The group seems to be associated with White Lives Matter, which by itself puts them on the endangered list.

In January 2023 the anti-trans hate hydra sprouted a new head on Telegram and Twitter. Project 171 gets its name from the same fashy alphanumeric system that white supremacists love—e.g., 88 for “Heil Hitler” or NSC-131 for “Anti-Communist Action.” In this case, 171 stands for A.G.A., or “Anti-Groomer Action.” The Project claims that it’s “nonpartisan and metapolitical,” its only goal to “save the children.” Like other hate groups with allegedly anodyne aims, though, it aims wide with stochastic violence.

Project 171 produces reams of images that can be printed as stickers and flyers, encouraging followers to distribute these locally to put the trans community on notice. Their logo looks like a family of cis bathroom icons, binary parents holding an umbrella over binary children. (One of their mottos: “Drag Shows aren’t for kids. 18+ gets rid of us.”) On Telegram, 171 encourages followers to share information about upcoming drag queen story hours or drag queen brunches, in hopes of shutting these events down.

171 is also proud of its training manual, which it shares in pinned posts and keeps urging all newcomers to read. The Conejo Valley Antifascists have noticed some suspicious similarities between this manual and the activist pdfs earlier circulated by White Lives Matter. In fact, they report, in December 2022 WLM promised on Telegram that they’d be publishing a revision of their manual. While the new WLM manual still hasn’t appeared, CVA researchers put the old one side by side with the “new” manual for Project 171, and found “identical format, organization, and in many cases cut and pasted text from one to the other.”

The similarities are on almost every page, from the covers (each of which decrees its publication date “too many years late”) to the nuts and bolts of printing stickers and flyers. Language covering opsec is nearly identical across the two manuals, for example:

The most common (but not only) doxing attempt you should be aware of is account impersonation. The impersonation tactic is when

anti-Whites will use a fake username/profile and pretend to be a known person/admin.

The most common (but not only) doxing attempt you should be aware of is account impersonation. The impersonation tactic is when pedophiles and groomers will use a fake username/profile and pretend to be a known person/admin.

Discussions of “engagement” at live events is likewise identical:

“This is why you are at the event. To engage the pro-Whites who feel alone and demoralized and bring them over to our activist side. BY ALL MEANS you should be able to hand over flyers, stickers and other informational data to these people.” 

“This is why you are at the event. To engage the anti-Groomers who feel alone and demoralized and bring them over to our activist side. BY ALL MEANS you should be able to hand over flyers, stickers and other informational data to these people.”

Among the Project 171 “onboarding” materials is one more curious item: a scholarly essay on “drag pedagogy” by Dr. Harper Keenan and Lil Miss Hot Mess, published in an academic journal called Curriculum Inquiry in 2021. This article unfortunately came to the attention of the right wing Manhattan Institute, which from its inception in 1977 has maintained their mission to undermine the gains of the Civil Rights Movement, and in particular their Senior Fellow, Christopher Rufo back in Fall 2022. Rufo, who is best known for his efforts against Critical Race Theory, wrote about it in a screed against Drag Queen Story Hours for Manhattan Institute’s City Journal. Just a few months later, at the same moment that Project 171 was trying to renew anger over the article by circulating it on Twitter and Telegram, the Federalist web magazine, which was founded by Meghan McCain’s husband Ben Domenech, also quoted it in a hit piece by “professional Christian counselor” Paula Rinehart, who decried the authors’ “determination to deconstruct childhood, robbing children of the innocence that protects their maturing process.”

Like many self-proclaimed grassroots groups, then, Project 171 is likely driven by some highly powerful people, even as it seeks to embolden locals who have an axe to grind. It’s attracted some MAGA types like self-dubbed Tulsa “East Side Extremist” @LetsGoKogi, who has a YouTube channel with a tiny following; and Project Veritas fangirl Nichole Walters, who proudly posts recordings of her anti-CRT diatribes before the Nye County, Nevada, School Board on JoshTV – after evidently being banned from YouTube.

As of this writing, it’s not clear how many people are really posting Project 171 stickers. The administrators ask followers to submit photographs of stickers in public places, and have shared a handful of pictures claiming to be from Tucson; Chicago; West Lafayette IN; and Ashville, Circleville and Coshocton, Ohio, all within an hour’s drive of Columbus. As of this date Project 171 has not taken credit for shutting down any drag queen story hours. But the network is growing: on February 23, there were 310 subscribers to the “official” Telegram channel and 47 members in its public chat. As attacks on drag queen performances escalate nationwide, people should watch closely to see whether far-right activists and legislators are turning up connections to Project 171.