My husband and I attended the Queen City Pride and BLM Rally at Brady Sullivan Plaza in Manchester. We brought a sign saying “Marxism Ruins Everything” for the Marxist BLM and a Save Women’s Sports flag for the trans activists forcing women to accommodate men in their sports.
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When we arrived, the organizers asked us to leave the plaza. We complied and stood peacefully on the public sidewalk. We didn’t have much wind, so both of us held up the Save Women’s Sports flag, and we left the sign on the sidewalk, leaning against the plaza fence. People at the rally took great offense at the flag, swore and called us nasty names, and tried to intimidate us into leaving.
One woman walked up to me and insisted that I put on a mask or move six feet away from her. A group stood in a line to block the view of our flag by the rally attendants. While this was going on, a young man surreptitiously took my husband’s sign, ripped off the letters for “Marxism,” and wrote “Transphobes” in its place.
When we discovered the missing sign, my husband went into the plaza to retrieve it, and a group surrounded him, taunting him and mobbing him. One sane person intervened and retrieved the sign and gave it back to them. I caught the whole thing on video as well as the vandal admitting to his crime. A photographer for the Union Leader witnessed and photographed the incident.
Jordan Thompson, leader of BLM Nashua, was one of the speakers at the rally and, responding to the presence of our Save Women’s Sports flag, started a chant of “Transwomen are women” and “Transmen are men.” Meanwhile, we were getting honks and waves and thumbs up as we held up the flag for Elm Street traffic.
An Instagram vlogger, philthy_topics, covering the event pointed out that there was only one black person in the crowd of what was supposed to be a joint Pride/BLM rally. The vlogger interviewed us and expressed his support for our efforts to save women’s sports. Watch the interview at 5:20 of the video on Instagram.
After the rally was over, the rally participants held a parade to Arms Park where they were having a festival. We gave them a head start and walked a different way. When we crossed paths with them, we walked on the other side of the road, but some left the group and came after us.
One man walked alongside Stephen saying vile things to him, and another man walked slowly in front of me to block and intimidate me, reminiscent of what happened to Chris Ager in DC, except that was a woman accosting a man. This time it was a man accosting a woman. I yelled at the top of my lungs, “Stop blocking me, or I’m calling the police,” until he gave up and walked away.
I saw a policeman ahead, and I was going to ask him to escort us to our car, but one of the men ran up to him first to tattle on us for some imaginary crime. He turned out to be a fireman, and he wanted no part of it. Fortunately, we were able to get into our car and leave without any more abuse.
We have picketed many events, including three Women’s March events in Concord, but we have never experienced anything like this. Things are getting bad when people feel empowered to shut down free speech by intimidation, stealing and vandalizing property, and blocking people from leaving.