03/08/2022
For some time, LGBTQIA activists have warned that self appointed anti-paedophile vigilantes are a front for the far right wing and that they provide cover for thugs to attack gay people. As early as 1997, the “Pink Paper” publication warned that neo-Nazi organisations were trying to link gay people and Jewish people together as paedophiles to slur both groups and justify violent acts against them. Now, reports newswire Pink News the celebrated drag queen Aida H Dee, who has already been subject to personal attacks on social media, has very narrowly avoided being assaulted by far right wing thugs who attended one of the “Drag Queen Story Hour” events that Aida helped set up. The event took place in Reading. The neo-Nazis were small in number, estimated by journalists at around twenty five, but were noisy shouting abuse at parents and children entering the library. Even though their actions were clearly alarming families attending the event, causing children to scream in distress, the Nazis heckled and abused, and then broke into the auditorium, screaming at families and appalled library staff, who alerted security. Although no arrests were made, Thames Valley Police restrained several men who seemed intent on going back inside the library to continue their shouting. Aida H Dee thanked the Police for their swift and decisive response, but it was telling that after restraining the anti-gay extremists, the Police themselves were attacked by the Neo-Nazis, who accused them of being ‘paedo-Police’. This slur is also a trope amongst the far right in the US and UK and popular with groups so fringe that they want to kill police officers as well as minority groups. Analysts who monitor the activities of far right wingers have noted that, after the electoral collapse of such groups as the British National Party, which has virtually destroyed itself through factional infighting, the extreme right has turned to street based violence and trying to directly intimidate its opponents. The murder of MP Jo Cox, harassment of trade union bookstores, abusive threats to African-Caribbean businesses and threats to Islamic centres are all part of the same phenomenon, along with the attack on Aida H Dee. Online, despite attempts by the far right to verbally insult Aida H Dee, many people also condemned the Nazi groups behind the invasion of the library. One commentator noted that in at least three recent court cases against violent neo-Nazis, images of extreme and violent porn had also been found on their phones. “It’s the fascist imbeciles who are the real threat to kids, not a bunch of drag queens in libraries”, they quipped. For people wanting to understand more about the threat to democracy from extreme groups, there are numerous groups including the magazine “Searchlight”, the network “Hope Not Hate” and local anti-fascist organisations. The Community Security Trust is rooted in the Jewish community but says that its extensive databases monitoring anti-Semitic extremism are available to the benefit of the whole of society.