Pride Month and the fight against fascism.

June 5, 2023

          June is Pride Month, a celebration that commemorates “the 1969 Stonewall Uprising in New York and celebrates the LGBTQ community and the fight for equal rights.” For decades, Pride Month celebrated the annual incremental gains in the liberties and progress toward full personhood of LGBTQ people under the law. Today, Pride Month is marked by renewed urgency to protect the rights of LGBTQ people as extremist legislators and governors seek to turn back the clock on rights that were hard won over the last half-century.

          The assault on LGBTQ rights is being promoted by politicians whose aim is to stigmatize a small population to gain power. At its core, attacking vulnerable populations to gain political power is fascism. Commentators and politicians were initially reluctant to label such efforts as fascist, but the historical parallels are inescapable. Comparing MAGA extremism to its historical antecedent is appropriate and necessary to raise the alarm about the ultimate threat posed by the new American fascism embedded in the MAGA base of the Republican Party.

          Of course, the MAGA extremists who are targeting LGBTQ people are also attempting to suppress the rights of Black and Latino Americans and women. But they are engaged in a stepwise process: Their most ferocious and transparent attacks are currently focused on LGBTQ people, but they intend to target minorities and women next—after they have normalized hate against LGBTQ people. We must stop them.

          Over the weekend, reader Doug S. suggested in the Comments section on Saturday that I “devote a couple of newsletters to the issue of fascism in America . . . which is a huge and growing problem much misunderstood.” Doug’s comment prompted a thoughtful discussion of the issue of fascism in America. He wrote, in part,

Although Hitler is an extreme example of fascism, fascism is about much more. It requires a strong leader, millions of followers (e.g., Brownshirts), an objective of some kind of societal purity, a demonization of groups of people in an objective to advance the power of the leader and his followers. Here are some current examples: Trump and “Mexican rapists;” Asians and “Kung flu,” the “Muslim ban,” DeSantis and LBGTQ people; and Marjorie Greene and white Christian nationalists.

          Reader Jody W. expanded on Doug’s point, noting the early efforts in pre-WWII Germany to discriminate against gay men:

Thom Hartman has been focusing strongly on fascism in his Substack blog (Thom Hartmann | Substack). One feature Hartmann points out that I hadn't given much attention is how fascist leaders find a small subset of the population that can be demonized easily with the right propaganda.

Once they have achieved their objective of eliciting hatred and violence toward that group, they know that their success then allows them to broaden propaganda efforts outward to other larger groups. I think that Hitler focused on gay men.

          Many readers pointed to Heather Cox Richardson’s essay in Letters from an American on May 29, 2023, in which Professor Richardson described a US Army pamphlet distributed in March of 1945. The pamphlet was entitled “Fascism” and was designed to inform and equip US soldiers in the WWII version of the information war. Per Professor Richardson, the pamphlet included the following:

They [fascists] maintain themselves in power by use of force combined with propaganda based on primitive ideas of ‘blood’ and ‘race,’ by skillful manipulation of fear and hate,

If we permit discrimination, prejudice, or hate to rob anyone of his democratic rights, our own freedom and all democracy is threatened.

          The above sentence from the Army pamphlet bears repeating:

If we permit discrimination, prejudice, or hate to rob anyone of his democratic rights, our own freedom and all democracy is threatened.

          Pride Month reminds us that if we “look the other way” as dozens of MAGA-dominated state legislatures discriminate against LGBTQ people, their actions “threaten all democracy.”

          The initial anti-LGBTQ bill in Florida has spawned a dozen imitators. See NPR,  (4/10/22), More than a dozen states propose so-called 'Don't Say Gay' bills. Targeting speech related to LGBTQ people is patently unconstitutional. Indeed, fascism itself is, by definition, contrary to the US Constitution. To the extent that MAGA-fascists use the authority of the state to discriminate against subsets of the US populace based on race, gender, or sexual orientation, such efforts will likely fail. See, for example,

• CNN Politics, Tennessee anti-drag show law deemed 'unconstitutional' by Trump-appointed federal judge,

• ABC News, Oklahoma agrees to not enforce gender-affirming care ban while temporary order sought; and

• Lambda Legal, Advocates to File Lawsuit Against New Law Banning Healthcare for Transgender Youth in Texas.

          But even as courts and litigants seek to stop the tide of legislation targeting LGBTQ people, Ron DeSantis is busy signing new legislation intended to stigmatize people based on their gender identity and sexual orientation. See CNN (5/17/23), DeSantis signs into law restrictions on trans Floridians' access to treatments and bathrooms.

          What can we do to stop the creeping menace of fascism? The most obvious solution is to seize control of the state legislatures and state houses that have become the breeding ground for fascism. We are already hard at work on that task, but we must ensure that our efforts are informed by the underlying threat posed by MAGA legislatures—fascism.

          We must raise the alarm in plain words backed by unassailable facts and an accurate recounting of history. I can hear some readers pleading for restraint, for lowering the temperature, for avoiding ugly words that will cause offense. It is not the word “fascism” that is ugly; it is the underlying hate that is ugly. We will never defeat the hate and animus of fascism if we are too polite or timid to call it by its name.

          Many passed the threshold of acknowledgment long ago, while others are coming to that realization now. For some, January 6th was the turning point; for others, it has been the spate of legislation targeted at LGBTQ people over the last eighteen months. Others may be uncomfortable using the term. Wherever you are on that spectrum, we must agree that the fight to protect the liberties and human dignity of LGBTQ people is important for the defense of democracy itself. It is not “their” fight. It is “our” fight. If MAGA extremists succeed in normalizing hate against LGBTQ people, you may be next on their list.

          Before I close on this subject, I make one additional plea: Whenever I write in defense of LGBTQ rights, I hear from mothers—always the mothers—of LGBTQ teens. They tell me that their children are anxious and frightened by the anti-LGBTQ rhetoric that is spewing from states like Florida and politicians like DeSantis.

          Some mothers say they share excerpts of the newsletters with their gay/binary/transgender teens to show them that there are politically active people who support them. While I am glad to know this newsletter can provide some support, it is incumbent on each of us to help all teenagers feel supported and affirmed.

          I am not saying that you should seek out a teenager to have a “rap session” about their feelings. I am saying that we must be sensitive and aware that they may be struggling emotionally because of the toxic political environment—on top of all the other burdens that accompany the teenage years. Be supportive, but if you believe a teen is at risk of self-harm, please speak to their parents, an educator, a family member, etc., to urge that they seek counseling. Please check out The Trevor Project | For Young LGBTQ Lives now so that you can recommend the site if necessary. The Trevor Project can help find a counselor for an LGBTQ teen in distress.

Concluding Thoughts.

          My wife and I have one more week of driving/accompanying a family member to daily therapy, so I will be publishing shorter newsletters for the remainder of this week.

          In 2023, Pride Month is inextricably intertwined with the fight against fascism. Just ask the US Army, which wrote the following in 1945:

If we permit discrimination, prejudice, or hate to rob anyone of his democratic rights, our own freedom and all democracy is threatened.

Talk to you tomorrow!