Nazis menace drag queen story hour

In a surreal scene in Concord, New Hampshire on Sunday, about two dozen masked men dressed in matching chinos and black hoodies milled around outside a downtown bar hosting a drag queen story hour, chanting and throwing Nazi salutes.

The group identified as a chapter of the Nationalist Social Club of Massachusetts, or NSC-131.

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“We’ve got some verified Nazis today!” drag queen Juicy Garland tweeted from the event. “Golly, I didn’t order those.”

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The menacing protest left the performer “unfazed.”

Garland posted a video along with her message showing the masked men outside the Teatotaller Cafe, raising their arms in the Sieg Heil salute and chanting unintelligibly. One member banged on a window.

None of them showed their faces.

We've got some verified Nazis today! Golly, I didn't order those pic.twitter.com/3VvIZbCerd

— Juicy Garland (@JuicyGarland) June 18, 2023

Despite the interruption, Garland went on with the show.

“The cafe (and community) there is FANTASTIC and fascist outsiders came in to make it miserable. We prevailed and had a great time with the families anyways. 💖💖💖”

The cafe’s owner, Emmett Soldati, said Teatotaller was “proud to be NH’s queer hipster oasis,” and dismissed the white nationalists for disrupting “events to gain clout.”

“They have not and will not deter us from continuing to provide a safe and enjoyable environment for all Granite Staters to be proud of and recognize they belong here,” he told Boston.com.

We've been hosting shows + story hours for a decade. We're going to host them for decades to come.

Despite this hate filled disruption, @TeatotallerTea was not deterred.

Shout out to @JuicyGarland for their composure + craft and to @LiamMagan for running a smooth + safe event. https://t.co/YeV9VKBAzb

— Emmett Soldati (@EmmettSoldati) June 19, 2023

According to the Anti-Defamation League, NSC-131 formed in 2019 and comprises neo-Nazis and racist skinheads, “many of whom have previous membership in other white supremacist groups.”

“NSC-131 members see themselves as soldiers at war with a hostile, Jewish-controlled system that is deliberately plotting the extinction of the white race.”

The group “seeks to form an underground network of white men who are willing to fight against their perceived enemies through localized direct actions.”

The New Hampshire attorney general brought charges against two members, Leo Cullinan and Christopher Hood, in January after the pair were accused of trespassing onto a bridge in Portsmouth last summer and hanging a banner that read “Keep New England White.”

Those charges were dismissed by a judge two weeks ago, who ruled the prosecution’s case was overbroad.

“The conduct alleged in the complaints, while reprehensible by most civilized standards, does not fit any definition of ‘trespass’ other than the one the Court has concluded is unconstitutional,” Superior Court Judge David Ruoff wrote.

According to New Hampshire NPR affiliate WBUR, Hood and Cullinen couldn’t find legal counsel in the state willing to represent them, and enlisted a Massachusetts-based defense team instead. NSC-131 members launched a crowdfunding effort on social media to cover the defendants’ legal fees.