MassResistance (MR) is a chapter-based organization that demonizes LGBTQ+ people, strategically organizing and coordinating disinformation campaigns against inclusive policies at libraries and schools. MR uses anti-LGBTQ+ pseudoscience to incite disgust and hysteria toward LGBTQ+ events, literature and public policy, often generating aggressive anti-LGBTQ opposition at local and state levels. This group is known for its confrontational tactics including recording LGBTQ+ events, allies and supportive public officials.
Key Takeaways
- MassResistance has spent the past 30 years attempting to cast LGBTQ+ people as dangerous to society, themselves and children. This group traffics in anti-LGBTQ+ pseudoscience that links homosexuality to pedophilia, violence and disease and portrays trans women as sexual predators.
- Founder Brian Camenker has a history of infiltrating LGBTQ+ events to record and film participants, reportedly without their knowledge or consent. Camenker has falsely claimed Black Lives Matter destroys families and likened the movement to Nazi Germany.
- Arthur Schaper, prior to his current role as field director of MassResistance, had ties with white nationalists and anti-immigrant groups. Schaper referred to supporters of sanctuary cities as “Brown Nazis” and has reportedly complained about “welfare for illegals” despite collecting unemployment himself.
- MR’s intimidation campaigns are generally followed by protests at local drag events and LGBTQ+ events, particularly at childhood literacy programs hosted by drag performers at local libraries. MR has attempted to shut down Drag Queen Story Hour events using email and phone campaigns, even in locations where they do not have active chapters. MR’s Wyoming chapter has used this style of campaigning to get library personnel fired.
- Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene was a member of MassResistance prior to her election to Congress, participating in a 2019 protest against Drag Queen Story Hour in Alpharetta, Georgia.
Read the full MassResistance Extremist File here.
What You Can Do
You can speak up and advocate for more equitable and inclusive education initiatives, policies and curricula. Here are some resources to help you do just that:
Not Just a Joke: Understanding and Preventing Gender- and Sexuality-Based Bigotry
Best Practices for Serving LGBTQ Students Guide
Image at top: MassResistance founder Brian Camenker in Waltham, Massachusetts, in a photo from June 28, 2006. (Credit: AP Photo/William B. Plowman)