A Hearty And Loving F*CK YOU To Libs Of Tik-Tok And Her Shitbag Ilk Terrorizing The LGBTQIA Babies

From your Wonkette.

Elevated graphic design is my passion. I bought this candle at Open House in Philly’s Middle Village aka Gayborhood (no, really, they call it that).

If there’s one thing I hate, it’s a bully. I am aware that those who endeavor to hurt others for sport are, in fact, usually people who were treated poorly as children. But plenty of us had fucked-up childhoods and didn’t grow up to be giant walking moldy nutsacks with bad attitudes. There is no excuse for targeting someone else merely to get the adrenaline rush of imagined superiority. But that’s exactly what sentient dangling knots of shit-encrusted ass hair are doing to American LGBTQIA folks — and random little schoolchildren!

Here is a brief rundown of just a few recent incidents that make me want to throw heavy middle finger candles at the perpetrators’ ugly skulls. This post goes hopey changey at the end, concluding with links to a few good nonprofits helping LGBTQIA folks around the nation.

But first, the bullshit.

Salt Lake City

“King’s English Bookshop, a bookstore in Salt Lake City, Utah which has been hosting all-ages drag story time events, was reportedly targeted with a bomb threat, and after local law enforcement found no explosives the ‘bookshop’s event was ultimately canceled and the store was closed for the day.’” —

Teddy Wilson

of

Radical Reports

These drag story time events are fundraisers for a lovely, pediatrician-founded nonprofit called BrainFoodBooks, but oh no, that’s too demonic for some people! Apparently, the HQIC (Head Queen In Charge), Tara Lipsyncki, also had to deal with armed Proud Boys fucking up a totally nice all-ages drag show in January. (As per the Salt Lake Tribune, it was rescheduled for March with armed supporters outside.)

Given the local dominance of the Church of Latter-Day Saints, it may surprise some folks that Salt Lake City has a thriving, out queer community. But as in many towns where conservative ecclesiastic authorities seem to run the show, the rest of us humans continue to exist and, you know, have some fun.

Salt Lake City may be known as a liberal bubble or purple dot, but queer people are an integral part of every sector of the economy in the state of Utah. Yes, some queer folks in Utah are closeted out of self-protection. But that’s true anywhere people face danger for who they are. There are many out queer people across the state doing all sorts of wonderful and amazing and boring things, just like other people. While some of them are ex-LDS, some are still religious.

As a) a pansexual — somebody who dates cis, nonbinary and trans folks of all gender identities — and b) a breadfucker — ex-Catholic — I have nothing but admiration for people who take the faith of their upbringing and make it more modern, more beautiful, more inclusive and more kind.

I know people doing that in SLC. Now here’s another spot of hope, from the Salt Lake Tribune:

Mayor Erin Mendenhall said in a post to X on Sunday that the city plans to work with the bookshop to reschedule the event.

“I cannot say this strongly enough, EVERYONE belongs in Salt Lake City,” Mendenhall wrote in the post. “The actions today to cause fear at @KingsEnglish around a drag story time event are not welcome here.”

God bless all the artists, weirdos, and big-hearted hot normies who continue working to celebrate and protect their communities.

Illinois

“A Highland Park elementary school evacuated its premises and relocated its young students for two consecutive days following bomb threats. This alarming incident came on the heels of the controversial anti-LGBTQ+ account, Libs of TikTok, overseen by Chaya Raichik, showcasing an image of a classroom in the school adorned with a pride flag. Notably, extremism researchers have previously associated the Libs of TikTok account with real-world violent threats potentially incited by posts to the account.” —

Erin In The Morning

Is there anything more American than schoolkids being forced to worry about violence in their own classroom? Nope. The horrific tradition continues every day around the country, and recently, an entire elementary school had to deal with the anxiety of displacements — twice.

Thanks to

Rebecca Schoenkopf

for sending this one along to me as I compiled examples for this story. What I’m incorporating here represents only a fraction of the tales I’ve seen in the news lately, and I bet a lot of you have stories from your own areas that never even got a lot of coverage. None of this is new, but they’ve got so many new tools to use to spread their hate.

Brooklyn

“The Cortelyou branch of Brooklyn Public Library was reportedly the target of a bomb threat, ‘forcing the staff and patrons to relocate the scheduled Drag Queen Story Hour just prior to the event Saturday morning.’” — again via Teddy

This one hit close to home, because I’m a member of the beautiful Brooklyn Public Library system. The BPL offers free e-cards to teens across the country who endure the scourge of banned book movements, often centered around LGBTQIA themes.

In New York, where I still technically live, many of us see BPL branches as a sanctuary in a city that can be loud, chaotic, and sometimes cruel. BPL educates people of all backgrounds and ages, providing social services and outreach as well as good ol’ fashioned books. In addition, its excellent social media team knows exactly how to tap into the zeitgeist to get more people stoked about reading.

I know full well that these bomb threats can come from anywhere in the world, and may be part of a national coordinated effort by white supremacist and other hateful groups to cause fear and disruption in so-called “safe spaces” for those they despise. But in light of the recent murder of dancer and choreographer O’Shae Sibley, who was gay, by 17-year-old homophobe Dmitriy Popov in Brooklyn, it reaffirms the undeniable truth that hate knows no geographic boundary.

Under the anger over injustice, we often find hurt. It’s exhausting. It’s draining. It’s deflating. As drag queen Tara Lipsyncki said to her husband in the above-linked article from the Salt Lake Tribune, “Is it sad that we aren’t fazed anymore?”

One of the shittier “gifts” of the ongoing Trump era is that even the most head-in-the-sand liberals and progressives I knew came around to recognize the need for vigilance and activism no matter how seemingly inclusive and caring their own small communities were.

There are still those among us who live in the pleasant delusion that it’s “safe” to be in [fill in the blank place where likeminded individuals live and make local and state laws], but part of the hard work of continuing to grow is to stay in the fight. It isn’t always or often fun. It’s not comfortable. It requires us to admit that nowhere is paradise. There are safer spaces, sure, but no safe spaces.

I take heart from education-focused organizations like Open Books (started by two moms in California), the Zinn Education Project, Rethinking Schools, and Teaching for Change. If you’d like to shout out a local mutual aid or nonprofit group near you that works to protect LGBTQIA+ students, teachers, and artists, that would be much appreciated. They may never get bright lights and big attention, but their work saves lives every day.

But also you could just send us money once.