are illustrations of naked bodies; one of this group’s posters calls including this images “grooming” (the word now a favorite among homophobes to classify LGBTQ people as pedophiles).
This story comes full circle when, on their public Facebook page, this group posted a link to MassResistance’s story about the use of gender-affirming care to shrink a twin at Boston Children’s Hospital.
Mass. Informed Parents is concerned about children being exposed to anything LGBTQ-related, especially gender issues. On their website, they also express concern about menstrual products being made available in boy’s bathrooms at school and other municipal buildings in Massachusetts.
Former Maine Governor Paul LePage
Former Maine Governor Paul LePage now resides in Florida, his actual home, after being defeated in 2022 in an attempt to reclaim the office. Governor Janet Mills beat him by a margin of 56-42 percent in a state where fellow GOP Senator Susan Collins held onto her seat to remain the only Republican representing New England in Federal office. LePage gained fame for his ardent support of former President Trump and is widely reviled for his anti-LGBTQ positions on many issues.
During the 2022 campaign, LePage tried to distance himself from his prior positions against abortion and same-sex marriage, which he ardently opposed during the state’s marriage-equality referendum in 2012. Instead, LePage tried to focus on fiscal matters like eliminating the state income tax. But Governor Mills record proved more appealing. LePage will no doubt find Florida more hospitable to him for its moderate climate and far-right politics.
Former Bay State Senate Candidate Kari Macrae
Kari Macrae, who ran for the Massachusetts senate in 2022 and lost, has set her political ambitions higher than her current role as a school committee member in Bourne, where she has been for six months. McRae was fired from her teaching position at Hanover High School before she barely entered the classroom for posting TikTok videos opposing to Critical Race Theory and gender identity. She is suing Hanover for her termination, backed by conservative groups paying for her legal fees. McRae also prominently features the conservative news coverage of her termination and pressure to resign on her campaign website.
Despite moving from one elected office to another in her short political career, McRae says “I’m not a politician; I’m learning as I go. But the more I’ve been researching, the more I’ve looked into things, I’m like, ‘Wow, we really need to get back to what America is about: freedom and being good to each other.’”
A lovely sentiment, unless of course your gender identity doesn’t align with what McRae thinks it should be.
Worcester Bishop Robert McManus
After the Nativity School of Worcester, run by the Jesuits, displayed Pride and Black Lives Matter flags on their campus, Catholic Bishop Robert McManus issued a scathing set of condemnations at the school, including stripping it of its Catholic title. In addition, the school was prohibited from performing mass and other sacraments or sponsoring any mass or sacrament at churches in the Diocese of Worcester.
Nevertheless, the school remained resolute in its position that the flags represented a place of inclusion for the students, primarily BIPOC and from low-income families. “Both flags are now widely understood to celebrate the human dignity of our relatives, friends and neighbors who have faced, and continue to face hate and discrimination,” the school’s president, Thomas McKenney, wrote in a statement.
And the flags continued to fly despire the ire of McManus.
GOP State Committee Woman Deborah Martell
Massachusetts Republican Committee member Deborah Martell makes the list for going after one of her own party members when, back in 2021, she wrote in an email, which went public, that she was “sickened” to learn that Congressional candidate Jeffrey Sossa-Paquette was gay. “I heard he was a ‘married’ homosexual man, who adopted children. I was sickened to hear this,” according to a report in the Boston Globe. Her email inspired 29 out of 30 Bay State House Republicans to call for their party chairman, Jim Lyons, to join them in demanding that she resign, and for Lyons to resign if he would not do it. She refused, standing by her remarks. Neither did Lyons. Martell remains on the committee to this day, according to massgop.com. Lyons lost his leadership position at the party’s state committee election on January 31 of this year. Sossa lost to Democrat incumbent Jim MGovern in the general election on November 8, 2022.
Former US Senatorial Candidate Don Bolduc
When MAGA extremist Don Bolduc became the Republican nominee for US Senate in New Hampshire during the 2022 election cycle, many Americans were holding their breath. New Hampshire, the purplest of all the states in New England, could potentially put someone as extreme as Bolduc in a pivotal 51st seat in the Senate. It didn’t happen though. Bolduc became another Republican let-down in a cadre of terrible candidates that kept the Senate in Democrat hands.
Though Bolduc represents a small but vocal position of many Live Free or Die residents, when he made it to the general election, he tried to disavow many of his harder line points about eliminating social security. However, his rhetoric of anti-LGBTQ sentiment—like usage of the word “pansies” in one of his ads—remained throughout the campaign, and he lost to incumbent Senator Maggie Hassan in the end.
Former Bay State Gubernatorial Candidate Scott Lively
A native of Shelburne Falls, Massachusetts, Scott Lively is a California-based activist, author, attorney and president of Abiding Truth Ministries. He first ran for Massachusetts governor in 2014 as an Independent. In 2018, he ran again at a Republican, backed by 30 percent of the Bay State’s GOP delegates, but received only 36.1 percent to then-Governor Charlie Baker’s 63.9 percent. In 2022, he declined to run again but was considered a contendor during the run-up to the primaries. His candidate website (still active) is riddled with anti-LGBTQ rhetoric.
In 1995, he coauthored “The Pink Swastika,” a book that argues homosexuality was a major factor in the rise of Nazism. He has also faced a Federal lawsuit for his anti-LGBTQ+ efforts in Uganda, where there is now a death penalty for “aggravated homosexuality.”
The federal judge in the case wrote, “The question before the court is not whether the Defendant’s actions in aiding and abetting efforts to demonize, intimidate and injure LGBTI people in Uganda constitute violations of international law. They do.”
A Governor Lively would be very bad for the LGBTQ community.
A Call to Action
“There are currently over 400 anti-LGBTQ+ bills active in the US, most of them specifically targeting trans youth, attempting to systematically strip their rights to access basic health care, sports and inclusive education,” says Dana Kaplan, executive director of Outright Vermont.
For over 30 years, Outright Vermont has worked to build a Vermont where all LGBTQ+ youth experience hope, equity and power. In recent months, Kaplan says, they have seen a rise in aggressive anti-trans hate.
Vermont is not alone. Tanya Neslusan, executive director of Mass Equality, has also seen similar problems in the Commonwealth.
“We’re seeing an uptick in anti-LGBTQ organizing in towns across the state. The Massachusetts Library Association has stated that informal challenges, disruptions and objections ‘quadrupled’ between 2021 and 2022. There has also been a dramatic uptick in book challenges in school libraries across the Commonwealth, and a rise in anti-LGBTQ candidates at the local municipal level. There have been opt-out campaigns to take young people out of not only LGBTQ-inclusive sexual-health education but out of public schools entirely. We’ve also had several anti-LGBTQ bills introduced this session at the statehouse,” she says. “If we don’t remain vigilant at quelling the anti-LGBTQ propaganda at the local level, we remain at risk for the hatred growing like a weed in a meadow, and before we know it, the entire state will be infested.”
Jessica Goff is the community outreach and education coordinator with Seacoast Outright. Her organization provides direct services to LGBTQ youth in New Hampshire.
“The kids notice. These Gen Z kids are very aware. They know what’s going on and it’s huge for them. 93 percent of LGBTQ+ youth are nervous about legislation negatively impacting their lives. There are all these laws about outing youth or making affirming care illegal, and if you get the message that you need to be legislated or that your rights don’t matter, that has an impact on your mental health. This in addition to COVID and isolation that has had a compounding impact on kids.” she says.
Goff notes that there is a common misperception that New England is more progressive, but, like Neslusan, she says that it is important to note that many kids impacted are the ones living in more rural areas where the political activity and climate can vary greatly from the more metropolitan hubs.
“A lot of the activity that we’ve been engaging with has been in communities that are largely off the media radar, where there is less visibility, community and media attention for local issues. It’s easier for these groups to engage, recruit and gain momentum through local community pages and local community groups that are off the radar from traditional media outlets,” says Goff.
“There was a drag queen story hour and there was a large group of Proud Boys who showed up. The kids noticed that, but they also noticed the community surrounding them, offering support and protection.” Goff says. A safe and supportive adult for an LGBTQ+ young person, she adds, can help decrease the likelihood of suicide by 45 percent.
In New Hampshire, Linds Jackows is on the legislative frontlines. They work with 603 Equality, a statewide organization dedicated to advocacy that advances pro-LGBTQ policy and fights back anti-LGBTQ policy focused on the queer community at large. Jackows notes that lately most of those attacks are focused on trans people.
The Granite State was making a lot of legislative progress with bills that created a more inclusive state, they say, but the pandemic changed things.
“In 2018, New Hampshire was the first state to pass nondiscrimination laws that included trans people through an entirely Republican-controlled legislature. We did it in a bipartisan way. People were still learning, and the hearts-and-minds work we did across the state included sharing the experiences of trans people and answering good faith, respectful questions. After the pandemic, there were a lot of good bills that couldn’t get through any longer. Last year, a dedicated and strategic movement swept across the country with the intent to demonize trans people and to fearmonger. Some of those bills have made their way to New Hampshire, although when they are up for a vote in the evenly divided House, all but one of the anti-LGBTQ bills have been either voted down, retained or tabled.”
What We Can Do
“Educate yourself and your community on the LGBTQ identities,” says Neslusan. “Support diversity programs and positions in your local communities. Vote for candidates that are vocally supportive of marginalized communities. Stay involved in your municipal government and connect with your elected officials.”
“People need to understand that having the idea or sentiment of support but not acting is harmful,” says Kaplan. “In fact, it actually allows for hate to rise. We need everyone to act. People need to understand the seriousness of what’s going on, and every adult should do what they can to stop it. Donate. Volunteer. Speak out. Be visible and vocal.”
The need for people to get involved is more important than ever in part because the threat is great, but also because the people that have been fighting are getting burnt out and the movement needs new blood, says Jackows.
“We are also trying to form local meetups, so people can talk about their communities. We are growing and I’m finding a lot of hope in new people getting involved because some of the people most active five years ago are burnt out and that’s understandable. It’s hard to stay in this fight all day, every day. We need to trust that a lot more people are with us than against us. It helps to know that, when you need a break, someone will step up,” they say.
“Hate knows no boundaries, but neither do love and justice,” says Kaplan.
Links to find support and stay informed
Massachusetts
GLBTQ Legal Activists & Defenders (GLAD) — glad.org
MassEquality — massequality.org
New Hampshire
Seacoast Outright — seacoastoutright.org
Vermont
Outright Vermont— outrightvt.org
Maine
Equality Maine — equalitymaine.org
Connecticut
Equality Connecticut — eqct.org
Rhode Island
LGBTQ Action RI — lgbtqactionri.org
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