Swarms of protesters descended upon a Moms for Liberty event in New York City.
The far-right organisation’s Thursday night event, which featured former Rep George Santos and Rudy Giuliani’s son, was advertised as a town hall to have an “honest conversation on the state of education in New York City”.
Moms for Liberty – which the Southern Poverty Law Center has described as an extremist group – largely focused on their old standards at the event, fearmongering about transgender youth and antiracist education in schools.
According to The Daily Beast, panelists included community education council member Maud Maron, who has called trans children a “social contagion”, Paul Rossi, a former private school teacher who was fired for opposing the school’s antiracism curriculum, and Wai Wah Chin, whose advocacy against affirmative action helped to end it.
Mr Santos – who was ousted from Congress in December and now faces prosecution – told The Daily Beast he thought Moms for Liberty did “good work”.
“They advocate for common sense in schools amid all this insanity,” Mr Santos said.
The event, held on Manhattan’s Upper East Side, was flanked by protesters, many holding signs and chanting “Love, not hate!” outside the venue.
One of the protesters, a Bronx-based public school teacher named Jo Macellaro, held up a sign that read, ‘I’m the trans teacher you’re so scared of’.
“Trans kids I know just want to be kids,” they told The Daily Beast.
Several local lawmakers showed up for the demonstration. Among them were Manhattan Borough President Mark Levine, who addressed the crowd, saying Moms for Liberty had ‘met its match in Manhattan’.
”We believe in children. We believe in teachers. We believe in librarians. We love books. We treasure our precious LGBTQ young people,” Mr Levine said. “And we know that Moms for Liberty are a bunch of hypocrites.”
