More than 60 religious institutions have been targeted for supporting LGBTQ+ rights: report

As places of worship from all faiths are stepping up their LGBTQ+ acceptance, extremists in the United States are increasingly targeting them.

Between June 2022 and January 2024, at least 66 incidents occurred across the country in which a religious institution was targeted for its perceived support of LGBTQ+ people, according to a new report from GLAAD and the Anti-Defamation League.

The institutions targeted were from all faith traditions, including churches, synagogues, mosques, gurdwaras, and Buddhist temples. The incidents included arson, property theft and destruction, and/or threatening letters, emails, and phone calls, and were typically perpetuated over acts or events such as flying of rainbow banners, Pride Month services, and LGBTQ+ youth groups being offered.

Some of the incidents were high-profile cases, like that of Aimenn D. Penny, 20, who pleaded guilty in October to firebombing an Ohio church that was hosting drag events. Penny admitted to attacking the Community Church of Chesterland on March 25 of last year using homemade Molotov cocktails, citing anger at two upcoming drag events hosted by the church and its support of the LGBTQ+ community. He explicitly said that he aimed to intimidate the church into canceling the events.

Other instances cited in the report included one in October in which a person drove their car through a Pride exhibit in front of the United Christian Church in Renton, Wash. In another incident, last April, someone set fire to a Pride flag outside a Buddhist temple in Pasadena, Calif. During Pride Month, the First Baptist Church in Boston's Jamaica Plain neighborhood reported finding graffiti on its steeple that stated all queer people "should die."

"Now that religious communities are faithfully coming to the conclusion that the LGBTQ community should be safe from violence and welcomed into faith communities, anti-LGBTQ activists are turning to violence and intimidation on those faith communities,” Ross Murray, GLAAD Media Institute vice president and an ordained deacon, said in a statement. “Faith leaders cannot back down or allow their voices to be silenced by a radical fringe, but must continue to stand for the safety and welcome of LGBTQ people.”