A pardoned January 6 rioter saw a cat costume at a cat convention and decided it was an LGBTQ+ conspiracy

Pardoned January 6 rioter Jacob Lang posted videos online of himself confronting people at a convention he claimed promoted furry sex to children. The only problem? It was actually just a convention for cat lovers.

Lang, a right-wing social media provocateur and failed U.S. Senate candidate in Florida, has posted videos of such startling discoveries as prayer rugs inside mosques and defended racists at the University of Mississippi, also known as Ole Miss, by posting “AMERICA HAS BLACK FATIGUE.” His latest target was the Sea-Meow Convention in Seattle.

The event, held November 7-8, had a person in a mascot-style cat costume outside the main entryway when Lang showed up filming and claiming the event was about “indoctrinating the youth with homosexual and transsexual ideas.”

“This furry stuff is not for children,” Lang said. “This is a homosexual, sexual, homosexual — these people are sexualizing children.”

The convention’s stated mission, however, is to celebrate cats and support animal welfare organizations. It promotes itself as “the premier cat convention of the Purrcific NW, the mecca of cat people Sea-Meow Con, and the first of its kind in Seattle.”

Organizers confirmed to Snopes that Lang did show up to the event.

“We asked him to leave, as we have the executive use of the Ex Hall Space (including the entrance where he was standing), and he complied. It was honestly a very short interaction and most people did not know this even happened until the video was posted,” Sea-Meow’s “Customer Service Cat” wrote in an email to the fact-checking site.

The convention’s website lists animal welfare groups among its charity partners, including Seattle Animal Shelter and Seattle Humane. It also advertises opportunities to meet kittens from local rescues.

Despite this, Lang can be seen pointing to teenagers attending the event as proof that organizers were targeting children. People at the event repeatedly told Lang it was a cat convention, not a gathering of furries. Furry fandom centers on an interest in anthropomorphic animal characters. It is not inherently sexual.

Lang has promoted other false claims, including that the 2020 presidential election was stolen. He spent about four years in custody awaiting trial on charges that included assaulting police during the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol. President Donald Trump pardoned him before the case went to trial.

In August, Lang was arrested on suspicion of rioting outside Minneapolis City Hall. Police said Lang and his entourage drove onto a sidewalk toward a crowd. Social media videos showed him standing in the bed of a pickup truck holding a sign containing a racial slur, as reported by Minnesota Public Radio.

Multiple people were also arrested in Michigan at an anti-Muslim event organized by Lang, according to WJBK, the Fox affiliate in Detroit.