“Philly is a trans city!”

PHILADELPHIA, PA – If the neo-fascist Moms For Liberty (M4L) did not have the history of advocating the banning of books, its leadership threatening to kill librarians, and just last week a chapter quoting Hitler in their newsletter – which apparently has been a thing of theirs for sometime –  they would have been just another right-wing activist outlet that peddles in bigotry. And even if they held their “Joyful Warriors Summit” in any other city, even one in their home state of Florida, they would have seen opposition to their presence based on all of that alone.

But they chose to hold their conference in what some call the City of Brotherly Love and instead of that love got the treatment expressed by that nickname locals prefer to use – Hostile City.

Mom’s for Liberty has only existed since 2021 but in the time since it was founded it has generated a huge following and influence with the most mainstream hatemongers in the country. It has also got the attention of the Southern Poverty Law Center who labeled it an extremist group noting their tactics that include advocating bans of books about people of color and the LGBTQ+ community, attacking the inclusion of hard histories in school curriculum, and targeting members of the LGBTQ+ community. And they received this label only two weeks before the Hamilton County, Indiana chapter featured the Hitler quote on the front page of their newsletter. Well before the newsletter and the SPLC designation however, opposition to the organization began months ago in Philly because of the group’s penchant for threats and intimidation, including in a case involving M4L Monroe County, Pennsylvania Chairperson Nichole Prussman, a woman who in the past has been accused of using the n-word as she threatened to hang people with nooses and on May 31 was found guilty of harassment after sending harassing and threatening Facebook messages to a member of the group Stop Moms for Liberty. On May 12, protests began urging Philadelphia’s downtown Marriott to shut their doors to the M4L conference that continued up to the day the conference began. They were organized by ACT UP Philadelphia and the Upper Darby, PA-based UDTJ (Understanding. Devotion. Take Action. Justice). Soon others joined in and word got around nationally that something was going on in Philadelphia. So when the conference actually took place last weekend, people came from all over the country to oppose it.

Even the City of Philadelphia itself made its opinion on the group known when they posted banners in the trans flag color and the initials PHL just outside the entrance to the Marriott. It was the only place the banners were seen on Market Street.

Things began Thursday with three events. One was a banned book giveaway outside the Marriott and another was a rally in Love Park organized by the National Parents Union. Once that event was concluded a rally sponsored by ACT UP! outside the Museum for American History was held. This was the location of the conference’s welcome reception and many, including museum workers who earlier in June held a rally of their own, were incensed that the museum rented their space to the organization. As reception attendees got off the buses taking them to the reception they were greeted by boos and catcalls from the assembled crowd, along with a chant that became rather popular over the weekend: “Philly is a trans city!”

The main event was another event altogether. While it was indeed a protest, that protest was more of a dance party with dance music that went from 9 am to 9 pm on Friday and Saturday. Speeches and music were echoing around the block, so much so that reportedly those attending the conference, including the organizers, decided to move to other hotels because they could not sleep. On the other side of the hotel People for the American Way was holding a rally in the morning as attendees entered through the Market Street entrance. There were few confrontations with the protesters and the conference attendees due to the police keeping the two sides at bay, but they did happen from time to time.

Conservative propagandists James Klug and Lisa Reynolds-Barbounis, who are known for being chased out of a rally in West Philadelphia’s Clark Park in 2019 that was supposed to be a counterprotest against an announced Proud Boy rally that failed to materialize, interviewed several persons opposed to the conference but eventually found themselves being heckled. Reynolds-Barbounis, a onetime employee for the anti-Muslim Middle East Forum, informed One People’s Project that she had won against her old employer in a court case where MEF accused her of computer fraud and abuse saying that she forwarded their proprietary information, trade secrets, donor lists and business relationships to an email account not associated with the organization.

According to the Philadelphia Inquirer, six arrests were made on Sunday, five who allegedly held hands and formed a barricade outside the hotel and a trans woman who waved a trans flag over a barricade set up around the hotel by police. In the end however, the response to the Moms for Liberty conference was all that could be talked about over the next few days while very little of the conference itself was talked about.

Ironically, North Carolina Lt. Governor Mark Robinson, who during his speech defended Moms for Liberty quoting Hitler by saying history books do it, started his speech at the conference talking about how hot it was on stage and that he was “sweating like a leftist surrounded by Moms for Liberty!” After all, it was he by his own admission doing the sweating as the leftists surrounded the Marriott Hotel. By the end of the weekend, it was apparent that it was that indeed the joyful warriors on the left making the entire organization sweat.