Last Tuesday afternoon, in the Canadian capital city of Ottawa, several hundred people gathered outside the headquarters of the Ottawa-Carleton District School Board for the second time in several days. They were there to protest against what they called "gender ideology" in public schools. After the last several years of culture-war battles in every conceivable educational space, that might seem unremarkable. But both this demonstration and another the previous Friday were notable for who was foregrounded in the protests and social media coverage that followed: Muslim-Canadians standing alongside right-wing white activists, mixing chants of "Leave our kids alone" with charges that Canadian schools were "targeting" Islam, and pledging to form a united front against the left.
Over the last two weeks, a series of contentious and even violent LGBTQ Pride month protests, from Southern California to suburban Maryland to Ottawa to Calgary, have given rise to a new hope on the right: Has the push for LGBTQ rights and representation so badly alienated immigrant and Muslim communities that these generally liberal or left-leaning constituencies are switching sides? Across social and right-wing media, conservative pundits and activists have trumpeted that claim. "The Arab community is sending a message to the woke that they are not accepting this!" "Selling immigrants on hating liberals would be the easiest thing in the world." "The Crusade nobody saw coming. Muslims, Christians, and Atheists vs. Pro-Child Mutilation groomers."
