An extremely bigoted campaign called “#WalkAway” is publicizing a “town hall” in Chicago this Saturday evening, June 29, on the eve of Pride Parade. The venue is supposed to be announced on June 26 but they claim it will be held in Boystown. We are calling on everyone who opposes the openly white supremacist, transphobic, and thoroughly bigoted views this “movement” promotes to protest this event, and to demand that whatever venue in Boystown would rent to them cancel the contract.
The stated goal of “WalkAway” is to draw LGBTQI+ people to the right, away from the identity politics of the Democratic Party. However, as a cursory search of the speakers’ public statements shows, they are far-right provocateurs who share responsibility for incitement to violence against trans people, black people, women, immigrants, Jews, and Muslims, and who publicly associate themselves with prominent, violent members of the “Alt Right” white supremacist and fascist movement. (Photo above of Milo Yiannopoulis promoting WalkAway)
For more documentation of panelists: http://bit.ly/2CwS1oi
When #WalkAway attempted to hold a similar “town hall” in New York last March, the LGBTQ+ community mobilized to shut it down and succeeded. Why? Read here:
https://airtable.com/shrt0OXnx26se5DQp?fbclid=IwAR0ZO2teb3xxJIazVWZefsvApXuZkJDDS1XllYPuQZy_X4aMKLH5AmWqYQU
This movement, formed in 2018, has backing from some of the same forces that prepared the ground for Trump to occupy the White House, and it defends and promotes the lies that prop up the fascist spirit and practices this regime thrives on. Speakers announced for the June 28 Town Hall, Brandon Straka, Blaire White, and Mike Harlow, espouse openly white supremacist, transphobic, xenophobic, and otherwise bigoted views that are dangerous to all of humanity. They openly support Trump and his “MAGA” fascist agenda, denouncing caravans of “invaders” from Mexico and abortion as “genocide,” and declaring that “non-binary isn’t real.”
Straka, the organizer of the #WalkAway Campaign, has been on the programs of Tucker Carlson, Laura Ingraham, and Alex Jones, and on the front page of the Breitbart website, all of whom are mouthpieces for Trump and his fascist agenda. They engage in and promote violently anti-immigrant, racist, sexist, and queerphobic ideologies. Straka and Harlow even appeared on Gavin McInnes’s CRTV show to talk about #WalkAway two weeks after McInnes’s violent Proud Boys gang attacked counter-protesters on the Upper East Side of New York, kicking and punching young queers while yelling ‘Faggot!’ (http://gothamist.com/2018/10/13/proud_boys_beating_video.php)
We invite everyone reading this and all groups who oppose this agenda to endorse, promote and participate in this protest.
