In February 2019, on an encrypted chat platform, members of the white power accelerationist group The Base had a long discussion on a topic that had recently become a preoccupation: how to strike back against the antifascist or “antifa” activists who had again exposed the identity of one of their number.

The right-wing attack on transgender people has ramped up in 2021, with a record number of 82 anti-trans bills introduced in state legislatures this year in some 28 states, surpassing last year’s count of 79 bills. About half the bills are bans that bar trans students from competing in school sports as the gender with which they identify. Others attempt to criminalize gender-affirming care for trans youth and, in some cases, adults.