BOISE, Idaho (AP) — As hate speech targeting LGBTQ people increases among some far-right influencers and others online, experts warn extremist groups may view the rhetoric as a call to action .

Such may have been the case when 31 members of the neo-Nazi group Patriot Front were arrested in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, on Saturday and charged with conspiring to riot at a Pride event, Sophie said. Bjork-James, assistant professor of anthropology at Vanderbilt University, who studies the white nationalist movement, racism and hate crimes in the United States.

“There is a very clear relationship between the normalization of this hateful content and extremist groups trying to mobilize around it in hateful actions,” she said. “We can see a direct relationship between the spectrum of anti-LGBT rhetoric from state houses and these extremist groups.”

Domestic extremist groups see conservatives as potential allies, Bjork-James said, and they’ve found that anti-LGBTQ sentiment is one of the easiest ways to “build a broader coalition among the radical right.”

“Unfortunately, I think it’s a strategy that works,” she said.

Last month, a fundamentalist pastor in Idaho told his small congregation in Boise that gays, lesbians and transgender people should be executed by the government. Another fundamentalist pastor from Texas gives similar sermons.

Rep. Heather Scott, a Republican lawmaker from Idaho, recently told an audience that drag queens and other LGBTQ supporters are waging a “war of perversion against our children.” And last week, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis said he would consider sending child protective services to investigate parents who take their children to drag shows.

The Department of Homeland Security warned last week that nationalists and white supremacists are using social media platforms like Instagram, Telegram and TikTok to present a biased framing of divisive issues like abortion, guns and women. LGBTQ rights, potentially prompting extremists to attack public places across the United States. the coming months.

Online court records do not yet show whether Patriot Front members have obtained lawyers. All were released from jail after posting $300 bond, and court dates have yet to be set for the misdemeanor charges.

Thomas Rousseau, a 23-year-old from Grapevine, Texas, was identified by the Southern Poverty Law Center as the founder of the Patriot Front and was among those arrested. He did not immediately respond to an email seeking comment.

Police say the men piled into a U-Haul truck wearing balaclavas and wearing riot gear, with plans to riot in the park where families, children and supporters had gathered to celebrate the LGBTQ community. Those arrested came from at least 11 states, including Illinois, Arkansas and Virginia.

Coeur d’Alene Police Chief Lee White said Monday that since the arrests, his agency has received nearly 150 calls, split evenly between people thanking officers for averting a riot and angry people against arrests. Many calls included death threats, Lee said, and some came from as far away as Norway.

Jennifer McCoy, professor of political science at Georgia State University, said that when influential people like politicians, sports or entertainment stars, religious leaders or media personalities engage in rhetoric against groups specific, supporters may interpret it as a call to action.

“This can happen regardless of the intent or specific wording of the message, and is common in highly polarized contexts such as the United States is currently experiencing,” McCoy wrote in an email Monday.

For Bree Latimer, a 22-year-old trans woman from Boise, news of the arrests was alarming. Even in Boise, one of the most progressive cities in dark red Idaho, harassment or hostility is a daily risk, Latimer said. Just last week, Boise police were investigating after dozens of pride flags were stolen or damaged on a scenic boulevard in the neighborhood for the second year in a row.

“I always wonder when I pass people in the aisles of grocery stores: Do they know I’m trans? If they do, will they say something? Will they follow me into the parking lot? am I going to call myself a groomer or what? It’s just constantly living in fear,” Latimer said.

She is frustrated when people refer to anti-LGBTQ rhetoric as a “culture war,” saying it sounds a lot more concerning.

“It diminishes what we go through. We feel like there’s almost an impending trans genocide,” Latimer said. “They want us to stop having access to our hormone therapy, to be banned from talking to young trans people – they want you to be so unhappy with your life that you kill yourself. And now hate speech is getting even scarier.

Still, she tries to focus on her computer studies at Boise State University. On weekends, she plays board games with friends or occasionally goes out for a night out downtown.

“Being trans is a big part of who I am, but it’s definitely not everything,” Latimer said. “Still, the reality is that it’s scary to be a trans person in America right now.”

Northern Idaho has long been associated with extremist groups, primarily the Aryan Nations, which often made headlines in the 1990s. The area attracted disgruntled people after white supremacist Richard Butler moved there in 1973 from California.

After the heyday of the Aryan Nations, many local officials attempted to disassociate the region from extremism. But in recent years, some politicians, civic leaders and real estate agents have touted northern Idaho’s conservatism to attract like-minded people.

At a press conference on Monday, Coeur d’Alene Mayor Jim Hammond said the city was no longer a place of hate.

“We are not going back to the days of the Aryan nations. We are past that,” he said.

Scott, the northern Idaho lawmaker who said drag queens are waging a “perversion war” against children, did not respond to an email request for comment.

Elsewhere in the country, authorities in the San Francisco Bay Area are investigating a possible hate crime after a group of men allegedly shouted anti-LGBTQ slurs during Drag Queen Story Hour at the San Lorenzo Library this weekend.

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