Radical left-wing activists from Antifa attacked a table set up by the Log Cabin Republicans, a gay conservative group, at the Castro Street Fair on Sunday in San Francisco, California.
The Log Cabin Republicans had set up a booth to provide information about its views, and to encourage like-minded people in the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) community to register to vote. A left-wing activist alerted Antifa — short for “anti-fascist,” though its critics believe otherwise — via Twitter and urged it to attack the Republican group. “To all #antifa of good conscience let’s take care of the fascists queers,” the message — which has not yet been removed — said.
Later, an individual approached the booth and poured a red liquid — identified as Gatorade or Powerade — all over the table. One activist who witnessed the attack and spoke to Breitbart News said that the liquid made the entire table sticky and was very unpleasant.
Another posted an account of the attack on the Facebook page of the Log Cabin Republicans of California:
SF LCR booth was attacked this afternoon
A person approached the booth and engaged in conversation, but suddenly screamed F- Trump and poured Gatorade over the table damaging most of our material including the sign-up sheet
The police came, but could do nothing. They were VERY sympathetic and supportive however
Police arrived on the scene but were unable to do anything, as noted by civil rights lawyer Harmeet Dillon:
A group calling itself the Bay Area Queer Anti-Fascist Network appeared to claim responsibility on Facebook, posting:
There will never be enough red Gatorade in the world to properly symbolize the blood some LGBTs, such as the Log Cabin Republicans, have on their hands from being conveniently passive and even fully complicit in the opression of their peers.
…
Yes, you heard us. We don’t want your so-called “gay rights”. We want queer liberation. And we will not accept it at the expense of our comrades.
Yes, the Gatorade was red. We know. We were there.
The group also responded to Dhillon on Twitter and attempted to justify the attack:
The annual fair, held in the heart of the city’s gay community, was founded in 1974 by Harvey Milk, the openly gay San Francisco supervisor who was assassinated in 1978. The non-profit event celebrates “the diversity of the neighborhood” and includes art, vendors, and a open-air performances.
“People were more hostile this year than prior occasions,” Barry Graynor, secretary of the Log Cabin Rpublicans of San Francisco, told Breitbart News. “I felt the anger, and I felt the hatred much more. One person came over and just kept saying, ‘Fuck you, you don’t have any right to be here, you’re the party of hate’ — which I found ironic, given what he was saying.”
Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. He is also the co-author of How Trump Won: The Inside Story of a Revolution, which is available from Regnery. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.