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It would be easy to write off Libs of TikTok as just another far-right, anti-LGBTQ social media account, but Michael Edison Hayden, an investigative journalist with the Southern Poverty Law Center, tells The New Abnormal that we do so at our own peril.
He tells Andy Levy that while its founder, Chaya Raichik, may appear to be little more than a social media grifter benefiting from a wave of anti-LGBTQ sentiment, she commands the attention of many dangerous hate groups.
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Hayden notes that after Raichik flagged a pride event in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, in June 2022 on social media, the white supremacist Patriot Front group, with which she is not affiliated, turned up to protest.
“I believe 31 members of Patriot Front ended up coming out of a U-Haul in an attempt to harass and outnumber the people who are there to celebrate pride together,” he says. “The cops were onto it and everyone got arrested as soon as they got out of the U-Haul and nothing happened but could something have happened that would’ve been extremely violent? Absolutely.”
“There’s so many events like this where Raichik flags something about the LGBTQ+ community or the trans community and then threats of violence follow,” he says.
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Hayden says it was “hugely disappointing” that the Anti-Defamation League withdrew Raichik’s name from its list of extremists after she threatened legal action.
“I’m very disappointed in their decision. It really lets a lot of LGBTQIA people down,” he said.
Plus! The Daily Beast’s political reporter Jake Lahut discusses congressman Dean Phillips’ not-so-great start to his presidential campaign.
Listen to this full episode of The New Abnormal on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon and Stitcher.
