Breaking -- Bash Back! Targeted by Subpoenas Throughout Midwest

UPDATE #3: 2nd Statement from Bash Back! News: "The ADF decided to sue Bash Back!, Bash Back! Lansing and individuals because the authorities would not file a single criminal complaint regarding an action at the Mount Hope Church in Lansing last fall. ... [We] will be setting up an account to raise funds in the near future. Lets fill our pocket books and resist this suit."

UPDATE #2: Statement from Bash Back! News

UPDATE #1:  The subpoenas are in relation to a lawsuit filed by the right-wing Alliance Defense Fund.  The Christian ADF, which filed the suit on behalf of Mount Hope church in Lansing, also is encouraging criminal charges.  Numerous unnamed individuals in the suit may be sought in relation to the Mount Hope action or other church actions.

The press-release from ADF, which you can read here, describes the Bash Back! News website - also targeted by the subpoena - as featuring "terrorist-like garb."  Read more about the history of ADF here.

View a PDF of the complaint filed in U.S. District Court here.  The document fails to respect the gender identities, preferred pronouns or chosen names of those subpoenaed/allegedly involved in the activities in question - a perfect example of why direct actions like the one at Mount Hope church are taken by Bash Back! and others.  (The complaint is also linked on the ADF website.)

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Authorities have attempted to deliver subpoenas to at least three midwestern activists as of early Wednesday afternoon in relation to a Bash Back! action at an anti-queer megachurch in Lansing in November of 2008.  Activists disrupted the church service by demonstrating both outside and inside the building. The related complaint lists 14 names, Bash Back! and Bash Back! Lansing, and "John Does 1-20."

Prevailing advice early this afternoon is to reject delivery of the subpoenas if one comes to your door.

If you have more information, please publish it to TCIMC.  A copy of the subpoena will be posted once it has been obtained.

Related: BB! Convergence in Chicago May 28-31

From Bash Back! News:

Bash Back! Raises Hell at Anti-Queer Mega-Church
November 11, 2008, 12:37 am 

The Mount Hope Church is a deplorable, anti-queer mega-church in
Lansing, Michigan. The church works to institutionalize transphobia and
homophobia through several repulsive projects including organized “ex-gay”
conferences and so-called “hell houses”, which depict queers, trannies and
womyn who seek abortions as the horrors. Mt. Hope is complicit in the repression of queers in Michigan and beyond.

Bash Back! ain’t down with that. And so on Sunday November 9th, about
thirty radical queers from Lansing, Chicago, Memphis and Milwaukee
disrupted the church’s most well-attended sermon.

At noon, a small group of folks dressed in pink and black, equipped with a
megaphone, black flags, picket signs and an upside-down pink cross began
demonstrating outside the church. The group was extremely loud and wildly
offensive.

The demonstration drew a majority of Mount Hope’s security staff outside
to watch them.

Meanwhile, with the guards pre-occupied by the distraction, over a dozen
queers had put on their Sunday-best and infiltrated the church’s
congregation. At the signal that the guards had been lured outside, the
infiltrators sprung into action.

A group stood up, declared themselves fags, and began screaming loudly.
Upon hearing the loud interruption, other affinity groups went into
action. A team that had been hiding under the pews in the closed-off
balcony dropped a banner and pulled back the curtains to reveal “IT’S OKAY
TO BE GAY! BASH BACK!”. Another group threw over a thousand fliers to the
entirety of the congregation. The fire alarm was pulled. Queers began
making out in front of the pastor. And within a matter of minutes,
everyone had evaded the guards and made their escapes.

Bash Back! operatives, still hidden among the congregation observed a
person screaming that Satan had come to Mount Hope, that the end was here,
that the queers were everywhere. She then began speaking tongues. The
dumbfounded pastor, after regaining his composure, went on to speak of the
of decadent, depraved wolves that menace his flock of sheep.

Let it be known: So long as bigots kill us in the streets, this pack of
wolves will continue to BASH BACK!