WASHINGTON, D.C. — On Oct. 31, news broke that a business based in Tulsa, Oklahoma, the Donut Hole, was vandalized when someone threw a Molotov cocktail — a hand-thrown incendiary weapon — after hosting an event involving drag queens. It was the second time the shop had been vandalized within three weeks.
In response to this violent attack, the Human Rights Campaign (HRC), the nation's largest LGBTQ+ civil rights organization, issued the following statement:
"This week in Tulsa, we saw the latest in an ever-growing list of violent attacks against the LGBTQ+ community. Our hearts are with the business owners and local community," said Joni Madison, Interim President of the Human Rights Campaign. "In recent months, we have seen anti-LGBTQ+ rhetoric, discrimination and harassment spike on social media, driven by a small group of extremist politicians and their allies. This attack, which comes on the heels of bomb threats to hospitals that provide care to transgender youth, and threats to drag shows and Pride parades, shows that there are real life consequences to online harassment beyond the screen.
"These disgusting actions taken against a small business will do nothing to deter us in our fight for equality and liberation for all LGBTQ+ people."
Nearly 1 in 5 of any type of hate crime is now motivated by anti-LGBTQ+ bias, and the last two years have been the deadliest for transgender people, especially Black transgender women, we have seen since we began tracking fatal violence against the community.
Online anti-LGBTQ+ rhetoric has, over recent weeks and months, grown increasingly violent and harassing, often crossing into physical spaces as seen in this attack. Last month, HRC joined with the Center for Countering Digital Hate to produce Digital Hate: Social Media's Role in Amplifying Dangerous Lies About LGBTQ+ People, a report detailing how In the wake of the passage of Florida's discriminatory "Don't Say Gay or Trans" bill, extremist politicians and their allies engineered an unprecedented and dangerous anti-LGBTQ+ misinformation campaign that saw discriminatory and inflammatory "grooming" content surge by over 400% across social media platforms.
The Human Rights Campaign is America's largest civil rights organization working to achieve lesbian, gay, bisexual transgender and queer equality. By inspiring and engaging all Americans, HRC strives to end discrimination against LGBT citizens and realize a nation that achieves fundamental fairness and equality for all.
