According to Josh Nunes, the leader of the Neo-Nazi organization National Socialist Florida, “certain types of activism” tend to bring forth an influx of people willing to join their efforts. Nunes notes that anti-drag sentiments have had an impact on their recent recruitment uptick. He tells NPR, “That’s where like the drag queen shit—like everybody wants to be a part of the team shutting that down.” Nunes continues, “We’ve just seen the largest upticks in recruitment from the drag stuff.”
Over the past few months, anti-drag rhetoric has been fervently promoting the idea that drag performers are groomers and child predators. It’s not uncommon for white supremacist groups to show up at public pride celebrations or drag events to put up a fuss, protest, or shut down festivities with hate speech. Last November, the Proud Boys arrived to one church’s holiday-themed drag storytime hour and shut it down. This past year, the Proud Boys have been sighted shutting down drag events in Nevada, Texas, California, and even in Washington D.C. this past month.
Recent anti-drag legislative efforts are a reflection negative public sentiment against drag. In February, Tennessee became the first state to ban public drag performances. Despite Governor Bill Lee having once been a drag performer himself. Other states, including Texas, have also proposed legislation which would ban minors from attending drag shows or allow minors to sue drag queens for the “harm” which attending drag shows has caused them.
Nunes explains to NPC that his group “began with just a handful of followers going out to protest drag shows last year,” but has grown significantly in the past few months. The group regularly has around “20 dudes” showing up to anti-drag demonstrations, and Nunes hopes that number will rise to “30 or 40 guys” by the end of the year.
There have been at least 124 documented attacks on drag events in this past year according to one GLAAD report, one of which being the Club Q shooting which took place in Colorado in November.
