Credit: (Geoff Livingston via Flickr)The tiny borough of Franklin in Sussex County, a former mining town of about 5,100 people, could become the destination for political extremists vowing to crash a Planned Parenthood benefit organized by local Democrats.
Members of the Proud Boys, a right-wing group implicated in the deadly Jan. 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol, say they’ll be on hand this Saturday for “The Roe Show,” a six-hour concert of live music that bills itself as an LGBTQ-friendly “fem fest.”
Flyers announcing the event describe it as “part of a series celebrating femmes, trans … non-binary, women and allies” as well as “GNC” (gender nonconforming) and “BIPOC” (Black, Indigenous and people of color) individuals.
“We’ll be there!!” promises Proud Boys New Jersey in a social media post Monday. “If you don’t want to see us out in front of your establishment, don’t invite children to your drag show.” The posting appears to have been widely circulated among Proud Boy groups in and out of New Jersey, as well as on various right-wing social media outlets.
The concert is the latest in a series presented by Democratic candidates for the Sussex County Board of County Commissioners Damaris Lira and Camila DiResta, who say they are merely trying to celebrate diversity in a county that is overwhelmingly white, rural and Republican.
Lira, in an interview with NJ Spotlight News, said she expects a small crowd of about 100 to 200 supporters who will gather at a brewery along with several bands for six hours of live music. Despite reports being circulated by the Proud Boys and their supporters, she said, there will be no drag show.
“We’ve had three other events and they all have been friendly and peaceful,” said Lira, a paralegal who moved to Sussex County from Clifton five years ago. “This is the first time we’ve gotten any kind of threat. I find it, frankly, hilarious. If I let myself get afraid over this kind of nonsense I’d never get anything done.”
At least one left-leaning activist group, the New Brunswick-based One People’s Project, says it is coming to Franklin Borough on Saturday to support Lira and DiResta. The group has confronted members of the Proud Boys and other right-wing groups in recent years in New Jersey, Pennsylvania and other states.
Two years ago, Daryle Lamont Jenkins, the founder of One People’s Project, chased a quartet of Proud Boys out of downtown Princeton as they attempted to post right-wing leaflets in Palmer Square. Their aggressive tactics have been showcased in a Netflix documentary series.
“If you don’t stand up against this kind of hate, it spreads,” said Jenkins in an interview this week. “We’ll be on hand in Sussex County this Saturday.”
Attempts to reach Proud Boys members and their founder, New York state resident Gavin McInnes, were not successful. Several postings on Proud Boys social media accounts said they were concerned that the Sussex County event would exclude men and be a bad example for children.
Denies race hate
The group denies its philosophy is based on race hate and says it works to protect white “culture” and traditions. The Proud Boys describe themselves as members of a “pro-Western fraternal organization for men who refuse to apologize for creating the modern world, aka Western Chauvinists.“
Human rights groups in America and Canada, where the Proud Boys have been officially deemed a terrorist group, say the organization is ramping up attacks on LGBTQ and abortion-rights supporters.
The Southern Poverty Law Center cited 28 occasions in the first six months of 2022 on which the Proud Boys harassed or protested peaceful LGBTQ and pro-choice events. More than 40 members face charges connected to the Jan. 6 riot, including charges of seditious conspiracy. In 2021, the number of Proud Boys chapters across the country rose to 72 from 43 in 2020, according to SPLC.
Credit: (www.liraanddiresta.com)Shawn Price, a Rockaway Township resident who was vice-president of a local Proud Boys chapter, pled guilty to felony charges connected with his role in interfering with police officers in breaching the U.S. Capitol grounds Jan. 6. Price was one of 10 to 12 members of his chapter who traveled to Washington that day, federal prosecutors said.
In early April, the New Jersey Attorney General’s Office said its number of officially recognized bias-related incidents in the state for 2021 was 1,871. That is the most recorded since 1994. The trend showed a 20% increase in just a single year, and a 400% increase since 2015, when the state recorded 367 incidents.
“New Jersey has been a nationwide leader in taking comprehensive steps to prevent and combat prejudice and hate, but this year’s record-high number of reported bias incidents should serve as a reminder that we still have plenty of work to do,” Attorney General Matthew J. Platkin said at the time.
Where Sussex County stands
Sussex County, with a population of 145,543 in 2020, is the fifth-smallest New Jersey county in terms of population. Census data shows the county is more than 85% white, with more than 40% living in rural areas as opposed to cities or suburban settings.
Republicans outnumber Democrats by nearly a two-to-one margin in voter registration in the county. Former President Donald Trump carried Sussex by 20 points in 2020 and by 30 points four years earlier. The county is the setting for an upcoming episode of HBO’s “We’re Here,” an acclaimed series about drag queens touring smalltown America.
Lira and DiResta face an uphill battle in their effort to break into a county government controlled by Republicans for decades. “We don’t have much of a chance, but we’re trying to show that this county should be more than just some rural homophobic place,” Lira said.
William “Bill” Hayden, a Republican running against Lira and DiResta, did not respond to a message seeking comment. Hayden’s Facebook page shows him outfitted in cowboy hat and red bandana, riding a horse. On Oct. 3, he posted Lira and DiResta’s “femme fest“ flyer on his page “The left want to force this woke agenda down your throats,” Hayden wrote.
Bill Winkler, a Republican political consultant who advises the Sussex County GOP, said Hayden was a “blue-collar conservative and populist who puts things in a pithy way.”
The Democrats who ridicule Hayden and conservatives like him, don’t understand the county and its people, Winkler said. He said Sussex County people still identify with old-fashioned religious values, “not a bunch of flamboyant gay guys.”
“The Democrats who talk about identity politics all the time don’t realize that Sussex already has an identity as churchgoing, traditional people with traditional values,” Winkler said. “Maybe if they started talking more about kitchen-table issues they’d win an election.”
