Montana state Representative Lukas Schubert has got it in the neck after calling for the LGBTQ+ movement to be classified as a terrorist organisation. Yes, even RuPaul.
In a post shared on the social media platform X, Schubert referenced a recent mass shooting in which the alleged shooter, who was reported to be transgender—or potentially a de-transitioned individual—killed two children in a Catholic school. Schubert’s call came amidst a broader wave of right-wing rhetoric rushing to blame the shooter’s gender identity, despite law enforcement officials noting no clear motive based solely on the perpetrator’s alleged transgender status. Because right-wing nutcases and religious freaks apparently have a copyright on crazed mass shootings.
Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O’Hara, addressing the shooting investigation, said that the shooter ‘harbored a whole lot of hate towards a wide variety of people and groups of people’ and exhibited a ‘deranged obsession with previous mass shooters’, underscoring the complexity behind the attack’s impetus. Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey condemned efforts to use the tragedy as a means to vilify the transgender community, urging the public to maintain a ‘sense of common humanity’ in the face of loss.
Schubert, known for his long-standing anti-LGBTQ+ stance, has a documented history of promoting deeply conservative and religiously framed arguments against queer people. His previous social media posts pushed narratives linking LGBTQ+ identities to biblical tales such as Sodom and Gomorrah, which conservative Christians often misuse to characterise queer people negatively. He has also circulated unfounded claims that transgender politicians seek to jail parents opposing gender-affirming care for their children. His call for terrorism designation of the LGBTQ+ movement thus escalates a dangerous line of rhetoric with serious implications.
This type of classification is not purely hypothetical. In November 2023, Russia’s Supreme Court declared the international LGBTQ+ movement an ‘extremist organisation’, a ruling which has since led to intensified persecution of LGBTQ+ activists within the country. Human Rights Watch reports that following the ruling, at least 20 individuals faced criminal charges related to their advocacy or association with LGBTQ+ groups. This designation has become a tool for systematic legal harassment and repression, highlighting the global implications of framing activism as extremism.
Russia’s move has been lauded by some right-wing and socially conservative factions internationally, including elements within the United States. The current political climate sees an increase in governmental actions and rhetoric that target dissenting voices and minority communities under broad notions of national security. Reports published earlier in 2025 reveal that the U.S. Department of Homeland Security has revised internal guidelines enabling intelligence agents to surveil LGBTQ+ individuals and groups as potential security threats, reflecting a worrying trend toward conflating identity and activism with danger and criminality.
Source: Noah Wire Services
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