Republicans’ Anti-LGBTQ Conspiracy Theories Are Fueling Far-Right Threats to Pride Celebrations

In recent months, threats to confront Pride celebrations with armed protest or “hunting” LGBTQ people and allies, have raised fears of how Republicans in state legislatures have enabled an environment for anti-LGBTQ violence and emboldened far right extremists.

At the end of April, Republican Idaho state representative Heather Scott held an event billed as a talk on removing “inappropriate materials” from libraries and schools. She warned of an ongoing “war of perversion against our children,” propagated by the LGBTQ community, then invited two members of the Panhandle Patriots Riding Club (or PPRC) to the stage. The combination of casual threats of violence, the group’s iconography, and the fact that they were invited to speak by a state lawmaker led to pushback online and locally.

Supreme Court blocks Texas social media moderation ban
A Texas law that would have banned much social media moderation is once again on hold. In a 5-4 ruling handed down today, the Supreme Court vacated an earlier decision by the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals, meaning that HB 20—which forbids banning, demonetizing, or downranking Texas users’ posts based on “viewpoint”—will be blocked while a lawsuit over its constitutionality proceeds.
THE VERGE

Amazon employees protest the sale of books they say are anti-trans
A group of Amazon employees on Wednesday disrupted a Pride Month event at the company’s headquarters in Seattle, protesting the company’s continued sale of books they say are anti-trans. See PEN America’s statement.
THE WASHINGTON POST

Johnny Depp jury finds that Amber Heard defamed him in op-ed
The jury in Virginia found that Ms. Heard had damaged her ex-husband’s reputation with an op-ed in which she identified herself as a “public figure representing domestic abuse.” Mackenna White, a lawyer who counsels people as to the risks of publishing potentially contested accusations of sexual misconduct, said she worried that the online mockery of Ms. Heard would make some less likely to come forward. “If you’re someone who’s worried about what could happen if you speak out, this could have the same chilling effect that we’ve been trying to reverse all these years,” said Ms. White. 
THE NEW YORK TIMES

Myanmar’s junta shuts down publisher for distributing book on Rohingya genocide
Myanmar’s military regime has shut down a well-known publishing house in Yangon for importing and distributing a book on the 2017 Rohingya genocide, junta-controlled state newspapers said Wednesday.
RADIO FREE ASIA

Foreign governments are aggressively targeting dissidents on U.S. soil
The United States has long served as a place of refuge for those fleeing repressive governments. But as authoritarianism creeps across the world and social media grants dissidents a border-crossing megaphone, exiled activists are facing increasingly aggressive blowback from the countries they fled.
THE WASHINGTON POST

Russian journalist to auction Nobel Medal to benefit Ukraine
Dmitri A. Muratov, whose newspaper Novaya Gazeta was shuttered in response to the Kremlin’s increasingly draconian censorship, will donate the proceeds to Ukrainian refugees. Novaya Gazeta has long been known for its reporting from conflict zones, its investigations and its campaigns on behalf of children with rare diseases or families in hardship. “They occupy a space between journalism and activism,” said Polina Sadovskaya, PEN America’s Eurasia program director.
THE NEW YORK TIMES

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