Written by Staff Writer
Oscar Holland is a staff writer at CNN.
In July of 2018, a group of activists — including the founders of modern-day white supremacy groups like the United Daughters of the Confederacy — held a public rally in collaboration with an organization called the New York Renaissance Project (the group’s full name is, in fact, the New York Renaissance Project – New York State Renaissance Project).
At the New York Renaissance Project’s rally, a large banner made up of photos of LGBTQ individuals — and one of Muslim people — was put up over a sidewalk in lower Manhattan. The banner depicted these groups’ bestiality and political preferences alongside slogans supporting “get your perversion out of the city” and “get your slaves out of your homeland.”
Part of the trio’s mission to “breathe new life into America,” the New York Renaissance Project — which bills itself as a non-profit — has consistently gained widespread attention by hosting public events to protest the presence of the National Park Service in New York and have a variety of different “off-the-grid” cafes in various locations around the city.
CNN has reported on the New York Renaissance Project’s manifesto, which openly declares its support for white nationalist politics and quotes original speeches by US president Donald Trump, anti-immigration activist Ann Coulter and other right-wing icons. The group has expanded its activities to other cities, with the apparent aim of inspiring anti-LGBTQ activism and opposing LGBT-inclusive policies.
The New York Renaissance Project has become known for its effort to promote “sex work” as a way to end “socialization and rape” and “harm for the sexuality of the girl,” ultimately challenging the logic of normalized sexual identity that is promoted by the Western establishment and ultimately pulling transgender rights in its own direction.
On the surface, the New York Renaissance Project’s Public Protests Against LGBQT Atrocities may seem counter-intuitive to some of its stated objectives; considering LGBTQ rights is one of the group’s most recent focuses.
But it appears that the New York Renaissance Project’s penchant for public displays of support for the alt-right is an established strategy.
Since its founding, the New York Renaissance Project has directly affiliated itself with the so-called “Gays Against Gays” movement, which hopes to amplify the anti-LGBTQ voices of far-right populists and far-right personalities. It also has an extensive track record of collaborating with other far-right organizations, sharing articles and invitations to events with the forces that seek to denounce the threat of LGBTQism to the conservative core of America.
One of these alliances was forged in July 2018, when the group protested the arrival of a female FBI agent on the grounds of the famed Stonewall Inn — arguably one of the seminal moments in the LGBTQ rights movement — claiming that an LGBTQ agent might have the “ultimate interest” in arresting or otherwise perverting young people while attempting to infiltrate and influence New York youth culture.
Although the FBI did not take the New York Renaissance Project’s actions into consideration when deciding to file charges against its workers — who were eventually arrested and charged for posing as undercover agents — the group’s February 2018 public stand against those actions led the FBI to re-engage the group in September 2018, as part of a broader undercover operation of New York activist movements.
The New York Renaissance Project does not appear to have changed its antagonistic stance on LGBTQ rights, however. Rather, the organization’s ongoing hardline opposition to them appears to be merely a vehicle for promoting other, more more overt goals: against immigration, gentrification and “sex trafficking” in New York.