Americans are shocked that conservative Christian Charlie Kirk was assassinated because radicals on the left could not tolerate debating the issues with him on college campuses and elsewhere.
They also are surprised to learn of the deep interconnectedness and complicity of the LGBT community in the violence and hate coming from the left which has culminated in Kirk’s assassination.
They shouldn’t be. I have experienced this hate and violence for nearly two decades as I have advocated for traditional marriage, the biological basis of gender, and free speech.
It all began with Prop. 8 in 2008.
Proposition 8 was a state constitutional amendment in California defining marriage solely as the union of one man and one woman. My organization, the National Organization for Marriage (NOM), was primarily responsible for qualifying the measure to the ballot and we worked hard to secured its passage. Prop 8 passed in deep blue California with over 52% of the vote, winning by nearly a million votes.
Hate, harassment, vitriol and violence were core elements of the Prop 8 opposition campaign. Anyone who was for it was deemed to be mean, intolerant and bigoted.
Many of us working on that campaign faced death threats. I had more than one.
I also was assaulted by a gay activist while putting up a “Yes on 8” yard sign. A volunteer at a church rally was similarly assaulted. His injuries required emergency treatment at a local hospital.
The names and home addresses of donors were doxed and mashed up on a map, letting people know where to go to confront them. Donors were severely harassed. The longtime music director at musical theater was forced to resign following the doxxing. A mob of angry homosexual radicals mobbed a Mexican restaurant in southern California, demanding that a waitress who had donated $100 be fired. She, too, resigned. Brendan Eich, the brilliant inventor of Java Script programming and the CEO of Mozilla, was also forced out from the company he founded when it was revealed he donated $1,000 to the Yes on 8 campaign. Numerous businesses owned by Prop 8 supporters were boycotted and protested, including car dealerships and a family ice cream shop.
But that’s not all. White powder thought to be anthrax was sent to prominent churches and faith groups. Supporters with “Yes on 8” bumper stickers had their cars damaged and windows smashed. Roaming bands of young gays patrolled at night, stealing as many yard signs as they could gather (hundreds of thousands of them were stolen). They frequently met up at gay bars to celebrate their thefts. Our campaign manager had to hire armed security guards to protect his staff from LGBT radicals who had stormed his office.
Tragically, these attacks were not condemned by the media or political leaders. In fact, they were excused as “understandable” because many elites considered opposing gay ‘marriage’ to be “mean.” Law enforcement did almost nothing to the vandals and attackers.
The behavior of Prop 8 opponents taught the gay lobby a powerful lesson – they could get away with most anything simply by labeling their opponents as haters and bigots. The media was in their pocket and their characterizations were never challenged.
Naturally, since that time the attacks from the left have only escalated with LGBT radicals playing a prominent role. Peaceful pro-lifers have been arrested and prosecuted for praying outside abortion facilities, their homes raided by armed agents at dawn. Moms who objected at school board meetings to their children be force-fed LGBT issues in class have been labeled “domestic terrorists.” Dad’s who objected to their daughters being confronted by biological males in restrooms have been forcefully cuffed and arrested when they objected. Christian creative professionals – bakers, clothing designers, florists, etc. – have been sued, fined and in some cases put out of business by LGBT radicals.
In 2012 a radicalized homosexual activist armed himself and barged into the offices of the Family Research Council in Washington, and shot a security guard as he attempted to get to executives and assassinate them.
Imagine my shock when I learned that the assailant had a list of prominent conservatives that he wanted to murder and that I was on that list.
I led a peaceful pro-marriage rally in Providence, RI one summer. We had over 100 families with children present to hear uplifting messaging and enjoy some summer treats in the heat. Suddenly, we were surrounded by many hundreds – perhaps a thousand – of homosexual activists who descended on our peaceful rally. They threatened those in attendance. One of them tried to commandeer our microphone and shout me down. I refused to yield to their aggression.
At that same rally, my wife was tending to one of our small children in a stroller. A gay man in rainbow garb approached the baby and asked, “Is mommy raising a good little bigot?”
The Providence city police sat quietly by and did nothing as the tense and dangerous situation escalated.
Then in 2017 we experienced what can only be considered to be a precursor of the precise hate that ended in the assassination of Charlie Kirk when we sponsored a #FreeSpeechBus tour to highlight the biological nature of gender.
Our staff toured the northeast, stopping at universities, major urban centers and the United Nations complex in New York. We made the point that gender is determined by biology and not identity. But as important, we invited our opponents to debate the issues in a respectful way so the American people could decide for themselves.
The LGBT radicals who confronted us had zero interest in debating the issues. They shouted us down with slogans such as “Hate speech is not free speech.”
In Philadelphia we were also surrounded by an angry mob that threatened to attack our staff. The radicals included Antifa groups on the FBI watch list and were organized by the Philadelphia Mayor’s “Office of LGBT Affairs.”
In New York, LGBT and transgender radicals took a hammer to our bus, severely damaging the sides and knocking out windows. Our African American bus driver was assaulted and taken to the hospital for emergency medical care.
Transgender radicals were a major component of the attacks we faced. Pro trans messaging was painted across the bus.
The police did nothing.
Charlie Kirk quite appropriately said the “T” in LGBT stood for “tyrannical” and he was right. In recent years the transgender radicals have become partners with Antifa and work together to ensure that those of us who oppose their ideology pay a heavy price. A journalist even coined the phrase to describe them – “Trantifa.”
I came across an image of a pro transgender T-shirt being sold on Amazon that featured images of various assault weapons. You can see in the picture that the message is unmistakable – unless you agree to support the transgender agenda, then (“or else”) violence will come your way.
I led a nationwide protest against Amazon for selling something that quite obviously promoted violence against Christians and others who opposed their dangerous agenda. Amazon was forced to remove the item from its store.
Transgender activists prefer violence to free speech. In their twisted minds, words can be violent. If your words do not align with their ideology and worldview, then you are committing violence against them and they are justified in responding with violent actions to confront your “hate.’
Charlie Kiik paid the ultimate price because of tyrannical transgender ideology. His killer was a pro-trans radical who lived with and loved a man who was undergoing a “transition” from male to female. The killer openly associated with fellow Trantifa radicals, many of whom wildly celebrated when one of their own killed Charlie.
“We effing did it,” said one on social media when news of Kirk’s assassination spread.
This was not an isolated killing. Though the legacy media has gone to great lengths to bury the story, this is at least the 8th killing of innocent people by those who are transgender or pro-trans activists. Just two weeks ago a transgender radical gunned down nearly two dozen innocent children attending mass at a Catholic school before turning the weapon on himself.
Was the reaction of Democrat politicians and liberals to condemn the ideology that led to these killings? No, of course not. They demanded more gun control.
If there is anything positive that has come from the tragic killing of Charlie Kirk is that
the assassination has brought into sharp focus the stakes of the cultural battle we are waging for the truth of marriage, gender, life, religious liberty and similar cultural issues.
The left’s threats of death have now escalated to actually killing one of our most inspiring leaders.
It is time for the conservative movement and people of faith to stand together to fight against transgender ideology. The entire trans movement is based on a bald-faced lie – the idea that someone can be “born in the wrong body” and then undergo shocking medical procedures to “affirm” their delusion.
Charlie thought that adults who wished to live as the opposite sex were just “weird” but he was strongly opposed to children being introduced to trans ideology. He called the “transing” of children one of the greatest moral crimes of the century.
“It is full totalitarian control of your speech, of your children, of your body … It cloaks itself on its surface, the trans agenda, as live and let live… But it’s never been about that. Instead, it’s, no, Allow me to propagandize your 13-year-old child and then put them under general anesthesia and chop up their breasts because it’s good for them.”
As usual, Charle summed up the truth of the trans movement so succinctly and with such wisdom.
I have led the National Organization for Marriage (NOM) and the International Organization for the Family (IOF) in pressing Congress and the states to ban “gender affirming” care on minors, including hormone replacements and mutilating surgeries. We have had some good success. More than two-dozen states have done this, and President Trump has issued an Executive Order prohibiting these procedures on minors under threat of loss of federal funding to hospitals and universities. Several major hospitals have not ended their transgender procedures for teens as a result.
But given the violent and deadly nature of transgender ideology, I believe we have to go much further. This ideology is a disaster for those who get lured into it, and for society as a whole.
Over 80% of people who identify as transgender think about committing suicide. Over 40% of them actually attempt to kill themselves others.
What began with Prop 8 back in 2008 in California has culminated in the death of Charle Kirk. This progression of hate and violence makes clear what America risks if we allow transgender ideology to continue. We must root it out, ban it, and work to ensure those who suffer from the delusion of transgenderism get the mental health support they need.
What they – and America — don’t need are public policies that “affirm” their delusions.
Brian S. Brown is the President of both the National Organization for Marriage (NOM) and the International Organization for the Family (IOF). He has for many years been one of America’s most prominent social conservatives. He may be reached at bbrown@nationformarriage.org.