Gay and transgender liberals across the country are up in arms over fears they will be rounded up and thrown into “concentration camps” under the second Trump administration, a report says.
of philadelphia inquirer On Sunday, he introduced several members of the emerging gun-toting left, affiliated with groups with names like the Liberal Gun Club, the Socialist Rifle Association and the Pink Pistols.
While exact numbers on LGBTQ gun ownership are difficult to ascertain given the small population, liberal gun clubs have received “thousands” of requests for firearms training since the election, more than in all of 2023. That's about a quarter of that total, he said. One of them was people from the LGBTQ community.
“Three months before the election, that's when the alarm bells started ringing,” said a 24-year-old transgender woman, identified only as “A” by the paper, who recently decided to buy a gun.
“It's even more difficult to legally suppress armed minorities,” she said, expressing relief that she was ready to fight back “in the event of a hate crime or terrorist attack.”
The Philadelphia chapter of the Socialist Rifle Association, the left-leaning wing of the National Rifle Association, said it is experiencing a “surge” in paid memberships and that its gun safety classes are filling up quickly and needing to be added. .
The Delaware Valley branch of the Pink Pistols, a gay gun group whose slogan is “No armed gays will be bashed,” similarly told the newspaper that it has been inundated with inquiries from people seeking firearms training. .
The group is based on an article published in Salon in which author Jonathan Rauch says, “Homosexuals should begin a systematic effort to familiarize themselves with guns and learn how to use and carry them safely.” It was established in 2000 in response to the
Wake Forest University sociology professor David Yamane, author of “Gun Curious,” told the Inquirer that a cultural shift in gun ownership is underway in the United States, and that since 2020, gun ownership has become more widespread among minorities, including gay men. He said the group is “leading the way” among novice gun owners.
“It was a time of tremendous social unrest and social uncertainty, and many people in the United States turned to firearms to restore some sense of safety and security under those circumstances. “There is,” he said.
Matthew Thompson, who lives in Oakland, New Jersey, told the magazine that he was inspired to buy his first gun after the 2016 mass shooting at Pulse, a gay nightclub in Orlando, Florida, that killed 49 people.
The Pulse attack, the deadliest mass shooting in U.S. history, was carried out by a local supporter of Islamic terrorism named Omar Mateen.
Both then-President Barack Obama and then-presidential candidate Donald Trump denounced the horrific massacre as a direct attack on the LGBTQ community. However, evidence unearthed in the years since Mateen knew nothing. Pulse was a gay nightclub when he started setting fires.
According to the newspaper, Thompson travels around the country to participate in “leather and bear events,” wearing a gun inside the house and pulling it out as soon as the timer on his cell phone goes off. He says he is trying to improve his gun skills at home.
“The left-wing people I've met, the gay men who have come to buy their first gun, it's all about self-defense and fear,” said Thompson, 36. Raid the capital. We just don't want to end up in concentration camps. ”
Meanwhile, the number of Republican women is also on the rise, with 33% from 2019 to 2024 compared to just 19% from 2007 to 2012, according to a recent Gallup poll. He said he owned a gun.
At the same time, gun ownership among Democratic men has declined in recent years, dropping from 36% from 2007 to 2012 to just 29% from 2019 to 2024.
