Offensive Texts Targets LGBT Community

Donald Trump may claim - when does he not lie? - that he knows nothing about Project 2025, largely a white "Christian" nationalist agenda, but his cabinet nominations and mass deportation plans show that his regime is posed to go full speed ahead in implementing that agenda.  Equally frightening for black, Hispanic and LGBT Americans is the atmosphere which is encouraging the spewing of hate against communities targeted by Project 2025.  Hate filled text have targeted blacks and told them among other things to report to plantations and Hispanics have been threatened with deportation.  Now, LGBT Americans have been added to the target list even as a MAGA Republican has introduced a bill that would bar transgender individuals from using restrooms in the U. S. Capitol.  Fear is palpable within elements of the LGBT community as Project 2025 and its devotes seek to end same sex marriage, repeal non-discrimination protections and even revive sodomy laws to criminalize same sex relationships.  Indeed, some worry just how bad things may get and I will admit I've check a few resources on moving abroad if it becomes necessary.  It is frightening that people we know voted for this kind of hatred. A piece in the New York Times looks at the current text threats to LGBT citizens.  Here are highlights:

A wave of offensive text messages and emails has gone out to Hispanic and L.G.B.T.Q. people in recent days, according to the F.B.I., coming on the heels of a barrage of racist texts that were sent to Black people in the wake of the election.

The F.B.I. said in a statement on Friday that some recipients of the latest messages were told they had been selected for deportation. Others were instructed to report to a “re-education camp” for L.G.B.T.Q. people, the agency said, an apparent reference to conversion therapy or other coercive practices aimed at altering a person’s sexual orientation or gender identity.

The messages were the latest in a series of offensive content that started popping up just hours after the presidential race was called for Donald J. Trump the morning after Election Day. . . . Some of the messages also made a reference to Mr. Trump — some even claimed to be from his administration — but a spokesman for his campaign said it had “absolutely nothing to do with these text messages.”

Misogynistic social media posts also surged in the aftermath of the election, with phrases like “your body, my choice” and “get back to the kitchen” proliferating online.

Diana Brier, 41, who identifies as lesbian, said she was shocked after receiving one of the texts targeting L.G.B.T.Q. people last Sunday. The message she got referred to an executive order and instructed her to check in to be transported to an undisclosed location for an “LGB re-education camp.” It also mentioned Mr. Trump and the date of his inauguration.

Ms. Brier said the specificity of the message had unsettled her. While she knew it was not real, she said it made her worry about what could happen to L.G.B.T.Q. people under the new Trump administration.

“The timing is not a coincidence,” Ms. Brier said, referring to when the message arrived and what it said. “There’s a lot of concern among my queer friends about what’s going to happen to us.”

The F.B.I. did not clarify how widespread the recent round of messages was or how the senders got the recipients’ identities. It was also unclear whether the messages came from the same source as the texts that targeted Black people.

Kelley Robinson, the president of the Human Rights Campaign, an L.G.B.T.Q. civil rights group, said in a statement that the hateful rhetoric could have real-life consequences.  “But hate will not silence us,” she said.