An American accused of throwing a Molotov cocktail at a church hosting “drag shows” in Ohio, in the northern United States, has been charged by federal justice as debates over gender issues have tensed the country.
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Aimenn Penny, 20, was arrested on March 31 and charged with charges including “arson” and “possession of an incendiary device,” according to a US Department of Justice statement released Monday.
Mr Penny is accused of attempting to burn down a church after learning it was to stage several “drag shows”, events at which drag queens – often male – perform by sporting exaggerated codes of femininity such as wigs, embrace shimmery dresses, stilettos, and makeup.
The young man was part of a neo-Nazi group and had taken part in a demonstration earlier in March against the holding of a “drag queen story hour,” reading meetings for children where the storytellers are drag queens, in the northern Ohio town of Wadsworth, according to court records.
During the event, according to the same source, Aimenn Penny carried a Nazi flag and shouted “racist and homophobic slurs”.
Admitting the facts, Mr Penny assured federal police he was trying to “protect the children and put an end to the drag show” after watching videos of French drag shows.
This case comes at a time when drag queens have become new targets for American conservatives, on the front lines of the “culture wars” igniting the country.
The “Drag Queen Story Hour” launched in San Francisco in 2015 has thus become a nightmare for the right-wing, which sees it at best as activism, at worst as a spectacle of a sexual nature dangerous for children.
Aimenn Penny faces up to 20 years in prison.