A film crew affiliated with Turning Point USA allegedly pushed an ASU English professor to the ground while trying to confront him about a drag story hour group he co-founded.


The right-wing group Turning Point USA has found itself at the center of a hate crime investigation after two local members of the group allegedly assaulted a queer professor at Arizona State University on Wednesday.

Two members identified of the conservative group waited outside the classroom of David Boyles, an English professor at the college and co-founder of Drag Story Hour Arizona, according to a statement by ASU President Michael Crow. The pair then harassed and shoved him to the ground, ā€œbloodying his face,ā€ Crow wrote in a letter to faculty and staff.

ā€œThis is the kind of outrageous conduct that you would expect to see from bullies in a high school cafeteria,ā€ wrote Crow. In security camera footage captured by the ASU Police Department, two men clad in all black clothing can be seen surrounding Boyles as he passes through a courtyard. As Boyles reaches his arm out toward their camera, one of the men, identified as Kalen Dā€™Almeida, runs up behind Boyles and forcefully knocks him to the ground.

ā€œYou canā€™t run,ā€ Dā€™Almeida told Boyles in a clip of the altercation posted the following day, according to NBC. ā€œItā€™s best if you just talk to me on why you want to push sodomy to young people.ā€ In a Facebook post sharing his condition, Boyles said his injuries were ā€œrelatively minorā€ but that the incident left him feeling ā€œangry, violated, embarrassed, and despairingā€ that society has come to ā€œnormalize this kind of harassment and violence against anyone who tries to support LGBTQ+ youth.ā€

Police are investigating the altercation as a ā€œpotential bias or prejudicially motivated incident,ā€ reported KPNX-TV. ā€œCowards that they are and so confident in the legality and appropriateness of their actions, the Turning Point USA ā€˜reporterā€™ and ā€˜cameramanā€™ then ran away from the scene before police arrived,ā€ Crow noted.

link: https://newrepublic.com/post/176271/queer-arizona-state-university-professor-injured-right-wing-activists

archive: https://archive.ph/5fE5N

  • pinkdrunkenelephants@lemmy.cafe
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    1 year ago

    And here come the bootlickers šŸ¤¦šŸ¤¦šŸ¤¦

    Iā€™m sure thatā€™ll be a great comfort to the millions of innocent LGBTQ+ people youā€™re throwing into a meat grinder because you care more about going to 7-11 and McDonaldā€™s than you do about their lives.

    • Phoenixz@lemmy.ca
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      1 year ago

      And here come the ā€œI donā€™t know how to read but I do know how to RHHEEEEE folkā€

      If it falls within your comprehension; Iā€™m trying to say that arming yourself isnā€™t going to protect you and it will make everything much worse for everyone .

      Iā€™m also trying to say that, while this is a bad event, itā€™s important to remember that life is safer for all LGBT folk than it has ever been before. Had you loved 20 years back we wouldnā€™t even be having this discussion. Sowing fear and panic will get you just that; fear and panic, and then the bodies start piling up.

      There is a lot to be done still to make things better. RHHEEEEE is not one of these things. Grow up.

      • Bleeping Lobster@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        that life is safer for all LGBT folk than it has ever been before

        In some ways, but not in others. The hard right around the world is ramping up attacks (both in the courts and the streets) on us. I donā€™t mean this as some sort of gotcha, but are you LGBT yourself? As itā€™s hard to understand the fear, pressure and threats we experience day to day if youā€™re not.

        • Phoenixz@lemmy.ca
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          1 year ago

          I am, and yes, it IS. Have you read any history yourself? As itā€™s hard to understand the reason and tranquillity if you havenā€™t.

          Being anything LGBT was a surefire way to get beaten up, killed, raped or whatnot for most of the entirety of human history until really the past two decades and even then itā€™s only acceptable in a few countries.

          Since I think itā€™s safe to assume you live in one of those countries, yes, being LGBT is safer than ever before, even with attacks and what not. Did you really believe that in the past we were all Kumbaya together?

      • pinkdrunkenelephants@lemmy.cafe
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        1 year ago

        And here comes the blatant and obnoxious projection, patronizing talk to disguise the fact that you have nothing substantive to say, and troll baiting.

        Youā€™re not gonna convince us of obvious lies. We are capable of defending ourselves especially when armed.

        Youā€™re not going to convince us to support the system right or wrong when we are literally going to die at the hands of right wingers, the cops and the rich.

        Youā€™re not going to break our consensus that this is bad and demonstrates the very real need for every LGBTQ+ person in the United States to arm themselves.

        Lick that boot elsewhere. Forum slide elsewhere.

        • Phoenixz@lemmy.ca
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          1 year ago

          Dear godā€¦

          What part was blatant obnoxious projection? The party where I said that youā€™re safer now than 30 years ago? Iā€™m sorry if facts are obnoxious to you, I canā€™t help it that reality is what it is.

          We are capable of defending ourselves especially when armed.

          Yeeaaahhh, no youā€™re not. Iā€™ve see your types working on ā€œself defenseā€ and face palming aside, itā€™s a joke. Weapons would serve you only to harm yourself, donā€™t do it.

          Youā€™re not going to convince us to support the system right or wrong when we are literally going to die at the hands of right wingers, the cops and the rich.

          Iā€™m not, and they are not. You are yelling bloody murder over what clearly is an isolated incident, something that would have been much, MUCH worse and more regular 39 years ago. Iā€™m trying to explain to you that youā€™re not helping anyone and that your behavior is actually actively harming people, including yourself, but youā€™re the ā€œI know better than factsā€ type, which not so coincidentally, is the same type of person that keeps yelling about the dangers of LGBTā€¦ Trying to convince either of you about how the real world works is just impossible.

          Obviously Iā€™m the enemy to you because I disagree with you and youā€™re not the type to listen (let alone respond) to reason but since you donā€™t have anything constructive to say, youā€™ll just girl insults and slogans at me.

          Do whatever you gotta do man. Live in fear. Arm yourself. Kill some of your enemies and see how you make everything worse for everybody. Go be a dick.