Chesterland is a small town in Ohio’s Geauga County, east of Cleveland. Just around 7,000 people live there. The county went for a Democrat just once since 1856 (the LBJ landslide). Not even FDR won the county. In 2020, Trump won the county with 61%, slightly better than he had done in 2016. The area has a fair share of Amish people… and neo-Nazis. And on Friday, a 20 year old Neo-Nazi, Ailenn Penny of nearby Alliance, Ohio was arrested for attempting to burn down a church on March 25— with Molotov cocktails— that was planning to host a drag show event.
The Department of Justice reported that Penny was “charged with one count of malicious use of explosive materials and one count of possessing a destructive device” for an attack on the Community Church of Chesterland. FBI agent Gregory Nelsen: “The FBI Cleveland Joint Terrorism Task Force worked alongside the Chester Township Police Department in the matter surrounding a Molotov cocktail used against the Community Church of Chesterland on March 25. The FBI leveraged its task force and its specialized resources to identify, locate and subsequently arrest the subject earlier today.”
If convicted, Penny faces a mandatory minimum of five years and up to 20 years in prison for the malicious use of explosive materials charge and up to 10 years in prison for the possession of a destructive device charge. CNN reported that “Penny is a member of ‘White Lives Matter,’ a pro-Nazi group, according to an affidavit filed in court Friday. The FBI said the group has ‘racist, pro-Nazi, and homophobic views.’ Penny confessed he attempted to burn down the church using Molotov cocktails, ‘to protect the children and stop the drag show event,’ according to the criminal complaint. Penny is being held in custody.”
Investigators recovered broken glass pieces from a vodka bottle and a beer bottle each containing a cloth-type material, the affidavit said. A burnt matchstick and a blue plastic spray bottle filled with gasoline were found near the damaged door.
Law enforcement agencies obtained a court order to collect historical location data from Penny’s cellphone after receiving a tip, the affidavit said. While searching Penny’s home, agents found a Nazi flag and other Nazi memorabilia, a handwritten note with ideological statements, a White Lives Matter of Ohio T-shirt, a gas mask, multiple rolls of blue painter’s tape and gas cans, the document says.
The affidavit also said Penny traveled to Wadsworth, Ohio, on March 11, where he attended a drag queen story hour to “distribute propaganda flyers (sic)representing White Lives Matter Ohio’s anti-drag queen views.”
The Community Church of Chesterland, located in Geauga County, went ahead with hosting the drag queen story hour and brunch event Saturday, the church’s minister told CNN.
Rev. Jess Peacock said it’s not the first time the church has been targeted. They said representatives of the church have in recent weeks received hate mail and messages containing threats of protests and violence over planned drag events.
“There hasn’t been a day or two where I have not received hate messages from my personal phone,” Peacock said.
Peacock said they are “relieved” and “very pleased” over Friday’s arrest. No one was inside the church during the attempted firebombing and drag show events will go ahead there as planned, Peacock added.
“We hold no ill will against this man whatsoever. We forgive this individual. But we do want this individual to be prosecuted to the fullest extent. Just to send a message and have them think twice about attacking a synagogue, a church or a mosque. We want to see peace, not violence,” Peacock said.
Why does Penny hold anti-drag views so strong as to throw Molotov cocktails at a church (and ruin his own life)? Cross dressing has been around— as far as we know— since Pharaohic times and existed in Ancient Greece, where men played women’s roles (and were knowns as known as "travesti”) in plays. It wasn’t until Middle Ages Catholic Church uptightness that cross dressing was systematically condemned. During the Renaissance, cross-dressing became more accepted in society again and in Shakespearean plays, men continued to play women's roles (Ophelia, Juliet, Cleopatra, Desdemona, Portia, Titania and Katherina from The Taming of the Shrew). In the 18th and 19th centuries, cross-dressing became popular in European masquerade balls, where men would often dress as women and women as men, a way to subvert societal norms and explore different identities. Later drag culture became more visible and mainstream with drag performers began to appear in nightclubs and cabarets, and drag queens became an important part of the LGBTQ community. RuPaul's Drag Race hs made drag culture even more mainstream and less threatening— to some people, although not to people with an authoritarian kind of personality.
MAGAts seem to get very uptight about it, even though cross-dressing and drag are not inherently tied to sexuality or even gender identity. Some people engage in cross-dressing for other reasons, such as for entertainment, artistic expression, or as part of religious or cultural practices. What kind of person feels a drag performance is a threat— either to them or to traditional gender roles? Why should a perceived deviation from traditional gender roles feel like a threat to someone— let alone to social stability and order?
Do you know the story of Deborah Sampson (AKA- Robert Shurtliff and, later, Timothy Thayer)? She was born in Massachusetts in 1760 and enlisted in the Continental Army in 1782 under the name Robert Shurtliff. When the local Baptist Church found out, they expelled her. But she served honorably (as a man) in an elite unit and was promoted to a corporal and was shot several times, twice at the Battle of Tarrytown. When she was treated in a hospital it was discovered he was a she and she was honorably discharged. Having served for nearly 2 years. I’d rather have her fighting for the country than a turd like Ailenn Penny (which sounds lie a drag name).
Just this morning, Data For Progress released the results of a new survey that, by a wide margin, shows voters are getting sick of the political theater Republicans are playing with the onslaught of anti-LGBTQ legislation they are passing in state legislatures, something even 55% of Republicans believe! Their polling also indicates that Americans don’t buy the conservative narrative about transgender people, with 57% of likely voters believing that transgender identities occur naturally when free societies permit individuals to identify outside of societal norms, whereas only 33% view transgender identities as a "woke" invention.
