On February 10th, families gathered at Colors+ Youth Center in northeast Ohio’s Fairview Park to hear stories read by Veranda L’Ni, Cleveland’s tallest drag queen.
Wearing a bright orange wig and a frock adorned with smiling fruit, L’Ni read from books like “I Am Peace,” which encourages kindness, compassion, and self-awareness during times of stress.
Outside, things were distinctly more…stressful.
The Proud Boys are a far-right, neo-fascist militant organization classified by the Southern Poverty Law Center as an active hate group. In Ohio, the group operates at least four major chapters.
When the group had promised a presence at the event, Colors+ supporters showed up in force: outnumbering the Proud Boys by a ratio of 10:1, effectively keeping them a safe distance away from the LGBTQ+ youth and family center.
With another Drag Story Hour scheduled March 9, the Proud Boys have discussed online that they plan to be present outside the event.
In a screenshot obtained by The Buckeye Flame, Proud Boys members directly referenced a Buckeye Flame headline noting the group’s low turnout at the previous month’s Drag Story Hour: “Were going to show yall what ‘outnumbered…by a lot’ really means.”
This has prompted LGBTQ+ equality organizers to do what they do: organize.
Since protests began against Drag Story Hours, Ohioans across the state have been assembling a supportive presence to stand between neo-Nazis and the families who attend these events.
To get a sense of the mindset and fortitude it takes to create these human buffers, The Buckeye Flame spoke with three Ohio organizers about their experiences in this unique – and fraught – space. Their responses have been edited for length.
Paula Kampf (she/her)
Paula Kampf (she/her) is a Cleveland-based community organizer, social justice advocate and civic engagement leader, recently recognized by the Northwest Neighborhoods Community Development Corporation for her founding and leadership of the Angels In Action-CLE grassroots effort to support Drag Story Hours in Northeast Ohio.
Kampf additionally founded VoterDrive (a nonpartisan group committed to literally and figuratively driving Cleveland voters to the polls), served on the Artistic Staff of Near West Theatre for over a decade, and runs progressive and Democratic advocacy and election campaigns.
Sam Shim (he/him)
Sam Shim (he/him) has committed himself to diversity and representation. In addition to his work at the Honesty for Ohio Education coalition, he is also a dedicated community activist and organizer. Sam also sits on the Board of The Buckeye Flame.
Sam is a state co-coordinator for Parasol Patrol, an inspiring initiative that provides a protective wall of rainbow umbrellas at events, shielding children from hate and spreading the joy of acceptance in Ohio and beyond.
Atlee McFellin (he/him)
Atlee McFellin (he/him) is a cisgender hetero white male who was raised in a big way by his late maternal grandmother. She grew up in Nazi Germany and was part Romani, a people most commonly referred to by the derogatory slang term of “gypsy.”
Atlee was raised on the stories of her traumatic youth, so he has a deeply personal connection to the struggle against fascism. Never again means never again.
Atlee’s late grandmother lived with a paralyzing degree of survivor guilt because, ultimately, the Nazi’s allowed her to survive. She also felt like it was mistake to have married his late grandfather, especially because he was related to the man Hitler chose to replace him in the event of his death. So, in addition to being part Romani, Atlee is also related to the last Nazi Fuhrer. Ask him and he’ll show you the scars he has because of this.
His grandmother told him the day would come when he had to make a choice. Would he choose to be passive, like her and her parents, or would he choose to stand up and fight back? After far too long, he finally feels as though he’s making the correct choice. He hopes he can, in some small way, help other people make the correct choice too.
Can you talk a bit about your path to organizing?
SS: Deep down inside, I’m more of an organizer than a politician.
Being an elected official for eight years was kind of tough because you have to kind of silence yourself, and silence is giving power to the oppressor. Now as an organizer, I can amplify as much as I want. I don’t have to worry about pushback or feedback.
If you just stand for your own issues, you can’t expect others to come and support you.
AM: My path started when I was in the first grade because my grandmother took me to Germany. We walked the streets where she grew up.
A couple months after we got back, she started explaining to me what it was like for her growing up in Hiter’s Germany. That put me on a very particular path. She literally showed me the Jewish-owned china shop up the street from where she grew up. She survived, they didn’t. End of story.
My first success was a stated-wide coalition of more than 100 peace and justice organizations in Michigan. I built it from scratch by driving around the state in my spare time, doing exactly what I’m doing now: talking about my family’s past.
PK: When I was in fifth grade, my dad was president of the school board in my tiny town out in Ashtabula County. For some reason, we didn’t get both Martin Luther King Day and Presidents’ Day off. And I thought that was just really unfair and wrong in a way that only a fifth grader could think that.
So I wrote a petition on a little piece of notebook paper, made everybody in my class sign it, and then mailed it to the school board of all stupid ass things, because I had a school board member living in my house! And the school had to consider this petition.
It’s just in my DNA. I come from a family of people who really believed in showing up for things.
Why this type of organizing? Standing between neo-Nazis and LGBTQ families?
AM: When I went to one of the drag story hours, there was somebody there who was in the process of transitioning. They looked very scared being there because there was quite a presence of protesters across the street. That really hit me.
I looked into that person’s eyes and saw that fear. For somebody who has the courage as a trans person who’s transitioning to show up? That’s it.
It’s like that [Martin Niemöller] quote, “First they came for [those different populations of people], and I stood silent.” In today’s America, they’re coming for drag queens first. Drag queens have to wear bulletproof vests because they get death threats constantly. This is the America we live in.
PK: I raised two kids, one of whom is queer. But it doesn’t even matter whether or not I have a queer child. I want to live in a place where both of them know that we’re all together and we should all be doing things for each other.
Fascism isn’t okay. It’s creeping up on us and attacking everyone. To attack children and families and stories in a space where someone who is just vibrant and creative and loving is pulling all of those things together is unacceptable. And we can’t back down and not act.
SS: Like Gandhi, passive resistance is the most effective way, including not engaging at all, even when there are assault rifles in presence. We are always trying to find the middle ground of making sure we take a stand, but also not letting them engage with us.
I know how things can escalate. With Parasol Patrol, we try to be in the middle. We want to form a shield, primarily for the kids who should not should not be exposed to these gate groups. We don’t engage. We don’t talk back when they call us “groomers” or whatnot. We just don’t react.
We have our rainbow umbrellas and we just form a shield. We protect the kids. We escort kids if needed or escort families and we just have a safety plan.
What do you want Ohioans reading this to actually do?
SS: I want more of the public to understand that what these extremist groups do is they terrorize. It’s a form of terrorism. We don’t like to say it. We try to define terrorism very, very narrowly. And often there’s an underlying view that terrorists are not American citizens. But here we have terrorism from American citizens towards American citizens.
For people that want to do something, there are groups to support, everyone from The Buckeye Flame to Equality Ohio to Parasol Patrol to Kaleidoscope Youth Center that you can donate to or volunteer your time. As far as protests, there’s a debate. Do we have no presence and not let them get any reaction or do we need to push back at least in some ways to keep their movement from growing? We just want to make sure we are there because we need to stop this from spreading.
PK: Show up in your community, whether you’re coming to a Drag Story Hour as a participant with some kids you know, or you’re coming to stand and put your body on the line between goodness/creativity and hate or putting your body on the line between love and hate.
That’s what we do. But not everybody can literally put their physical body on that line. So show up to city council, speak at public comment or write letters to the editor. Just show up.
AM: I want people to understand that we have power.
There’s so much telling us to be afraid, to hide away, to let people in positions of authority do something instead of people taking it upon themselves. And I think it is imperative that communities across Ohio, across the country, grow their capacity to do things like show up at places like Colors+.
We don’t have to sit back and wait for what may or may not happen in the future. Maybe our immediate future is rosy and joyful and everything works out, right?
I want that to be the case, but I also know that we have to both hope for the best and plan for the worst. And to plan for the worst means recognizing that we have power, that we don’t need to be afraid, and that we can organize, that we can come together, we can defend our communities from those who literally want to exterminate us.
What do you have to say to those who want to show up but are scared/nervous?
SS: For pretty much at any of these events, we meet beforehand, either the day or night before.
We do training. We talk about how we operate. If you’re not comfortable, it’s okay to leave or it’s okay to be in the background, far away and just record with a camera or just sit in the car and just watch.
Or you can go home because we’re not trying to trigger anyone’s anxiety or stress. We don’t want any volunteers to be in fear. Physical safety and mental safety is very important when we organize these events.
AM: Talk to your friends, talk to your coworkers, talk to anyone who you think feels threatened and suffers as a result of that. Ask them, “Do you want to get together? Do you want to organize? Do you think being active is necessary?” That will help
PK: Look, I’m always a little nervous and a little scared. Being a little nervous and a little scared and choosing to stand up anyway is what courage is.
We have to have some courage to stand in the face of hate. It’s risky, but there are risks that you have to take for love, and there are risks that you have to take if the world is going to be a good place. It’s always a little scary, but it’s also always joy, and it’s also always worth it. 🔥
