I’ve a new article out at LGBTQ Nation about how Frisco, Texas turned away from Pride, and it’s diversity committee, after threats from the Proud Boys:
When the municipal government of Frisco, Texas, made its only Pride declaration in June of 2022, the event made headlines for a different reason than that historic first: it drew out the Proud Boys.
The extremist right-wing group has made opposition to LGBTQ+ expression – especially drag and Pride – a cornerstone of its violent movement. In Frisco, the Proud Boys harassed a key organizer and followed him and other supporters to a celebration at a restaurant after the proclamation.
Justin Culpepper, 36, one-half of the married couple who founded the nonprofit Pride Frisco, said the extremist group threatened to assault him. “I went into the restaurant, and the people who worked at the restaurant protected me,” he recalled.
His husband Jon, 45, described the event as “traumatic,” but Justin Culpepper has been hesitant to discuss the event with the media out of fear of giving the bigots undue attention. Instead, Justin Culpepper reserved the bulk of his criticism for the reaction—or inaction—of the police and city government, telling LGBTQ Nation: “When you raise these concerns to the city council and to the police chief, the response is to erase LGBT people or to minimize our existence so as to not provoke the Proud Boys, rather than to say, ‘Why the f**k do we have Proud Boys in our city and what are we doing about it?’”
He continued, “Why on earth has the mayor or the city council not denounced these people or this activity? And even if they don’t denounce it, why not elevate things that are good, like a Pride proclamation?”
