Pride Month begins tomorrow and if the Nationalist Social Club was really concerned about protecting children against predators with their protests, they could have left the drag queen events alone, saved some gas and went to the home of one of their members.

A onetime member of a neo-fascist group formerly known as Identity Evropa who later joined a New England neo-Nazi group local member of a New England-based neo-Nazi group that has been particularly known for disrupting children’s drag queen story hours has been charged with possessing child pornography two weeks after its leader failed to respond to a civil rights lawsuit that alleged he wanted the group to violently protest such an event at a Concord, New Hampshire café.

Stephen Thomas Farrea, of 37 Souza Way, Portsmouth, Rhode Island was arrested on May 24 after law enforcement received a tip that he was in possession of  child pornography. After obtaining a search warrant, authorities seized multiple electronic devices that after investigation police said contained sexually explicit images of children. After arraignment, Farrea was released on $5,000 surety bail and ordered not to have any contact with children.

At one time, Farrea was a corporal in the Selected Marine Corps Reserve but in 2019 his service ended after Unicorn Riot leaked his posts on the online chat Discord with fellow members of the group Identity Evropa which he was a member of at the time. Identity Evropa disbanded in the wake of the leak and its former members started another group called the American Identity Movement (AmIM) which disbanded only a year later.

In December 2019, former Proud Boy, Patriot Front and Base member Chris Hood started the Nationalist Social Club (NSC) and Farrea became a particularly prominent member of the organization, participating in many of its outing against not just drag events but also events and establishment that they considered Marxist. In June 2022, he was arrested for refusing to identify himself to East Providence, Rhode Island police when they stopped a group he was in from stapling white supremacist fliers on utility poles and trespassing on the grounds of the Gordon School, a private elementary school. He and another member, Austin Conti of Warwick, later pleaded no contest and were ordered to perform 20 hours of community service. Farrea has also been accused of assaulting activist and filmmaker Rod Webber in 2022 as NSC members entered the West Roxbury Courthouse in Massachusetts, where Hood was to be arraigned after his arrest on affray charges after assaulting a counter protester at a drag queen story hour event at the Loring Greenough House in Jamacia Plain, Massachusetts.

On May 10, two weeks before Farrea’s arrest, Hood was found in default when he failed to respond to a civil rights lawsuit that alleged he broke the law when he orchestrated NSC to violently protest a Drag Queen Story Hours event last year at the Teatotaler Cafe in Concord, New Hampshire. NSC members shouted racist slogans and pounded on windows in an attempt to stop drag performer Juicy Garland from reading a children’s book, according to court records. In a statement found on the NSC Telegram account, they took issue with what they called “process violations” and that “We are going to further defend against the NH (Attorney General’s) attack on free speech with a forthcoming motion to dismiss.” Despite being found in default, Hood raise more than $17,000 for his legal defense through crowdfunding donation sites.

Farrea’s next court appearance is June 4 in a hearing to modify his bail restrictions.