MANCHESTER, N.H. — In March 2023, former Fox News host Tucker Carlson did a segment on Democrats and gun control. At the top of the show, he called out Rainbow Reload, an LGBTQ+ gun group in New Hampshire. “Rainbow Reload. They’re packing heat,” he said. “You can’t have guns, but faithful servants of the Democratic Party can.”
After being spotlighted on national television, Rainbow Reload’s social media got hacked and members received death threats. But instead of scaring people away, the attention prompted more supporters to join and new Rainbow Reload chapters sprouted in Tennessee and Vermont.
Gun owners are an anomaly within the LGBTQ+ community. According to research from UCLA and the Pew Research Center, gun owners in the U.S. are more likely to be straight and Republican, rather than queer and Democratic. While there is no specific data on how many gun owners in the U.S. identify as LGBTQ+, queer gun rights groups across the country are noticing that more LGBTQ+ people are becoming interested in gun ownership, and they are turning to their own community to learn.
Finley Smith, a 33-year-old trans woman, began Rainbow Reload in November 2021, after a jarring experience at a gun range when a group of people repeatedly called her a gay slur. “That’s when I realized it probably makes sense to have a group where we can go and train together,” she said.
Rainbow Reload’s mission is to give LGBTQ+ people a safe place to practice their shooting skills. Smith plans two meetings each month near her home in Manchester, N.H., one for beginners to learn basic skills, like weapon maintenance and safety, and another for more advanced members to refine their marksmanship. Only five people attended Rainbow Reload’s first meeting in 2021, but the group has since grown significantly. Meetups attract about 20 people each month and the group has more than 100 members on Discord, an online messaging platform.
Sociologist Thatcher Combs researched LGBTQ+ gun ownership at the University of Texas at Austin. He said queer gun organizations have seen an uptick of people interested in gun ownership. He believes the increase is directly linked to the trans community feeling threatened.
“When you don’t feel like you have a place that feels safe, then you’re going to find a way to make yourself feel safe. And a lot of times that comes with gun ownership,” said Combs.
Erin Palette, national coordinator for the Pink Pistols, the largest LGBTQ+ gun club in the country, confirmed that their membership has been increasing. She attributed the rise to mass shootings that targeted gay clubs and anti-LGBTQ+ legislation.
Physical attacks against LGBTQ+ people have been trending upward in recent years. According to the FBI,from 2020 to 2022, hate crimes based on sexual orientation rose 54 percent and hate crimes based on gender identity rose 65 percent. And Department of Justice data show that from 2017 to 2020, the rate of violence against lesbian or gay people was more than two times the rate for straight people.
U.S. state legislatures have introduced more than 725 anti-LGBTQ+ bills in 2023, which is double the amount from 2022, according to data from the Movement Advancement Project.
A trans man living near Boston, who spoke on the condition of anonymity out of fear of violence, decided to become a gun owner and instructor in 2022 for self-defense. “I don’t carry a firearm because it puts my mind at ease. It’s not a comfort thing. It’s an emergency tool of absolute last resort,” he said. As a licensed firearm instructor in Massachusetts, he has taught trans people who have been followed and assaulted. He’s also instructed a mother of a trans child who wanted to be able to protect her family. He said most of his students have found him through word-of-mouth.
In his research, Combs noticed that many queer people are worried about being identified as LGBTQ+ while in public and attracting violence. “There’s this atmosphere of fear of walking around in public, wondering if you’re going to be noticed,” he said.
According to Smith, Rainbow Reload allows LGBTQ+ gun owners to be themselves, given that many progressive groups are more anti-gun. “I have seen a lot of resistance in certain queer spaces to getting armed,” said Smith. “What I’m doing is a rejection of both sides.”
Smith said she believes that for queer people, learning to use a firearm is important for self-protection. “Our goal is keeping people safe,” she said. “I’m not pro-gun in the sense that I think everybody should always have a gun,” Smith added. “But I can absolutely see there are universes where I would die if I didn’t have access to one, and so would people I care about.”
