Kelly Neidert organized Protect Texas Kids last year to protest against drag shows. (Photo by Chad Mantooth)
Take Back Oak Lawn ready to counter right-wing protesters at Pride
CAROLINE SAVOIE | Contributing Writer
carosavoiswriting@gmail.com
With Pride events quickly approaching in DFW, organizers are bracing themselves against any possible threats, including expected appearances from anti-LGBTQ groups like Protect Texas Kids and the Proud Boys.
One former Oak Lawn resident runs a Facebook group called Take Back Oak Lawn (TBOL), a counter-protest group aimed at protecting Pride-goers. He said the group, which started in 2015 in response to random attacks in the Gayborhood, is an “unofficial watchdog over Oak Lawn.”
A Facebook event promoting the counter-protest says, “We need to show them that our community is strong and that their hate will not be tolerated. Bring signs, noisemakers to drown them out and, most importantly, yourselves.”
Protect Texas Kids, started last year by neo-fascist agitator Kelly Neidert, has hosted anti-queer protests at drag shows throughout the DFW area, and this year’s Pride is no exception. Neidert, who calls her group a “nonprofit,” created a call to action inviting people to protest at Dallas and Arlington Pride through her Facebook group.
Neidert said in an op-ed for Restoring America that the protests against drag stem from her belief that children’s drag queen events are inherently sexual.
The source with TBOL said Protect Texas Kids is an aggressive group that tries to bully ally and LGBTQ businesses into shutting down gay representation.
“We’ve dealt with protestors before; that isn’t new,” the source said. “This group is nefarious. I believe they’re going to do and say things to incite violence from our community.”
Protect Texas Kids is not listed on the IRS roster of organizations that can accept tax-exempt donations, nor is it registered in Texas as a nonprofit.
Back in June 2022, Neidert’s personal Twitter account and the account for Protect Texas Kids were suspended after Neidert posted that everyone attending Pride celebrations should be “rounded up.” Those accounts are still suspended as of June 2023.
While Protect Texas Kids says it aims to shield children from “indoctrination” from LGBTQ activists, Dallas Pride, a registered nonprofit, is taking steps to keep minors out of more risqué portions of Pride.
The official Dallas Pride website promotes the tenth anniversary of Teen Pride, “a safe environment for LGBTQ youth and their friends ages 13 to 19.”
“Since the first event, which was attended by about 40 young people, Teen Pride has broken records in recent years, with more than 15,000 attendees in 2022,” the site reads.
The TBOL source said counter-protestors can protect themselves and their personal information by hiding their faces with scarves, dressing in all black, and refusing to talk to “independent journalists.”
“People are going out for Pride, and we want them to,” he said. “We don’t want a minority group to bully our community and dim our light in any way, shape or form. But we want people to be aware of their surroundings, go out in groups, and report suspicious activity to Take Back Oak Lawn or Dallas PD.”
Because weapons are prohibited from Fair Park’s Pride event on June 3, attendees don’t have many avenues to protect themselves against potentially-violent protests. The source with TBOL said he hopes a heavy presence from Dallas Police and anti-fascist organizers at Pride deters any violence from breaking out.
He said the Elm Fork chapter of the John Brown Gun Club (JBGC) — a left-wing anti-fascist organization created to level the playing field with right-wing militias that show up armed to protests around the country, is expected to show up and patrol the area outside of Fair Park.
The source said no one patrolling with TBOL will be armed. They’re going to be there to act as a buffer to make sure the community is not engaging with protestors. He said that while Protect Texas Kids is a minority group, it is a “very loud squeaky wheel” that has successfully shut down events at businesses all over DFW.
According to Business Insider, there is also an increasing concern that the Proud Boys, an extremist right-wing protest group, will show up at Texas Pride events in June. Emboldened by anti-LGBTQ legislative and social debates, the group is planning protests across the country for what they’re calling “Proud” month, a celebration of “straight pride” and “Western values” to “challenge this perversion of the Nuclear Family and Gender.”
Since the group’s founding in 2016, the Proud Boys have been recognized as a terrorist group in Canada and New Zealand, and it is categorized as a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center.
“Out of nearly 200 anti-LGBTQ+ demonstrations in the U.S. last year, the Proud Boys participated “more than any other militant far-right group,” the article states.
The source with TBOL said that to him, Pride is a revolution.
“We’re one of the only groups that has to celebrate Pride to exist,” he said. “We only exist when we tell you who we are. We’re your neighbors, we’re your friends, we’re your family. Pride is an active revolution in a state that doesn’t want us to exist.”
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Pride in danger?
Newly-passed laws, and anti-LGBTQ violence could impact Pride events
CAROLINE SAVOIE | Contributing Writer
carosavoiswriting@gmail.com
Pride celebrations are set to kick off on June 3 all over the DFW area, just four days after Texas’ regular legislative session ended. But members of the LGBTQ community worry that bills pending signatures from Gov. Greg Abbott could, in effect, put Pride back in the closet.
Bob McCranie, a local Realtor and gay advocate said the state’s events could be put on hold — or worse, criminalized — if Abbott, a Republican, signs on his party’s lines.
As lawmakers in the waning days of the regular session debated Senate Bill 12, which would prohibit anyone under 18 years old from attending “sexually oriented” performances and expose performers to possible criminal punishment, McCranie said the fate of Pride events was hanging in the balance.
The version of Senate Bill 12 passed in the House prohibited “sexually oriented” performances on “public property at a time, in a place, and in a manner that could reasonably be expected to be viewed by a child.” Penalties include being jailed for up to a year, a $4,000 fine or both. Businesses enabling such behavior could be hit with a $10,000 civil penalty.
The House removed language specifically mentioning drag and drag performers, but many LGBTQ advocates warned that the bill remained alarmingly ambiguous. Then at the last minute, lawmakers in conference committee expanded SB 12’s definition of sexual conduct to include “sexual gesticulations using accessories or prosthetics that exaggerate male or female sexual characteristics.” The bill in that form then was sent to Abbott. And legal experts warn that events ranging from bachelorette parties to LGBTQ Pride parades could fall under the bill’s definition of “sexual conduct.”
As the Pride event McCranie hosts in Carrollton is open to all ages, his drag performers and event organizers could be affected if the bill were to become law and take effect before this weekend. While that is a remote possibility, McCranie warned that if it happened, “Pride events in Texas would be in immediate jeopardy. Every drag performer and every organizer could be fined or jailed. We have to be prepared.”
Pride events in Dallas and across the state are often all-ages events, which is part of their magic, McCranie said. Once, he said, he brought chalk to a Pride event to outline booth locations. When children attending asked to use the chalk, he obliged. The messages they left written on the concrete moved him — messages like “all love is good love,” and “I hope you smile today” that greeted the 600 Carrollton Pride attendees as they entered the event that year.
“Those children wrote some of the most profound, supportive words toward our community,” McCranie said. “Children of gay parents, children who are gay themselves, trans kids — they’re part of the community. I’m not going to tell any letters in our alphabet that they can’t show up.”
The official Dallas Pride website warns that the “Pride Festival and Parade are a little more risquè than other events.” It goes on to explain that the festival has specific areas for teens and families where age-appropriate events are offered.
Charlotte Moellering, who parents an 11-year-old son with her wife, Diana, said their whole family used to ride a float in the city’s Pride parade. Her son “loves the candy, the beads, the excitement and energy of the parades,” she said.
Moellering said she explains Pride to her son as a “celebration to be proud of who you are.” She said he wears a t-shirt that boasts the slogan, “Proud to be me.”
But, she continued, “He can’t wrap his mind around people treating us differently because of who we love. He can’t understand why a person would not like someone else because they love someone of the same gender.”
She said she hadn’t even considered the legal dangers she could face for bringing her son to a Pride event.
But legislation isn’t the only danger to Pride events, McCranie said. Recent shootings in the state combined with anti-LGBTQ attitudes required him to set up emergency safety management for his Pride event in Carrollton for the first time.
Threats to Pride celebrations in Texas mirror recent events in Florida, where Tampa Pride was canceled after Gov. Ron DeSantis signed a series of bills targeting LGBTQ+ Floridians.
“Even if the law doesn’t have immediate effect, this will have a chilling effect on our future events,” McCranie said. “This is their way of banning our community and criminalizing our organizations.”
McCranie, who moved to Dallas when being a gay man was still illegal under Texas law, said he fears the worst for the state’s future: “Pride will either go underground, which is back in the closet, or Pride will go to places where we’re welcome,” he said.
