Ohio queer motorcycle gang responds to anti-LGBTQ+ laws by teaching how to fire guns

As Ohio lawmakers pass more anti-LGBTQ+ laws, one queer biker gang wants its members trained to fire guns and defend themselves.

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A Cleveland chapter of Queers on Gears, a motorcycle group for LGBTQ+ riders, started offering range lessons a year ago. The classes have started garnering local media attention as gender and sexual minorities in the state feel increasingly unsafe.

Class host Fifi told The Buckeye Flame, which identified them only by first name, that they felt inspired to offer the class after moving to Ohio from Oregon and learning about legislation rapidly moving through the Republican-controlled legislature.

“I was just like, ‘Holy crap! It really is a much different environment out here,” said Fifi. “There’s some hate for trans folks in Portland, but it’s just nothing like it is here.”

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Fifi and Bella, another trans person of color, started offering the classes and making them available to members of the local Queers on Gears chapter. The classes immediately proved to be popular, they said.

Bella said they had been firing guns since childhood in rural Cincinnati. They also regularly rode with another motorcycle group until being ostracized after transitioning last year. The Queers on Gears group offered a safe space, and the class offers the comfort of firing deadly firearms with colleagues.

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“This is all still fresh to me,” she said. “I’ve kind of liked more ‘male stuff’ for most of my life. The idea is kind of to pass that knowledge. I want to take what I know about being a cis man and use that in transition to help the people that are often marginalized by the system.”

Many of the people in class specifically cited laws passed in the state, including a recent diversity ban that forced closures of Ohio LGBTQ+ centers at universities, a ‘don’t say gay’ law barring instruction on gender and sexuality in schools, and a bathroom bill segregating restrooms in schools based on gender.

The gun classes, by contrast, have inclusivity in the advertising.

“There will be experienced folks sharing tips, tricks, and skills. You do not need to have a pew pew to participate; there will be plenty to share,” reads an Instagram post on the classes.