A drag queen story hour event in New Hampshire was marred by the disruptive presence of a group of masked neo-Nazis who chanted slogans and performed Nazi salutes. The incident, captured on video and widely viewed online, took place outside an LGBT-owned coffee shop in Concord, the capital of the state.
The footage shows more than a dozen men wearing sunglasses, baseball caps, and coordinated shirts and trousers, aggressively shouting near the establishment. The disturbance led organizers to relocate the drag story hour upstairs, away from the disruption caused by the neo-Nazis.
State officials have attributed the protest to NSC-131, a neo-Nazi group based in New England. The acronym NSC represents the Nationalist Social Club. According to Juicy Garland, a drag performer present at the event who shared the video on social media, the men chanted “131” along with homophobic slurs.
Garland, 37, expressed the view that such incidents are not isolated but reflect a longstanding presence of fascism and dangerous extremism on the right. The recent disruption is part of an alarming trend of threats and attacks targeting the LGBT+ community across the United States.
Emmett Soldati, the owner of the coffee shop, revealed that drag story hour events have been hosted at his establishment for the past ten years. While there have been occasional demonstrations in the past, Soldati noted a concerning escalation in both the size and severity of protests over the past year.
A report by the Crowd Counting Consortium, a research group that monitors the size of political protests, revealed an average of 39 anti-LGBT+ demonstrations per month in the US since June 2022. This stands in stark contrast to the three protests per month recorded between January 2017 and May 2022.
The rise in such incidents has sparked concern among activists and community members. Garland pointed out that the emboldened behavior of these extremists is fueled by a sense of permission to be violent, aggressive, and loud, citing recent legislative campaigns aimed at restricting certain drag performances.
The disturbing disruption of the drag queen story hour in New Hampshire serves as a stark reminder of the growing threat posed by rising extremism, highlighting the urgent need for continued efforts to combat hate and ensure the safety and inclusion of marginalized communities.
