A new network of hate groups in the Pacific Northwest targets smaller Pride festivals

The hateful messages began as soon as Michelle Lee agreed to let Oregon City Pride use the Oregon City Children’s Theater, a small performance space she owns, and an adjacent parking lot for the June LGTBQ Pride festival.

“My phone, my daughter’s phone, our business phone,” were all targeted, she said. “Some are very brief and to the point, they just kind of yell like a single word or a single phrase.”

Other messages attacked Lee because the festival’s drag show was being held in her theater and was advertised as family friendly. In the days leading up to the June 24 pride festival, Lee said she saw people taking video of the theater from across the street or through the front windows.

“They were planning,” she said.

The onslaught of hateful messages and threats forced Oregon City Pride to change the location.

Moving the festival did not deter protesters, but it did confuse them. That day, a group of people spouting neo-Nazi views showed up to demonstrate on the corner near the theater, blocks away from the new location. They wore matching khakis and black shirts and facemasks to hide their identities.

Read more: OPB (Oregon)