J6ers and Proud Boys Among Anti-LGBT Crowd Outside Glendale School Board Meeting

An array of far-right figures turned out to protest at a school board meeting in Glendale, California, which ended in a brawl and an arrest.

Jan. 6 rioter Tony Moon attended the protest, as did fellow Capitol insurrectionist Siaka Massaquoi, and Proud-Boy affiliated Adam Keifer. The fringe far-right figures joined a group of demonstrators angry about LGBTQ+ content in Glendale’s school curriculum.

Nothing LGBT-related was on the school board’s agenda on Tuesday, but a large crowd gathered with t-shirts reading “Leave Our Kids Alone.”

A pro-LGBT rally planned outside the meeting was canceled at the last minute due to the organizers receiving threats. Nonetheless, a group of supporters from Queer Nation LA attended to support pro-LGBT parents inside the school board meeting.

“I don’t know where I would have been without [Queer Nation] last night,” Emily, a parent with a child in the Glendale school district, who asked to be referred to only by her first name due to fear of retaliation, told The Daily Beast. The activists helped escort Emily and other parents back to their cars after they left the school board meeting.

Emily used her speaking time in the meeting to thank the school board and tell them they have the support of many pro-LGBT parents in the district.

“This is so upsetting and shocking that it’s happening in my kid’s school district,” Emily said, explaining that the continued protests are taking a toll on the community. “A lot of these parents have been harassed so much they are scared to come forward.”

Moon, a self-described “Christian patriot” and “antifa hunter,” also attended the June 6 protests in Glendale. He was present at the Jan. 6 riot, although he has not been arrested in relation to the insurrection and told the Daily Mail he did not go inside the Capitol.

Moon told this reporter to “learn to code” when asked for comment.

Massaquoi, who was signing people up to vote at a fold-out table during the rally, appeared in social media videos from Jan. 6 showing him outside the Capitol. Massaquoi, an actor, was involved in anti-masking and anti-vaccine protests in Los Angeles in 2021, including one which shut down a vaccine site at Dodger Stadium.

Massaquoi did not respond to a request for comment.

Keifer is a Southern California-based trucker with links to the Proud Boys (although he has denied being a member), who also attended the Glendale school board meeting earlier this month. Keifer has been traveling the country and attending rallies outside different school boards. In April, photographer Kelly Stuart filmed him outside a Chino Valley School District school board meeting, calling her a series of slurs, including “tr---y-loving, demon c--t.”

Keifer did not respond to a request for comment.

Stuart, who documents the far-right and has covered the demonstration, told The Daily Beast the atmosphere at the rally felt “unsafe” as the pro-LGBT faction was “vastly outnumbered.”

Riot police separated the two sides for much of the evening, but a brawl broke out after the school board meeting had finished, leading to one arrest. The Glendale Police Department did not respond to a request for comment on whether any charges had been filed.

Jordan Henry, a right-wing political activist who has become a leader in the movement for “parental rights” in the district, pointed Stuart out to other anti-LGBT protestors on a bullhorn.

“She is a media extension of antifa,” Henry told the crowd. “She wants to expose you and get your face on camera so antifa knows who you are. This is not a good person.”

Anti-LGBT protestors then surrounded Stuart and stole camera batteries out of her bag, she told The Daily Beast. Police escorted her out of the anti-LGBT side of the demonstration.

Henry did not respond to a request for comment.

Independent journalist Tina Desiree Berg was also covering the demonstration.

“I’ve never seen such intense homophobic rage,” Berg told The Daily Beast of the anti-LGBT protestors.

Berg is very familiar with Moon. In August 2021, Moon attacked her with a thermos at an anti-vaccine protest and ripped off her mask, while yelling, “Unmask them all!” The incident was caught on film.

This is the second time this month that a demonstration outside a Glendale school board meeting has turned violent. The Daily Beast identified Jan. 6 Capitol rioters and Proud Boys at a June 6 demonstration outside a meeting discussing whether the district would recognize Pride Month.

At that rally, a fight broke out between the pro- and anti-LGBT factions, and three people were arrested for unlawful use of pepper spray and obstructing police officers. Rev. Mike Kinman, a rector at All Saints Church in nearby Pasadena, who attended the rally to support pro-LGBT demonstrators, was pepper-sprayed in the face.