In the United States, Pride month tarnished by anti-LGBT threats

June 11, 2023

The resurgence of threats in the United States targeting the LGBT community has cast a chill over Pride Month, according to activists, particularly in the country’s more conservative states.

In Houston, the lineup for Texas’ largest LGBT celebration for Pride Month in June has been significantly reduced this year.

“We have decided to cancel the festival,” said Kendra Walker, president of the association Pride Houston 365.

The festivities will be limited to a parade which will take place on June 24, for security reasons but also to ensure better management of crowds and the budget.

The decision was made in January, after the state’s Republican-dominated parliament passed several discriminatory measures against LGBT people, according to rights groups.

Since then, threats have multiplied against LGBT events.

“All it takes is a handful of people who can’t tell myth from reality for the danger to be there,” Kendra Walker said, citing the example of riot threats made by white supremacists during the March of pride in Idaho (northwestern United States) last year.

“It seems innocuous until these comments reach the ears of the wrong person… And there, the threat is very real.”

Concern is also felt in Florida, led by Governor Ron DeSantis, Donald Trump’s rival in the Republican primaries for the 2024 presidential election.

This fervent conservative has pushed in recent months for a series of laws aimed at restricting the rights of LGBT people, in particular prohibiting the discussion of sexual orientation issues at school.

“I didn’t realize how much it would upset” our state, underlines Carrie West, head of the Tampa Pride group, which last May finally decided to cancel a festival after several sponsors of the event worried about violating the governor’s new measures.

In addition to Florida and Texas, such measures are multiplying across the country, causing a torrent of misinformation online.

Posts associating the LGBT community with child abuse and Satanism have amassed thousands of interactions on social media in recent weeks, thanks in part to their amplification by conservative columnists.

Calls to boycott brands deemed too “woke” have also targeted many major American retailers, such as Target, coinciding with the promotion of their “Pride” collection.

In the city of Saint Cloud, Florida, the local committee in charge of the “Pride” festivities has announced the cancellation of its event in a state where “a climate of fear” reigns according to its organizers. The NGO Equality Florida has also published a notice warning travelers of potential risks that could affect LGBT people in the state.

The drag artists “no longer felt safe”, confides Kristina Bozanich, photographer, at the head of the event in Saint Cloud.

“As we were thinking about what we could do in place of a drag show, Kill All Gay signs appeared in the area,” she says.

In Port Sainte-Lucie, further south, a parade was also canceled in April.

“I wrote about our event on one of our regular Facebook pages and people started commenting, talking about child trafficking,” says PJ Ashley of the NGO Sanctuary of The Treasure Coast.

According to RG Cravens, an expert at the NGO Southern Poverty Law Center, it is common for followers of conspiracy theories to use false accusations of child abuse to “justify discrimination and violence”.

Studies show that tolerance towards the LGBT community has progressed since the beginnings of the movement, but the oldest “feel like they are going backwards”, notes PJ Ashley.

“They are afraid to speak out” on these issues. “It really is a throwback to the 1960s… It seems like everything they fought for back then, we’re losing today.”