Libs of TikTok Targets ‘Kinky Boots’ Event

Author: Christopher Wiggins

An influential right-wing anti-LGBTQ+ account on Twitter is feigning outrage over a Maryland community’s choice to celebrate Kinky Boots, seemingly unaware that it is a Tony Award-winning Broadway musical.

Libs of TikTok, the Twitter hate account with nearly 2 million followers run by Chaya Raichik, which targets LGBTQ+ people and communities daily, sent a tweet on Thursday calling out the community’s planned event.

“To promote a new show called ‘Kinky Boots,’ a theater and public library in MD are partnering to hold a drag event for ‘all ages, especially toddlers, preschoolers’ This library receives millions in funding. Our tax dollars are funding drag events & sexual themed plays for kids,” Libs of TikTok tweeted.

The tweet has been viewed almost 600,000 times.

Twitter users, as if on queue, began tweeting about “groomers” and “pedophiles” trying to “sexualize” children and began tagging Fox News entertainer Tucker Carlson and Wes Moore, the just-inaugurated Democratic governor of Maryland.

Moore is the country’s only Black governor and the first Black person to be elected to the position in Maryland.

Before he won his election last November, Moore spoke with The Advocate in October, and the LGBTQ+ ally pledged to protect the rights of queer and transgender Marylanders.

“@iamwesmoore – Are you interested in protecting children from groomers on publicly-funded property?” wrote one user.

“@iamwesmoore wondering if Maryland taxpayers should be funding sexualization of children,” wrote another.

Carlson has amplified conspiracies, disinformation, misinformation, and grievances Raichik has posted to the account. Until recently, Raichik went to great lengths to remain anonymous, coming forward only a few weeks ago to reveal her face during a friendly appearance on Carlson’s streaming show.

Experts in homeland security have said that Libs of TikTok’s tweets can be understood as stochastic terrorism. These tactics include directing negative online attention toward people or events that the user knows or can reasonably know will be received by somebody who will be inspired and willing to commit acts of violence against the targeted entity.

Libs of TikTok has highlighted events that included drag queens across the country that were subsequently threatened or menaced by far-right extremists like the Proud Boys and the white supremacist group Patriot Front. In Boston, after Libs of TikTok repeatedly targeted Boston Children’s Hospital, multiple bomb threats were called into the medical center by people upset about the facility’s gender-affirming care treatment options.

Harvey Fierstein and Cyndi Lauper’s six-time Tony Award-winning Broadway musical Kinky Boots tells the story of perseverance and acceptance through the eyes of a shoe factory owner trying to save his struggling business. In an attempt to save his shoe factory, Charlie enlists Lola’s help to create profitable high-heeled boots and save the factory. But, during their collaboration, they realize they are not so different. The show is based on the 2005 British movie of the same name, which quickly became a cult classic and starred Chiwetel Ejiofor and Joel Edgerton as the lead characters.

As part of the original broadway cast, Billy Porter received critical acclaim for his performance and earned a 2013 Tony for best lead actor in a musical.

Original Article on The Advocate
Author: Christopher Wiggins